The Cell Page #9

CATHERINE (CONT'D)

They're comforted by the feeling of

weightlessness. Like floating in water.

Henry catches Ramsey poking his nose near a THIRD SUIT AND

APPARATUS in the dressing area.

HENRY:

Don't touch that, please.

RAMSEY:

Sorry.

Miriam prepares a series of CHEMICAL CARTRIDGES and loads

them into a container connected to the IV-like tubes linked

to the suspension device.

MIRIAM:

(intimate, quiet)

This isn't your responsibility.

Remember that. Don't let them use guilt

as a tool. If you want to stop, say so.

CATHERINE:

I'll be fine.

MIRIAM:

She said convincingly.

Catherine focuses on the procedure and makes the necessary

connections. Reluctantly, Miriam retreats to the monitoring

station. She "locks down" the procedure room and joins

Henry, Novak, and Ramsey at the console.

NOVAK:

(eyes on the chemical/drug

monitors)

That's the stuff?

HENRY:

About twelve years of research, right

Miriam?

MIRIAM:

Don't remind me.

RAMSEY:

What is it - are they - exactly?

That's like asking her to explain the rules of cricket.

MIRIAM:

Psychostimulants, serotonin,

stabilizers, meprobamate, Neurontin,

lithium carbonate. And my baby. It

duplicates and expands upon the effects

of a chemical called oxytocin, forcing a

break in the neuron connections that

hold experience. So new experience can

form.

Ramsey is utterly lost and just sort of nods, but Novak is

fascinated. Catherine presses the bump on her hand. A RED

INDICATOR LIGHT flashes on.

HENRY:

There's a touch-sensitive microchip

implanted in her hand. If she becomes

frightened, disoriented, or simply wants

to end the session, she signals us to

abort.

Catherine presses again and the red light shuts off.

MIRIAM:

Although none of what she experiences is

real, she can be tricked into thinking

it is. The mind is awfully gullible, so

she needs to monitor herself.

Catherine and Stargher are suspended from the ceiling. Henry

types and the lights dim to a more somber, tranquil level.

Various screens flicker to life, displaying the vital signs

of both "feed" and receive." Miriam initiates the injection

program.

MIRIAM (CONT'D)

Catherine? I'm about to start. If you

want me to wait, or...

CATHERINE:

No. No.

IN THE PROCEDURE ROOM, we see chemicals mix with her blood,

then feed the IV. AT THE CONSOLE, as Henry types furiously

at the computer keyboard, Novak asks Miriam:

NOVAK:

You said she has a "gift."

Overhearing, Henry interrupts, pointing at a section of

Catherine's "mind map."

HENRY:

Not a gift. A highly evolved area in

her cerebral cortex, that's all. A

genetic fluke.

MIRIAM:

Catherine has a tremendous capacity for

empathy.

(clarifies)

When we started, there were a number of

test subjects - other therapists - who

acted as "receivers." All they did was

observe and report. Nothing more. But

Catherine, she had the ability to feel

what was happening. She understood.

And the patient responded. Edward

engaged her in dialogue, took her

places, showed her things. He knew she

cared.

A hopeful, solemn Novak gazes through the window, watching

Catherine's body as it becomes parallel to Stargher's...

IN THE PROCEDURE ROOM, Catherine takes a deep breath and as

the drugs take effect, feels herself losing consciousness.

She glances at Stargher, a man who tortures and kills women,

then looks up as the CLOTH MASK descends from the ceiling.

MIRIAM (O.S.) (CONT'D)

Intravenous administration complete.

HENRY (O.S.)

Initiating connection.

We follow fibrous wires running from Catherine's mask to

Stargher's. Their blood mixing with chemicals in the IV-like

containers. The computer system humming.

HENRY (O.S.) (CONT'D)

Transfer begins 1100 hours, 34 minutes,

12 seconds.

Catherine's eye focuses on the mask. As it comes closer, we

see the lining is laced with thread-like wires and microchips

forming hyper-miniature circuit boards. Catherine's eye

blinks. The mask covers her face. Catherine's eye shuts.

Vision fades. Darkness. A faint light. Microscopic veins

in the eyelid become wires connected to chips. And we're

MOVING, into the circuitry.

ENTRANCE ONE:

INT. STARGHER'S WORLD

The pattern of the electronics grows into something more

organic, textured, concrete. Evolving into a world. Black

and shadow-filled, it resembles a labyrinthine complex of

vertical walls with cubicle like rooms carved deep into its

core.

Our journey into this bleak, grim place continues and we

occasionally glimpse brief images of a boy's baptism.

INTERCUT with this journey are sections of cloudy blackness

and fragmented visions of CATHERINE connected to the

apparatus, face masked, DESCENDING into this world.

There is an abrupt SHIFT from still images to regular motion

and we find ourselves gliding over a tidepool filled with

tiny fish and tadpoles. At water's edge, lying on rough,

pebble-strewn ground, is a HAND.

Catherine's hand. We sense MOVEMENT, but she remains still.

From the darkness comes a DOG. Black in color and

featureless, it sniffs Catherine, dismisses her, and meanders

into a cubicle opposite her, disappearing from view. After a

moment of odd quiet, a DROP OF BLOOD hits the mask and we

follow Catherine's hand as it moves to the cloth and removes

it from her own face.

IN MACROSCOPIC SUPER SLOW-MOTIONS, another BLOOD DROPLET

sails 64 into the air and comes crashing down, hitting a RED

ANT, catapulting it onto what looks like a tree, but is just

a TWIG. As the insect scurries away, MORE DROPS pound the

earth, splatter against "twig trees," and explode into pools

of stagnant water...

As we begin to realize that this miniature landscape is the

world into which Catherine descended.

She sits up, shivering, and breathes deeply, acclimating to

her surroundings. The "floor" is covered with filth, ash,

pebbles, and insects. Water is present in many forms,

puddles, moisture, dripping ceilings.

Eyes focusing, queasy, not fully "awake," Catherine notices

the crimson stain on the cloth mask and the blood droplets

showering the air. She turns and finds the source.

THE BLACK DOG stands in the opposite room next to a tub full

of BLOOD, shaking himself dry after his "bath." Satisfied,

the animal stops and trots away. Still adjusting to this

nightmarish realm, Catherine at first doesn't hear it, but

then realizes that somewhere, a child is CRYING. She looks

around, then through a crack in the "floor," briefly catches

sight of a BOY beneath her, on a level lower than hers. As

he disappears into corridor ending in "nothing," we PULL BACK

to show a MASSIVE LANDSCAPE of blocks, cubicles, crawlspace,

walls, stairs, and ladders. Leading everywhere and nowhere.

Catherine spots the boy as he crawls into a specific "room."

Shortly after, a LIGHT comes on within the cubicle and she

moves to it. We feel as though we're looking at a series of

interlocked tenement rooms, some walls of which have been

torn away to expose rooms within, rooms with no windows or

doors. Following a path of fragile steps, Catherine makes

her way to the LIGHTED ROOM and enters.

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