Starman Page #3

The rockets flip into the humanoid's gloved hands and it is

airborne out the open back door.

EXT. HOUSING TRACT - NIGHT

From the road Benny and the officer watch as the humanoid

figure that just blasted over them flies between the trees

and into the white light emitting from the underbelly of the

spacecraft. The noise from the ship's power plant is deafening

as it begins to rise above the trees.

With Mike at the wheel the police car, its rack lights

flashing, fishtails up the dirt road and slides sideways to

a bone-jarring stop next to Benny and the officer. As they

jump out of the way they find themselves facing into the

super white beam of the figure that was in the house. They

are between it and the ship. At the angle that it is coming

up the hill, the light looks like it is heading directly for

them. This is too much for the officer and in terror he raises

his shotgun and fires wildly at it. The figure veers off and

disappears into the fog.

With an awesome roar the spacecraft reaches escape velocity

and hurtles into the night sky. The concussion waves knock

Benny and the officers off their feet.

EXT. COUNTRY ROAD - NIGHT

The escaped figure's light comes out of the fog at tree

height. We hear the high-pitched whistle of its rockets. A

burst of percussive language comes from behind the faceplate.

SUBTITLE:

Lander four to Mapmaker Wind. Fix

position for rescue. Repeat. Fix

position for rescue.

EXT. HOUSING TRACT - NIGHT

The fires on the hillside have been renewed. Shaking, Benny

and the officer rise to their feet and start toward the light

shafting straight up from the figure lying on the hillside.

The only sound is police chatter coming out of the radio in

the open squad car.

EXT. LOGGING ROAD - NIGHT

An 18-wheeler with a load of logs lumbers past us.

INT. TRUCK - NIGHT

It feels cozy with the wipers slapping the rain off the

windshield. The DRIVER is trying to steal a cigarette out of

his snoring PARTNER'S pocket without waking him up. He gets

one and reaches for the lighter.

EXT. COUNTRY ROAD - NIGHT

The escaped figure banks around a blind corner.

INT. TRUCK - NIGHT

The driver gets a glimpse of something in his headlights and

slams on the brakes, but it is too late. The figure hits the

spoiler above the cab. We hear the smack of impact. One of

its boots scars the windshield.

EXT. COUNTRY ROAD - NIGHT

The figure bounces off the jack-knifing truck and like a

wounded bird tumbles through the air into the trees. With

the light spinning crazily, it plunges through the boughs

and smashes face first into the mud at the bottom of an

embankment. The strip lights on the sides of its helmet go

out.

EXT. TRUCK - NIGHT

The driver and his partner, standing in the shafts of the

high beams, are peering into the woods.

PARTNER:

What the hell was it anyway?

DRIVER:

Damned if I know.

EXT. WOODS - NIGHT

The figure thrashes over on its back and tries to close a

shoulder-to-hip tear in its life-support suit. By the faint

identification light that flickers on and off inside its

helmet, we see a MAN FROM THE STARS. His skin is translucent

coral. He is gasping as our atmosphere mixes with his and

threatens to suffocate him.

Under his translucent skin a maze of veins and arteries extend

from a white mass that sits in the upper half of his head.

He is hairless. Underneath a graceful fore-head, transparent

eyelids droop over black pupilless eyes. The thin lips that

delineate his mouth are chalk-white.

He tries to clutch the edges of the tear together but is too

weak. His hands drop limply from the suit, allowing the rent

to gape open and reveal the translucent body underneath.

PARTNER (V.O.)

Come on. I'm getting wet.

DRIVER (V.O.)

It musta been a bird.

PARTNER (V.O.)

How about if I drive now?

Behind the faceplate a piece of white light breaks off from

the shining mass in the STAR MAN'S head and moves down his

neck. Through the hole in the suit we see it arrive at the

top of his single lung. The white light spreads throughout

the organ like a phosphorescent tide. The STAR MAN lapses

into unconsciousness as we hear the truck pull away.

INT. HELICOPTER (COCKPIT) - DAWNBREAK

A light rain is falling.

We are looking through the windscreen at the gray landscape

passing under the helicopter. MARC SHERMIN, a grizzled man

in his mid-fifties with an honest stubborn face, shifts his

attention from the right side to the left side of the craft.

Below him he can see the road leading into the housing tract

is blocked by police cars. The helicopter leans into a banking

turn and the spacecraft's blackened landing site comes into

view. Below it an orange nylon tent has been erected over

the dead extraterrestrial. It glows from the inside. An Air

Force helicopter is parked on the other side of the burn.

EXT. HOUSING TRACT - DAWNBREAK

A man in a white contamination suit is helping Benny and the

two officers into the Air Force helicopter. The three men

are glassy-eyed and wrapped in blankets. Benny has a bandage

across his chest. They look up at Shermin's descending

helicopter. They are still looking at it when they disappear

inside.

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