The Day the Earth Stood Still Page #14

CLOSE SHOT - EXTRA

In newsboy's hand. The headline reads: SPACE MAN ELUDES POLICE

ARMY PUT IN CHARGE.

CLOSE SHOT - ANOTHER EXTRA

In another newsboy's hand. This headline reads: DISTRICT

UNDER MARTIAL LAW. CONGRESS ACTS AS POLICE CHIEF REIGNS.

TWO SHOT - KLAATU AND BOBBY

as they move on away from the excited crowd of people.

Klaatu's reaction has been one of mild curiosity. Bobby looks

up at him.

BOBBY:

You think they'll ever find him?

KLAATU:

(alter a moment's

pause)

I don't know, Bobby. I'm inclined to

doubt it.

BOBBY:

(as they continue

walking)

Mr. Carpenter -- what does velocity

mean?

KLAATU:

(preoccupied)

Velocity is the time rate of change

of position.

This explanation misses Bobby by several light years. He

glances up at Klaatu blankly.

BOBBY:

I'll bet that's the way Professor

Barnhardt talks.

Pulled out of his reverie, Klaatu glances down at Bobby and

smiles apologetically. Bobby grins back at him. Then, as

they walk on a few more steps, Klaatu stops and speaks

thoughtfully.

KLAATU:

Bobby -- I have an idea. Let's go

see Professor Barnhardt and find out

how he talks.

BOBBY:

(with a half-smile of

accusation)

You're just kidding, aren't you?

KLAATU:

Wouldn't you like to meet him?

BOBBY:

Well, sure I would, but --

(he's to be not going

taken in)

Aw, I'll bet you'd be scared.

KLAATU:

(with a private smile)

We can scare him more than he can

scare us.

Bobby stares up at him and his face breaks into a broad

admiring grin.

BOBBY:

I like you, Mr. Carpenter. You're a

real screwball.

DISSOLVE TO:

EXT. BARNHARDT'S HOUSE - MED. SHOT - DAY

The house is an unimposing old-fashioned structure, shouldered

on either side by similar one-family dwellings. There is a

flight of stone steps leading up to the entrance and a large

porch across the front of the house. Klaatu and Bobby walk

into scene and pause, Klaatu glances at Bobby and Bobby nods

toward the house. They move on up the steps to the entrance.

MED. CHOOSE SHOT - AT FRONT DOOR

Bobby, all eagerness and excitement, presses the bell. They

wait a moment and there is no answer.

BOBBY:

(disappointed at the

thought)

Gee -- maybe he isn't home.

Bobby wanders down the porch and looks into a window.

Fascinated by what he sees, he gestures to Klaatu.

BOBBY:

Betcha this is where he works--

After a glance at the front door, Klaatu joins Bobby at the

window and looks in.

FULL SHOT - BARNHARDT'S STUDY

SHOOTING through the window, over the heads of Klaatu and

Bobby. The room is more of a workroom than a study. It is in

comfortably shabby disarray, with papers and books everywhere.

There's a battered old desk and a day bed. One wall is solid

bookshelves and on the other two are blackboards covered

with a fantastic array of complex equations, graphs and

diagrams.

CLOSE SHOT - KLAATU

His attention has been caught by one of the blackboards and

he studies it with great interest and curiosity.

MED. CLOSE SHOT - SECTION OF BLACKBOARD

It is covered with a particularly complicated series of

equations in a chalky scrawl, involving angles of vector,

Keplerian ellipses, etc. The final equations are unsolved;

they have no answers after the "equals" sign. Across are

little printed signs tacked to the blackboard reading: "Don't

erase!" and "Don't touch!"

TWO SHOT - KLAATU AND BOBBY

Bewildered, Bobby looks from the blackboard up at Klaatu.

Still studying the blackboard, Klaatu is shaking his head

and clucking his tonsure as one might at the attempts of a

child to solve a problem in arithmetic.

BOBBY:

(indicating the

equations)

What does that mean?

KLAATU:

It's a problem in celestial mechanics.

BOBBY:

Bet he's the only one in the world

knows the answer.

KLAATU:

(he shakes his head,

smiling)

He doesn't know the answer. And he'll

never get it that way.

Bobby moves over to a pair of French doors beyond the window

and tries to peer in through the curtained doors. He absently

tries the doors and finds them locked. Then he turns away

with a disappointed but philosophical shrug.

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