Pearl Harbor Page #6

YAMAMOTO:

The Americans themselves have made it

possible. We will annihilate them in a

single attack -- at Pearl Harbor.

The members of the war council are so pleased with Yamamoto

that they bow to him. Only Genda keeps his eyes raised long

enough to see the sadness in Yamamoto's face.

EXT. PEARL HARBOR - AIR BASE - BARRACKS - DAY

Danny Walker and his pilot buddies have just arrived; they

enter the barracks, talking happily.

RED:

If I ain't n-never on a b-boat again,

it'll be too s-soon.

BILLY:

Where are the women on this --

Danny has stopped before the others; now all of them see that

the other pilots who inhabit this air base are still in their

beds, sleeping off hangovers. They wear Hawaiian shirts;

they haven't shaved.

RED:

They're s-still asleep!

Danny pauses for a moment, then shouts --

DANNY:

Drop your c*cks and grab your socks,

boys! The terror of the skies are here!

The sleeping pilots groan, and cover their heads with their

pillows.

ANTHONY:

They're all drunk.

One guy sits up in bed, his hair pointing every direction of

the compass, his tongue working as if to wipe a terrible

taste from his mouth. As his feet dangle over the side of

the bunk and one of them touches the floor, a sensation

reaches his sotted brain; he raises that foot to look at its

bottom, and finds a new tattoo, on the sole of his foot; he

blinks as if trying to remember how it got there.

Danny moves over to him, and dubs him with a name, COMA.

DANNY:

Hey. You. Mr. Coma.

COMA:

Where's that lizard?

DANNY:

What lizard?

COMA:

The one that slept in my mouth last

night.

DANNY:

What the hell happened to you guys?

Coma is one of those drunks who speak as if he's always about

to burp.

COMA:

Ever hear of mai-tai's? Comes in a

big...pot. Like...like...

RED:

A m-missionary?

COMA:

No, like...

Coma emits a pukey, toxic burp that has Danny and his buddies

wincing back from the fumes.

DANNY:

This is an Air Base? Where's your squad

commander?

The question soaks through to Coma's brain. His right hand

points...and his left hand points...in different directions.

His hands float around in the air until finally both of them

are indicating the same direction, behind his back. In the

bunk beyond Coma's is another drunk pilot in a Hawaiian

shirt...and to judge by the shapely bronzed leg that

protrudes from under his damp sheet, there's a woman with him

too.

Danny and his buddies are speechless -- except for Red

Strange.

RED:

I th-think I'm gonna like it here.

COMA:

You guys are new?

DANNY:

Yeah.

COMA:

Mai-tai's. I got this to tell ya, about

mai-tai's.

Coma's head drifts forward slowly; they think for a moment

he's looking for something under the bed. Then he pukes.

Danny leaps back from the splatter, and marches out of the

barracks; his friends follow.

EXT. PEARL HARBOR - AIRFIELD - DAY

Danny and his buddies stride up to the airfield. It's full

of fighter planes -- and they're all bunched together in

clusters on the field. Danny grabs a MECHANIC.

DANNY:

Hey! What is this, the planes all

bunched up like that?

MECHANIC:

The brass is afraid of sabotage. This

makes 'em easier to protect -- and easier

to service.

DANNY:

What about easier to hit in an air raid?

MECHANIC:

Who's gonna to that? Japan is four

thousand miles away. So you guys just

arrived, huh?

DANNY:

Yeah.

MECHANIC:

We got a saying here. A-low-HA!

The mechanic walks off. Danny and the guys are left standing

on the tarmac.

DANNY:

Well guys...I reckon there's just one

thing to do...

INT. OAHU BAR - DAY

Danny and the pilots are in Hawaiian shirts, their party in

full swing. A bucket-sized hollowed-out volcano sits in the

middle of the table, with twelve straws emerging from the

crater. It's full of booze -- or was; Danny and the other

guys are pulling heartily at the straws, and they gurgle as

the last liquid is sucked dry.

RED:

More m-mai-tai's!

Coma is sitting there with them, beside Red.

COMA:

Absolutely right.

Everybody's having a ball, the new arrivals fitting right in

with the others. Danny's a bit off to himself, lost in his

own thoughts. Billy and Anthony are doing the hula to the

Hawaiian music playing.

COMA:

No, you guys aren't doing it right. It's

in the hands. They talk story.

Coma stands and starts demonstrating, explaining the gestures

of his hula.

COMA:

Fish swim in ocean... Happy in the Mother

Sea... Girl, beautiful girl, with big

jugs, walks into water...waves lapping at

her thighs...

ANTHONY:

I never knew those dances were so

sophisticated.

COMA:

...Fish nibble at her breasts...

Coma's really into his dance, his hands over enormous

imaginary breasts; but as he turns toward the windows --

COMA:

A more beautiful girl walks by...

The guys see Evelyn passing on the other side of the street,

gorgeous in the sunshine. Coma's hands start squeezing the

imaginary breasts of his hula.

BILLY:

Hey, isn't that Evelyn?

Danny moves up to look.

DANNY:

Rafe's girl, Evelyn?

COMA:

You guys know her?! I gotta have an

intro! Man, I'd like to --

Danny's hand is suddenly around Coma's larynx.

DANNY:

A friend of mine's in love with her. So

you don't even look -- not ever.

Danny releases him and Coma staggers back to the table to

nuzzle up to one of the straws of the mai-tai volcano.

Danny looks out the window again and sees Evelyn's beautiful

form disappear around the corner, on her way back to the base

hospital. Danny moves back to the table, and as two burly

Hawaiian waiters set another full loaded mai-tai volcano onto

the center of the table, he picks up a glass and dips it full

of the potent liquid. He shouts to the whole room --

DANNY:

I'm a better pilot than any son-of-a-

b*tch on this island! So I'm the one to

say this! Here's to Rafe McCawley! A

better pilot...and a better man...than

me.

The other pilots drink up -- from glasses or from straws.

OTHER PILOTS:

To Rafe.

Danny drains the whole glass at one chug, and slams it down

onto the table. Then he blinks, puts a hand on his stomach,

and frowns. Coma recognizes the look.

COMA:

Uh oh. Volcanic eruption!

Danny bends at the waist; his head obscured by the table.

COMA:

Sh*t, he's puking on my feet!

RED:

Well, you p-puked on his feet.

COMA:

Yeah, but he was wearing shoes!

INT. ADMIRAL KIMMEL'S OFFICE - OAHU - DAY

ADMIRAL KIMMEL is Commander of the American Pacific Fleet.

Two members of his staff are standing uncomfortably in front

of him, having delivered a message from the Joint Chiefs of

Staff.

ADMIRAL KIMMEL:

...transfer twelve more destroyers to

Atlantic Fleet, and all the available

anti-aircraft weaponry?! Washington has

gone insane!

Kimmel's STRATEGIC ANALYST speaks up.

STRATEGIC ANALYST

We've done what you ordered, Admiral, and

war gamed the likely outcome of a

Japanese attack against each of our major

bases in the Pacific. Wake, Guam,

Midway, the Philippines. In each case,

we lose.

ADMIRAL KIMMEL:

You left out Hawaii.

STRATEGIC ANALYST

Pearl Harbor can't be attacked

effectively from the air. It's too

shallow for an aerial torpedo attack.

Pearl Harbor's safe. It's everywhere

else that we're vulnerable.

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