Planet of the Apes Page #3

DODGE:

But how long is a day?

TAYLOR:

Good question.

(turning)

Landon -- check your communications

kit.

39ANOTHER ANGLE - FAVORING LANDON

He seems not to have heard.

TAYLOR:

(sharply)

Landon! Join the expedition.

LANDON:

(rising)

Sorry...

(crossing to his kit)

I was thinking of Stewart. What

d'you suppose happened?

TAYLOR:

(flatly)

Air leak. Died in her sleep.

LANDON:

You don't seem very cut up about

it.

TAYLOR:

It's a little late for a wake. She's

been dead nearly a year.

LANDON:

Then we've been away from Earth for

eighteen months.

TAYLOR:

By our time.

(smiling at Landon)

You've turned gray.

Landon involuntarily touches the gray hair of his temple as Taylor

adds lightly:

TAYLOR:

Apart from that, you look pretty chipper

for a man who's two thousand and thirty

one years old.

(casually)

I read the clocks. They bear out Hasslein's

hypothesis. We've been away from Earth for

two thousand years, give or take a decade.

(pause)

Still can't accept it, huh?

LANDON:

long pause)

You know it.

TAYLOR:

Because time has wiped out everyone and

everything you cared for -- they're dust.

LANDON:

Prove it. If we can't get back, it's still

just a theory.

TAYLOR:

It's a fact, Landon. Buy it. You'll sleep

better.

Dodge enters scene. A handful of reddish sand dribbles through his

fingers.

DODGE:

Nothing will grow here .... there's just a

trace of hydrocarbons, and most of the

nitrogen is locked into nitrates.

TAYLOR:

Any sign of dangerous ionization?

DODGE:

No.

TAYLOR:

(rising)

Okay. If there's no life here, we've got

just seventy-two hours to find it. That's

when the groceries run out.

He picks up one of the rucksacks and puts it on. The others follow

suit.

DODGE:

Which direction?

TAYLOR:

(decisively, pointing

west)

That way.

DODGE:

Any particular reason?

TAYLOR:

None at all.

He moves out. Dodge follows. CAMERA PANS with them. They have gone

only a few paces when Taylor looks back over his shoulder and halts.

40REVERSE ANGLE - FEATURING LANDON

Landon is squatting in the sand, sticking something into the soil.

It is a small American flag, the size of a handkerchief.

41REVERSE ANGLE - FEATURING TAYLOR AND DODGE

Mirth bubbles up in Taylor's throat. He explodes with wild laughter.

He is still laughing as they move out.

DISSOLVE TO:

41-ADAWN SHOT (GUNSIGHTLOC #43)

42THE ASTRONAUTS' TREK

They descend from the plateau (Ochre Dunes)

43ASTRONAUTS CONTINUE MARCH,

Across the top of the hills there suddenly runs a line of fire (Black

Dunes).

44THEY MOVE ACROSS THE TERRAIN

Jagged bolts of lightning flash across the sky, but bring, no rain, and

thunder claps sound like heavy artillery. (Gray Area)

45-OUT

58

QUICK DISSOLVE TO:

59ANOTHER PART OF THE CANYON (OCHRE DUNES AREA) - GROUP

SHOT - DAY

Several huge boulders are dislodged, and the three astronauts run.

wildly to escape the falling rocks. When the avalanche ends, they

sprawl on the lifeless sands, breathing heavily and drenched with

sweat, surrounded by enormous boulders. Taylor looks about him.

TAYLOR:

Everybody all right?

Murmurs of assent from Dodge and Landon. Taylor rummages through a

limp rucksack, comes up with some empty food cartons,rummages again,

coming up with a cigar butt.

TAYLOR:

Water check.

Dodge takes a plastic canteen from another rucksack and inspects it.

DODGE:

Eight ounces.

Dodge lies back and looks up at the sky.

DODGE:

It doesn't add up. There's a mantle of

dust around this planet and yet it's

as humid as a jungle. Thunder and

lightning and yet no rain. Cloud cover

every night and that strange luminosity,

and yet no moon.

Landon also looks up at the sky.

LANDON:

If only we could get a fix.

TAYLOR:

(needling him)

What would you learn? I've told you

where you are and when you are.

DODGE:

(gently)

Taylor -- quit riding him.

TAYLOR:

(harshly, to Landon)

You're more than three hundred light

years from your precious planet. Your

loved ones have been dead and forgotten

for twenty centuries. Even if you could

get back, they'd think you were

something that fell out of a tree.

LANDON:

(wearily)

All right --

TAYLOR:

There's only one reality left. We're

here and it's now. You get ahold of that

and hang on tight, or you might as well

be dead.

LANDON:

(quietly)

I'm prepared to die.

Taylor turns to Dodge, throws up his hands.

TAYLOR:

He's prepared to die! Doesn't that make

you misty? Chalk up another victory for

the human spirit!

Dodge rises and moves off, o.s., either embarrassed by this colloquy

or unwilling to hear it again. Taylor, cigar clamped between his

teeth, spins toward Landon.

TAYLOR:

Straighten me out on something. Why did

you come along at all? You volunteered.

Why?

(a beat; no answer)

I'll tell you. They nominated you for the

Big One and you couldn't turn it down. Not

without losing your All-American standing

LANDON:

(hard)

Climb off me, will you!

TAYLOR:

And the glory, don't forget that. There's

a life-sized bronze statue of you somewhere.

It's probably turned green by now, and nobody

can read the name plate. But never let it be

said we forget our heroes.

LANDON:

Taylor.I'm telling you --

TAYLOR:

Oh, and one last item. Immortality.

You wanted to go on forever.

(pause)

Well, you damn near made it. Except for

Dodge and me, you've lived longer than

anybody. And with Stewart dead, it looks

like we're the last of the strain. You got

what you wanted, kid. How does it taste?

Silence.Taylor lies down, spent of his venom, pillowing

his head on a rucksack.

LANDON:

(softly)

Okay. You read me well enough.

Why can't I read you?

TAYLOR:

Don't bother

LANDON:

(looking off)

Dodge ... he's not like me at all. But

he makes sense. Held walk naked into a

live volcano if he thought he could learn

something no other man knew. I understand

why he's here. But you...You're no seeker.

You're negative.

TAYLOR:

But I'm not prepared to die.

LANDON:

(heatedly)

I'd like to know why not. You thought

life on Earth was meaningless. You despised

people. So what did you do? You ran away.

Taylor's eyes are closed. He is silent for a moment. When he speaks,

his tone is soft, reflective.

TAYLOR:

No, not quite, Landon. I'm a bit of a

seeker myself. But my dreams are a lot

emptier than yours.

(pause)

I can't get rid of the idea that somewhere

in the Universe there must be a creature

superior to man.

60ANOTHER ANGLE - FEATURING DODGE

who has been wandering around, studying the boulders and the barren

soil. Taylor and Landon can be seen in b.g. Dodge spots something and

squats down to examine it.

61CLOSEUP - WHAT DODGE SEES:

It is a tiny desert flower, no more than an inch high.

62CLOSEUP - DODGE

His eyes light up as he calls:

DODGE:

Taylor! Over here!

63CLOSE. GROUP SHOT - ANGLING DOWN

as Taylor and Landon hurry over and kneel down on either side of Dodge.

The astronauts hover over the tiny flower like three magi perceiving

the infant Deliverer.

DODGE:

Life.

He digs gently around the roots of the plant with a small instrument.

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