The Abyss Page #11

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INT. THRUSTER ROOM TWO97

Deep in one of the catamaran hulls, the positioning thruster motor is

SCREAMING like a steel banshee above its usual roar. It EXPLODES with smoke

and shrapnel. A roaring fire erupts. Crewmen run shouting in the smoke.

INT. EXPLORER BRIDGE 98

Now a KLAXON is going off as the ship begins to slew in the high winds.

BENDIX:

It's not holding. We're swinging out of

position!

EXT. EXPLORER'S DECK/LAUNCH WELL99

As the ship slews, the umbilical is drawn off vertical. It goes tight as a

bowstring. Pulled to the edge of the launch well, it rips down the side

with a godawful screech, tearing loose ladders and floats.

EXT. DEEPCORE/A-FRAME 100

Flatbed's manipulator has gripped the de-coupling mechanism when the cable

suddenly pulls taut. The sub is jerked sideways, its grip dislodged. We

see One Night get tossed around inside.

INT. DEEPCORE 101

Lindsey is in the corridor with a cup of tea when the whole rig BOOMS LIKE A

GONG and lurches sideways. She's wearing her tea when Bud tears through a

doorway and goes pounding past her. The intercom blares...

HIPPY (intercom)

Bud to control! Emergency! Bud to Control!

Bud claws his way up the ladder to level two. The rig BOOMS and shudders

as...

EXT. DEEPCORE 102

The rig begins to move. The enormous skid breaks loose. Start to slide,

plowing furrows in the bottom. One Night junks the controls, pivoting her

submersible as the A-frame looms toward her.

INT. DEEPCORE/CONTROL MODULE 103

Bud runs in, past Hippy, and grabs the mike.

BUD:

Topside, topside... pay out some slack, we're

getting dragged!

EXT. EXPLORER DECK 104

The winch man staggers along the railing, blasted by 80-knot winds. He

sprints for the base of the enormous crane which supports the umbilical

winch. A wave blasts him into the bulkhead. He half-crawls to the ladder

going up to the winch-house. As he climbs the winch's heave-compensator

slides up and down, FILLING FRAME behind him.

It is bottoming-out with a sound like a piledriver, overloaded by the strain

on the cable. It chooses that moment to fail. GRINDING CRASH OF METAL.

INT./EXT. DEEPCORE CONTROL MODULE 105

Lindsey has joined Bud, looking out the front viewport.

LINDSEY:

We're heading right for the drop off!

EXT. EXPLORER DECK 106

The deck is ripped upward as the entire 40-ton crane is pulled over by the

weight of Deepcore. It topples in the launch well with a roar of tortured

steel that rivals the storm. An EXPLOSION OF WATER. UNDERWATER, the crane

tumbles between the twin hulls. Trailing a vortex of foam and debris, it

roars down on us, FILLING FRAME WITH BLACKNESS.

INT. EXPLORER BRIDGE 107

McBride stares in shock at the churning cauldron of the launch well. Grabs

the underwater telephone.

MCBRIDE:

Bud! We've lost the crane!

BUD (V.O.)

What? Say again.

MCBRIDE:

THE CRANE! WE'VE LOST THE CRANE. IT'S ON ITS

WAY TO YOU!!

INT. DEEPCORE/CONTROL MODULE 108

Everyone is stunned by what is happening. Lindsey fires up the sonar.

LINDSEY:

Got it! It's dropping straight to us.

She puts the signal over the speakers and the room fills with eerie PINGING.

Bud shouts over the intercom.

BUD:

Rig for impact! Seal all exterior hatches.

Move it! Let's go!

VARIOUS ANGLES, QUICK CUTS, as everyone runs to comply:

The rig crew pounding down the narrow corridors. Diving through low

hatchways. Hatches are closed and the wheels spun down. Hippy puts into a

ZIP-LOK BAG and seals it.

EXT. DEEPCORE 109

The umbilical drops down in slack loops out of the blackness above, draping

itself over the habitat in large coils. One Night pilots her submersible

feverishly among the falling loops. She banks and twists. A length of heavy

umbilical slams onto her neck, tipping the sub.

She manages to get out from under it a keep going.

INT. CONTROL MODULE 110

Through the front viewport they can see the coils of cable piling up in front

of the rig. The hull booms with impacts as the massive stuff hits.

Everyone hold their breath as the sonar return-pings get closer... and

closer. And closer...

An ENORMOUS SHAPE plunged into the floodlight in front of the rig.

K-WHAM!! The 40-ton crane hits like a flatiron thirty feet in front of them.

A clean miss. Much WHOOPING AND CHEERING. Then...

The crane topples slowly over the back. It rolls down the slope of the drop-

off, gathering speed. Then tumbles over the cliff into the abyssal canyon.

The coiled umbilical starts to pay out after it like rope after a harpoon.

And they're still attached.

LINDSEY:

Oh sh*t.

An agonizing few seconds. Then... the cable pulls taut.

K-BOOM!! The rig is slammed by the shock. Everyone is knocked off his feet,

into walls and equipment.

EXT. DEEPCORE 111

The rig begins to slide. It tilts over the embankment and grinds down the

slope of the drop-off in a cloud of silt. The cable pulling it inexorably

toward the cliff. The framework twists and slams into rocks. SCREECHING

AND GROANING of tortured steel.

INT. DEEPCORE/CORRIDOR/LADDERWELL/MAIN CORRIDOR112

All hell has broken loose. SIRENS, SCREAMING, a KLAXON HOOTING moronically.

Bud sprints from Control, bouncing off the corridor walls as the rig

lurches and tilts. The lights go out. Emergency light come on. He trips

and falls, scrambles up, running on.

IN THE LADDERWELL of trimodule C, Lindsey runs toward the machine rooms.

K-BOOM! A searing bright EXPLOSION in the electrical room. Flames roar

through the doorway. She dashed to a seawater hose hanging nearby and starts

to unroll it. She sees Coffey and Schoenick in maintenance, lashing down

the mystery package.

LINDSEY:

Hey! Get on this hose, you turkeys!

INT. TRIMODULE C/COMPRESSOR ROOM113

Monk is working in a spray of seawater, turning valves to stop the flow of

ruptured pipes. Behind him, a wall of flame blossoms through the door from

the electrical room, driving the back with the heat. A reservoir-tanks

breaks loose from one of the compressor assemblies. In rolls at him,

crushing his legs against machinery. The fire roars into the room.

INT. SUB BAY114

Hippy runs in. The place is going nuts. Water floods from the moonpool as

the rig tilts. Wilhite is dancing across the deck, leaping over compressed-

gas cylinders which are rolling around loose. Cab One jumps clear off its

cradle and slides SCREECHING across the deck. Wilhite, running before the

12-tom juggernaut, had no place to go. The SEAL dives into the churning

moonpool. Cab One slams into the end wall, then spins and rolls toward

Hippy.

He starts to run. Drop something. Looks back.

Beany, in his zip-loc bag, is lying in the path of the slide submersible.

Hippy runs back. Scoops up the baggie. Cab One FILLS FRAME behind him.

He makes it through the door an instant before the thing hits behind him,

buckling the steel doorframe.

Wilhite is clawing up the sheep skirting of the moonpool. He gets his fingers

over the top. Pulls himself up...

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