The Abyss Page #26

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EXT. MIAMI -- DAY233

Downtown Miami crouches in terror at the feet of the shimmering monolith.

In a penthouse office suite, an executive watches the wave towering above him,

blocking out the sun, a line of raging foam appearing as it arches over,

about to break upon the teeming city.

And then...

The wave slows as it crests...

And stops.

IT SIMPLY STOPS.

2600 feet high and motionless except for a shimmering undulation of its

surface in the bright sun. There is quiet, a faint wind and calling of

confused gulls. Various reactions, as the thunder fades and people recover,

only to stand awed before the vast, inexplicable manifestation. A news

helicopter passes in front of it like a dragonfly.

EXT. MALIBU 234

The surfer just blinks, starting.

EXT. NEW YORK -- DAY 235

On the East Coast it's the same, as the World Trade Centers are dwarfed by a

shimmering blue wall which stands... waiting.

EXT. PETROPAVLOVSK NAVAL BASE, U.S.S.R. -- NIGHT 236

Russian seamen, lining the harbor breakwall at Petropavlovsk Naval Base on the

Kamchatka Peninsula, stare upward at the monolith of water, undulating in the

moonlight. It seems poised to crash down, inflicting inconceivable

devastation... but it doesn't.

EXT. OCEAN FRONT WALK, SANTA MONICA 237

When all have seen...

The wave soundlessly subsides, slowly slipping back and down until the surface

of the sea is normal again.

VIDEO SHOT, HANDHELD, of a crowd of people watching the sea. Moving from

face to face. Various reactions as people respond to what they can only

understand as a miracle. The faces... awed, stunned, tear-streaked...

laughing. The cameraman is just walking. Some people turn to him and smile,

or laugh, or whoop.

A woman is collapsed on a bench, crying.

A man is on his knees, shaking.

Total strangers hug each other.

A black guy, tears pouring down his face, turns to the camera with a beautific

grin.

GUY:

Somebody just laid it down to us, man. Things

ain't never gonna be the same!

PULL BACK to reveal that we are in the...

INT. FINAL CHAMBER 238

Bud sits, shaken, watching the screen, as people react to their deliverance.

He turns to the NTIs.

BUD:

Why? You could've done it. Why didn't you?

The screen darkens. Then letters appears on it, slowly printing out, as if

someone was clumsily typing them.

WE KNEW THIS WAS...

And we've seen this before so we know the rest...

WE KNEW THIS WAS A ONE WAY TICKET WHEN I PUT THIS THING ON. BUT YOU KNOW I

HAD TO COME.

A pause, then:

LOVE YOU WIFE:

The last message expands to fill the entire screen.

Bud stares at the screen, at his message of self-sacrifice, then at the

aliens. They bow their heads, just for a moment. A sign of respect.

CLOSE ON BUD as he begins to realize what has happened.

CUT TO:

INT. DEEPCORE/CONTROL MODULE 239

Lindsey is slumped in a chair, just staring. Withdrawn.

The others are conserving oxygen and heat, huddling in the dark.

The air is looking pretty thick. The speaker of the hydrophone transceiver

crackles to life.

MCBRIDE (V.O.)

Deepcore, do you read? This is Benthic Explorer,

over.

CATFISH:

Hell yes, we read! Good of you to join us. How's

that storm doin'?

MCBRIDE:

Well, it's strange... it just kind've blew

itself out all of the sudden. We're up here in

a flat sea with no wind. But then a lot of weird

things've been happening.

CATFISH:

Well, hell, son. You better get us a line down

here, we're in moderately poor shape.

LATER, Hippy, Catfish, and Monk are conferring B.G. on how to get a new

umbilical hooked on. One Night is talking to McBride on the hydrophone.

MCBRIDE:

They figure is was over a half mile high.

ONE NIGHT:

I wish I could have seen it--

She glances down at the telemetry screen, seeing movement.

ONE NIGHT:

Hey. Hey! HEY!! Look... it's Bud.

MONK:

That's impossible.

Lindsey bolts to the screen. Stares at the message printing out.

A huge grin wraps around her face.

LINDSEY:

No it's not.

MCBRIDE (V.O.)

What's it say?

Lindsey take the mike and sits before the screen. During the message, her

voice will go through an emotional spectrum from confusion to wonder, to a

childlike joy.

INTERCUT BETWEEN DEEPCORE AND EXPLORER BRIDGE DURING THE FOLLOWING:

LINDSEY:

It says...

"VIRGIL BRIGMAN BACK ON THE AIR/HAVE SOME NEW

FRIENDS DOWN HERE/I GUESS THEYVE BEEN HERE AWHILE/

THEYVE LEFT US ALONE BUT IT BOTHERS THEM TO SEE

US HURTING EACH OTHER/GETTING OUT OF HAND LATELY"

Lindsey grins as she reads the next part...

LINSEY:

"THEY SENT A MESSAGE/HOPE YOU GOT IT"

CATFISH:

I'd say that's a big 10-4, jack.

LINDSEY:

"THEY WANT US TO GROW UP A BIT AND PUT AWAY

CHILDISH THINGS/OF COURSE ITS JUST A SUGGESTION."

INT. BENTHIC EXPLORER BRIDGE -- DAY 240

Beyond the windows the ocean is calm. The sky steel-gray put placid. McBride

turns to Commodore DeMarco and the Navy contingent, his eyebrows cocked.

MCBRIDE:

Looks like you boys might by out of business.

BENDIX:

Something's going on down there. I'm getting

some big readings....

Bendix is hunched over the sonar, and we can see the screens lit up like a

Wurlitzer.

INT. DEEPCORE 241

In Deepcore the crew becomes aware of a strange subsonic rumbling. The sonar

is going crazy. One Night puts the headphones of her passive sonar rig up to

her ear, then jerks it away.

ONE NIGHT:

Whew! Whatever this is, it's major.

The rumbling increases and a glow diffuses the water.

The glow intensifies until a blinding shaft of light blasts through the

viewport, bathing the whole interior in a cold white radiance.

A last message appears on the screen:

KEEP YOU PANTYHOSE ON/YOURE GONNA LOVE THIS

The radiance intensifies. Everyone covers their eyes. It flares to

WHITE-OUT.

CUT TO:

INT./EXT. EXPLORER BRIDGE -- DAY242

Bendix and the bridge crew are going nuts. All their instruments are pegged.

BENDIX:

Active is pinging back something big... it's

enormous! Coming up right under us.

DEMARCO:

Where?

BENDIX:

Where? EVERYWHERE!!

(looks out the window)

Over there! Port bow.

EXT. BENTHIC EXPLORER AND OCEAN 243

A depression appears in the surface of the sea a hundred yards off, not

swirling down like a whirlpool, just dimpling down.

It gets wider. Deeper. Rapidly becomes a yawning pit.

The ocean is OPENING.

Now the surface is churned by turbulence. Slow massive roils of tremendous

power boil up from the depths.

McBride leads a mass exodus onto the deck to see better.

The open becomes a roaring maw a hundred yards across.

The ships are like toys on the shimmering rim of the maelstrom.

SOMETHING RISES IN THE CENTER OF THE OPENING. A massive spire. Smoothly

curving and iridescent. Off the starboard beam, a quarter mile away, another

spire rises. Tons of seawater fall from its sides with a THUNDEROUS ROAR, the

energy of Niagara.

Off the port bow... another spire.

And another, beyond the destroyer Albany, dwarfing it.

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