Superman Page #6

81CONTINUED

MARTHA:

I made you...

(fighting back tears)

...some sandwiches.

CLARK smiles silently, closes his hand around the bag. He turns, opens the rucksack to place the bag inside.

82INSERT SHOT - RUCKSACK

The rucksack interior glows with a green light, tucked inside the red, yellow, and blue blankets is the same one seen earlier, in thc barn. CLARK closes it.

83BACK TO SCENE

They face each other for the final time, all emotion, both at a sudden loss for words.

MARTHA:

Do you ... know where you're headed?

CLARK:

North.

MARTHA'S eyes glaze over. She manages a brave smile.

MARTHA:

Remember us. Always remember us.

Unable to restrain themselves any longer, they reach out, collapse into a tight hug.

84EXT. ALASKA HIGHWAY - DAY

CLARK, in his light windbreaker, his rucksack on his back, walks by the side of the road. The wind howls, ruffling his hair, but he doesn't seem to mind the cold. CAMERA PANS: from a distance, a truck appears. It pulls up next to him, stops. The DRIVER opens the door.

TRUCK DRIVERS:

Get in Kid! Quick, before you

freeze to death!

84CONTINUED

CLARK:

(nice smile)

I'm okay, thanks. It was nice of you to

stop, though.

The DRIVER stares, amazed. CLARK really means it.

DRIVER:

What the hell. You wanna make a popsicle

outa yourself, none of my business....

THE DRIVER slams the door. The truck roars off. CLARK watches it leave, then turns, walks off the side of the road cross-country, heading north.

85EXT. ALASKA - DAY

CAMERA PANS a vast snow-covered plain and an arctic lake with icebergs floating in it in the distance. A Polar bear trudges through the snow, stops, looks at something which has attracted his attention. CAMERA CONTINUES PAN: the tiny, dark figure of CLARK contrasts sharply with the dazzling white landscape as he makes his way still north, dressed only in his light windbreaker.

86EXT. NEAR NORTH POLE - DAY

A flat, desolate plain. off to one side is a huge out-cropping of rock jutting out of the barren, snow-covered landscape. A blizzard rages. CAMERA PANS to reveal CLARK, the rucksack on the ground beside him. The wind rips across the plain. CLARK looks around, seems to be in the process of selecting a specific area. He marks its perimeters with heat vision, burning deep lines into the snow and ice. Once the boundaries are drawn, CLARK concentrates on the area within. The entire mass of snow' begins to melt away as huge flames shoot around the gigantic excavation.

DISSOLVE TO:

87EXT'. SAME AREA - LATER

An enormous crater has been carved out of the rock and ice. CLARK stands in the center, reaches into his rucksack, places the green stone on the ground. Climbing back quickly to the edge, he focuses into the crater. As his heat vision hits the stone a crystalline foundation begins to solidify and expand. Green radiation glows all around the excavation site - a wall is formed.

87CONTINUED

Another burst of energy intensifies and constructs a second side joined at a right angle. In the bright cone of green light, multi-colored molecules explode and expand into a third impregnable wall. Through the blaze of sparkling light this wall increases in size, spreads out to cover the fourth remaining side.

88CLOSE ON CLARK

CLARK steps back to look with awe: The Fortress of Solitude is complete. It rises up in the northern landscape, its materials completely harmonious, the white opaque crystalline blending ingeniously into the surrounding countryside.

89INT. FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE - DAY

The tiny figure of' CLARK enters the Fortress, looks up at a multi-leveled white fantasy. Stabbing spurs of crystal cut across the levels at a severe angle. The decor is spartan, minimal. The central area with its complicated memory crystal energy banks where SUPERMAN will communicate with his dead father is overlooked by a series of different levels which lead off to hidden corridors, rooms, etc.

The entire dazzling interior is strongly reminiscent of what we have seen earlier on Krypton.

90CLOSE ON ENERGY BANK SECTION

A crystal bench sits next to the energy bank which is lined with rows of smaller glowing crystals. CLARK approaches mesmerized, knowing what he must do but unsure of how and why. He reaches out for the first crystal, places it inside a mechanism in the energy bank, takes his seat on the bench, waits, suddenly:

91WIDE ANGLE

The light in the Fortress changes dramatically. The walls and jagged planes of the structure seem to come alive with energy. The wall directly opposite vibrates with a special intensity: A giant face appears: It is JOR-EL. His head rises massively up and across the wall, burning with light, looking down, dwarfing the tiny figure of CLARK on the bench. JOR-EL'S eyes flash, focus on him. JOR-EL speaks.

25/3/77

91CONTINUED

JOR-EL

My son, you do not remember me. I am Jor-El.

I am ... your father. By now you will have

reached your eighteenth year of time as it is

measured on earth. By that same reckoning I will

have been dead for many thousands of your years.

The knowledge that I have of, matters physical

and historic I have given to you fully on your voyage

to your new home. These are important matters, to

be, sure, but still matters of mere fact. There are

questions to be asked and it is time for you to do so.

Here in this Fortress of Solitude we shall try to find

the answers together. How does a Good man live? What

is virtue'? When does a man's obligation to those

around him exceed his obligation to himself'? These are

not simple questions - even on Krypton there is no precise

science which provides us with the answers. I can only

tell you what I myself believe. To this end, I have tried

to anticipate your questions, and in -the order of their

importance to you.

(pause)

Speak.

CLARK:

Who . . . am I?

JOR-EL

Your name is Kal-El. You are the only survivor

of the planet Krypton. Even though you have

been raised as a human being, you are not one

of them. You have great powers, only some of

which you have, as yet, discovered ...

CAMERA BEGINS A SLOW 360-DEGREE PAN. The face and features of

JOR-EL will appear and fade away in many dimensions and on virtually every area of the fortress in an intricate and continuous SERIES OF DISSOLVES:

JOR-EL

Your mother, Lara, has sent along three

Blankets of red, yellow, and blue. United in

United in a single garment, their

(last sentence missing from script)

91CONTINUED

At times there will be simultaneous representations JOR-EL: some merely features of the face in huge magnifications - eyes, mouth, profile, etc. The DISSOLVES will indicate the passage of a long period of time. Never, until the final culmination of the 360 PAN do we see or hear anything but the face and thought of JOR-EL.

CAMERA BEGINS FIRST SERIES OF DISSOLVES:

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