Sphere Page #2

NORMAN:

Well, thanks for the opportuninty

here -- my wife appreciates it.

BARNES:

Don't thank me, Dr. Johnson. You

weren't my choice. The Pentagon made

me take you.

NORMAN:

(smiling)

The Pentagon? I didn't know I had

friends in Washington.

Norman tries to laugh as Barnes ushers him to the door...

BARNES:

Come with me. The team's already

waiting.

NORMAN:

What team?

INT. HALLWAY

Barnes leads Norman down the corridor, lined with OFFICERS and GUARDS.

BARNES:

What have you been told so far?

NORMAN:

The usual. Plane crash. Survivers

unknown. Routine stuff really.

BARNES:

Anything else?

NORMAN:

Nothing else.

A GUARD unlocks a large, steel door.

GUARD:

Captain Barnes. Dr. Johnson.

NORMAN:

Hello.

Norman looks at the guard as they proceed through the doorway,

wondering how the guard knows his name.

BARNES:

You talk to any reporters? Any

press?

NORMAN:

Press? No, I haven't.

The steel door shuts loudly behind them.

BARNES:

Good. Security's been our biggest

worry. Now that you're here we can

shut this thing down tight.

NORMAN:

From what? What's with all the

security?

BARNES:

Well, we don't have all the facts

yet.

Another GUARD opens up another large steel door...

INT. TECH ROOM

Barnes leads Norman through the room, crammed with video monitors,

screens, and grids. Officers talk into radios. Technicians work on

computers.

BARNES:

We're moving fast considering the

storm.

NORMAN:

Storm? What storm?

BARNES:

A cyclone's on it's way in. I

thought they would have told you on

the phone.

NORMAN:

They didn't tell me anything.

Norman tries to keep pace...

BARNES:

We've had divers working around the

clock. Take a look at this...

ANGLE ON a large VIDEO SCREEN - shows a diver walking on the ocean

floor, holding a bright artificial flashlight.

NORMAN:

How deep is he?

BARNES:

A thousand feet.

NORMAN:

A thousand? An airplane crashes into

a thousand feet of water -- I don't

want to sound pessimistic here, but

I assume there are no survivors.

BARNES:

Survivors? No, I wouldn't think so.

NORMAN:

Then why am I here?

BARNES:

What?

NORMAN:

What do you need me for?

ON THE VIDEO SCREEN - the diver shines his light on a large, metallic

OBJECT.

BARNES:

What crashed wasn't an airplane, Dr.

Johnson. It's a bit larger than

that.

Barnes walks toward a TECHNICIAN, sitting at a keyboard.

BARNES:

(to technician)

Bring up the grid, would you?

ANGLE ON THE MONITOR as an IMAGE OF THE CRAFT begins to form.

NORMAN:

What is it? A military spacecraft?

Like a shuttle or satellite?

BARNES:

Something like that.

(beat)

That doesn't surprise you?

NORMAN:

Not really, no. Something of the

military crashes in the ocean -- it

explains why there was nothing on

the news, why you've kept everything

a secret... When did it crash?

BARNES:

As best we can estimate, it crashed

four hundred years ago.

A beat.

NORMAN:

Four hundred? You're kidding, right?

ANGLE ON THE MONITOR - showing a grid depicting an image of the craft

and a small layer of ROCK above it.

BARNES:

See this? Coral. Geologists measured

the coral growth on top of the craft

to be over five meters thick.

NORMAN:

Geologists?

BARNES:

Coral grows at a rate of two and a

half centimeters a year --

NORMAN:

-- Wait a second --

BARNES:

-- dating the crash at least that

old.

NORMAN:

Hold on --

BARNES:

Maybe older --

NORMAN:

-- there's got to be some mistake

here -- a four hundred year old

military spacecraft? There's no such

thing...our space program isn't even

forty years old.

BARNES:

Extraordinary, isn't it?

NORMAN:

It's impossible.

BARNES:

I'm afraid it is Dr. Johnson...

because it's sitting on the bottom

of our ocean floor.

INT. STAIRWELL

Barnes and Norman shuffle down the stairs.

BARNES:

Off the record, I don't mind telling

you, this thing scares the sh*t out

of me.

NORMAN:

It doesn't make any sense.

BARNES:

We think it might. That's why we

brought you here. We've assembled

your team -- they're waiting for us

now.

NORMAN:

What team?

BARNES:

The one you recommended. In the ULF

report you wrote for the Bush

administration.

NORMAN:

ULF report? Nobody's mentioned that

in years. You mean someone actually

read it?

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes