Sound of Metal Page #21

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INT. CHINOOK – CONTINUOUS

The Protagonist sits amongst a DOZEN SOLDIERS. They watch theendless northern plain unroll beneath them...

119.

EXT. TENET CAMP – CONTINUOUS

The Protagonist gets off the Chinook, watching anotherChinook gently set down a container. He follows the others to

a tent.

INT. BRIEFING TENT – CONTINUOUS

Soldiers in folding chairs facing a screen. The Protagonistlooks around – still no Neil. Ives steps up, signals for theprojector: a devastated CITY, grey CONCRETE and ABANDONEDindustry amongst terraced strip mines...

IVES:

Stalsk-12. Hidden from the world. A

city where anything can happen, andtoday, gentlemen, for ten minutes,

it most assuredly does.

Ives switches to a GRAPHIC: a childishly simple diagram of aLANDING AREA, BUILDINGS, then an UNDERGROUND CAVERN...

IVES (CONT'D)

You were divided into two teams for

a temporal pincer movement. We

are Red team, moving forwards. Ourfriends out there –

(gestures at containers)

– Blue team, led by CommanderWheeler, are inverted. One hour

from now, they had this briefing...

INSERT CUT:
Neil, in RESPIRATOR, in the front row of

Commander Wheeler’s briefing of BLUE TEAM. All are inrespirators...

BACK TO RED-TEAM BRIEFING –

IVES (CONT'D)

Then were dropped on the ridgeabove the hypocentre as close intime to the detonation as possible.

Their objectives were clearance andclarification. This briefing hasthe benefit of their experience –

and yes, some of you specialistsare on both teams.

The Protagonist overhears –

RED SOLDIER 1

Why don’t they let us see them?

RED SOLDIER 2

Maybe we won’t like what happened.

120.

EXT. COAST OF VIET NAM – DAY

A SPEEDBOAT bounces through the chop, Mahir (from thefreeport heist) at the helm. Kat, beside him, shields hereyes from the glare as they head towards Sator’s yacht. Theypull up some way off. A chopper sits on the yacht.

Mahir hands Kat binoculars – Kat watches her EARLIER SELF and

HER SON board the tender and head for shore...

INT. BRIEFING TENT – DAY

Ives gestures across the whole area on the schematic –

IVES:

The entire area is radioactive, so

both teams wear full protection. Todistinguish teams, wear these –

A soldier starts passing out RED ARMBANDS...

INSERT CUT:
Neil, in respirator, takes a BLUE ARMBAND, and,

like the rest of the team, puts it on...

BACK TO RED-TEAM BRIEFING –

Ives points to each of the three elements in turn:

IVES (CONT'D)

Landing zone, LZ, well defended,

including ground-to-air ordinance.

We drop in, clear the LZ for Blue

team’s evacuation... We make our

way into the city proper... thesebuildings are abandoned, but welearned they have a turnstile inthis one... so expect a bi-temporal

response.

RED SOLDIER 1

They’ll have inverse ordinance?

IVES:

Inverse, conventional, forwards

antagonists, inverted antagonists –

they have it all, and it can allend you. Got it?

Ives goes back to the diagram –

IVES (CONT'D)

On the other side of the city, theground rises to the ridge above thehypocentre.

(MORE)

121.

IVES (CONT'D)

Most of you will proceed up thehill – a splinter unit will take atunnel from the city to the floorof the hypocentre. Blue teamlocated an entrance here –

Ives points to the city’s edge. Then to the CAVERN.

IVES (CONT'D)

The bomb is in the rock high aboveto trigger a collapse, sealing the

cavern.

RED SOLDIER 2

How do we defuse the bomb up there?

IVES:

We don’t. The explosion takes placeas planned, exactly ten minutesafter our landing. Everything issynchronized to that explosion.

Both teams have countdown watches –

ours counts down from ten at

landing, to zero at the explosion.

He holds up his wrist to display a BLOOD-RED ‘10’ –

IVES (CONT'D)

Blue team is the reverse –

INSERT CUT:
a PREVIOUS BRIEFING (BLUE TEAM). NEIL watches asWheeler holds up her wrist to show a VIVID-BLUE ‘10’ –

WHEELER:

Ten at the explosion, to zero atour extraction. If you are not atthe LZ by zero, you are notleaving.

BACK TO RED-TEAM BRIEFING –

IVES:

Our job is to fail to defuse thebomb, while the splinter unitachieves its task undetected.

RED SOLDIER 1

Which is?

IVES:

Need to know. And you don’t. Anyother stupid questions? Right,

let’s get ready.

Everybody RISES. The Protagonist approaches Ives.

PROTAGONIST:

I wanted to be on the first wave.

122.

IVES:

There is no first wave – Red team

and Blue team operatesimultaneously. Do not get on thechopper if you can’t stop thinkingin linear terms. You want to be on

the team who lifts the contents of

that capsule?

PROTAGONIST:

Absolutely.

IVES:

That’s us. We’re the splinter unit.

PROTAGONIST:

Just us?

IVES:

No one who knows the contents of

that capsule can leave the field. Ithought we’d manage ourselves.

EXT. COAST OF VIET NAM – DAY

Mahir shows Kat how to use a small pistol. Kat wears a two-

piece bathing suit with a shirt over. He puts the pistol in adiver’s bag, loops the lanyard round Kat’s bare ankle.

MAHIR:

It’s forty feet from the privatedeck to the water. Can you jump it?

KAT:

I can dive it.

They hear the chopper SPIN UP. Mahir shows her a FLARE GUN –

MAHIR:

Until you see my signal, you don’tlet him die.

Kat nods. The chopper lifts off and ZOOMS overhead. Mahirguns the powerboat, STREAKING towards the yacht...

EXT. TENET CAMP – DAY

The Soldiers head for the Chinooks. As they pass thecontainers, some stare at them... the Chinooks lift off, some

Chinooks rise, LIFTING the containers...

EXT. COAST OF VIET NAM – DAY

Mahir pulls up fifty yards from the stern of Sator’s yacht...

Kat grabs the pistol bag and slips into the water...

123.

INT./EXT. NORTHERN PLAIN – DAY

The Chinooks BEAT LOW over the windswept plain. Stalsk-12appears on the horizon – terraced strip-mined land leading toa set of CONCRETESTRUCTURES FUSED TO THE EARTH...

EXT. SATOR’S YACHT, COAST OF VIET NAM – DAY

Kat quietly pulls herself out of the water and onto a rearplatform. She STEALTHILY makes her way up through the boat...

EXT. LZ, STALSK-12 – CONTINUOUS

The Chinooks long-lining containers RISE, slowing, as theother Chinooks BARREL in towards a large flat area – ANTIAIRCRAFT

GUNS start FIRING...

The Protagonist grabs his gun and LEAPS from the Chinook asit hovers close to the ground...

EXT. HYPOCENTRE RIDGE, STALSK-12 – DAY

The Chinooks long-lining containers fly BACKWARDS towards agiant DEPRESSION...

INT. CONTAINER – CONTINUOUS

Neil looks out a peephole –

WHEELER:

We’re coming in on the shockwave... hang on, people! –

Neil GRABS his belts as WHUMMMMM!!!! The container SHUDDERS –

EXT. HYPOCENTRE RIDGE, STALSK-12 – CONTINUOUS

The SHOCK WAVE CONTRACTS – the Chinook ‘SURFING’ backwards in

on the shock as it approaches the hypocentre... ENERGYBUILDING... GROUND LIFTING AND FLATTENING...

EXT. LZ, STALSK-12 – DAY

The Protagonist joins a unit of Red team soldiers who CHARGEan antiaircraft emplacement TAKING IT OUT BEFORE IT CAN FIREON THE SLOW-MOVING CHINOOKS...

The Protagonist uses his assault rifle to take out agunemplacement. Ives uses an inverse grenade to violently

‘reassemble’ an enemy gun emplacement out of existence,

shredding the enemy with reverse shrapnel...

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