The Omega Man

FADE IN:

WIDE ANGLE MED. LONG SHOT

WE SEE a palm-lined richly attractive street in a Los Angeles suburb. The houses are set back from the street; the street itself is quiet, empty -- except for a few cars parked in front of the houses. While the camera takes no notice, the tires are down on the parked cars, the lawns of the houses are uncut. A Ford experimental model convertible turns corner INTO VIEW. It drives at a medium speed.

MED. CLOSE SHOT - NEVILLE IN CAR - HEAD ON

ROBERT NEVILLE is driving car. He wears sunglasses, a sport shirt, a neckerchief, and looks altogether like a wealthy man out for a drive. CAMERA ALLOWS CAR TO PULL ABREAST, so that SHOT BECOMES SIDE ANGLE. As the CAMERA ENTERS passenger space of the car, we HEAR MUSIC, "Everybody's Out Of Town." Neville hums along with it. He seems at ease, unconcerned. We SEE the houses on his right side passing by. Then his humming stops, his jaw tightens. The car stops with vicious suddenness, and CAMERA PULLS BACK to MED. SHOT, as if aghast at the sight to follow. Neville, in a single motion of astonishing speed, comes up with a stun gun in his right hand, fires directly INTO CAMERA.

REVERSE SHOT - DARKENED BALCONY WINDOW OF HOUSE

CAMERA ZOOMS IN from MED. LONG to MED. CLOSE SHOT of a deeply shadowed window in one of the houses. Bullets smash into the frame of the window, tear out chunks of the stucco. We SEE, barely, a figure fall backward. We cannot see any details of the figure. Its presence is more intuited than seen.

CLOSE SHOT - NEVILLE'S FACE

IN F.G. is Neville’s stun gun, almost obscuring his features. FREEZE-FRAME.

CUT TO:

CREDIT MONTAGE:

A rapid series of SHOTS as titles begin. Title of film is not shown now but held to the last frame of the film. Titles begin with star names, etc. and are distributed over following scenes except where noted.

ALIEN MISSILE being raised to point toward sky.

FACE OF CHINESE SOLDIER twisted with anger, SCREAMING.

TV SCREEN - IN THE CLEAR - MATTHIAS READING NEWS

MATTHIAS:

... the Sino-Russian border war continues to escalate, according to...

ANOTHER MISSILE RISING. Under this and subsequent FLASH CUTS there should be the constant CRACKLING SOUND of RADIO transmissions in Russian and Chinese.

MEETING ROOM with a small number of officials angry, frightened. On the wall behind there are crossed red flags, a portrait of Lenin.

ANOTHER MISSILE. We HEAR, overlapping one another, Chinese and Russian VOICES counting down almost together from ten to one like a chorus of doom. Missile is fired SOUND BREAKS OFF.

FLASH CUTS OF SERIES OF ATOMIC BLASTS, one after another, each one a slightly CLOSER SHOT, garbled RADIO TRANSMISSIONS under SHOTS -- including French, Russian, Chinese, British and American accents.

BRITISH:

...total yes, total no survivor

(break)

The embassy terrible...

AMERICAN:

Jesus, Jesus Christ...you never

(break)

...Vladivastok ... nothing ... nothing...

INT. OMAHA SITUATION ROOM with giant illuminated wall-map of world, various equipment, military personnel sitting at consoles. In F.G. a YOUNG OFFICER is leaning across a desk, speaking to OLDER OFFICER. In his face is real fear.

OFFICER:

They’ve ... gone ape, Sir ... gone ape...

As he speaks, WE HEAR the CRACKLING ground-bass of radio TRANSMISSIONS, cut, broken. "Condition Yellow ... Yellow Alert ... Attention ... Yellow Alert..."

ZOOM SHOT - PAST OFFICERTS FACE TO ILLUMINATED WALL MAP

At edge, we begin to SEE RADAR-STYLE BLIPS approaching North American continent from East. Radio transmissions increase in intensity, volume, and in the GARBLED HYSTERIA, which is just below the voices. "Condition Red ... Red... Red ... Bogies on screen ... origin ... What is origin? What is origin?... Asia ... no, Jesus, from all over. They're both ... we see... both of them are ...

PROCESS SHOT - MISSILES IN SPACE

SOUND is killed for this and similar SHOTS. Alien missiles apparently motionless in space with the earth turning very slowly below.

MED. CLOSE SHOT - ANTI-MISSILE MISSILES being raised, fired.

CLOSE SHOT - MILITARY TECHNICIAN

in Omaha Situation Room. He is monitoring anti-missiles as they head for incoming missiles. Radio transmissions again: "...two minutes thirty to initial intercept. Tracking is...ninety seconds to initial...

PROCESS SHOT - ANTI-MISSILES IN SPACE

showing anti-missiles zeroing in on the much larger alien missiles. SOUND OFF. WE SEE some of the small missiles about to hit the larger ones.

MED. SHOT - MILITARY TECHNICIANS

at consoles. CAMERA PANS TO WALL MAP showing small blips conjoining with the large ones6 SOUND SUDDENLY. "Abort antis ... repeat abort.... configuration..."

MED. SHOT - MILITARY TECHNICIANS

They frown at one another, one shrugs. SOUND: another VOICE, "Impact... Impact... score mounting. Impact on thirty percent of incoming ... now fifty-one point six. Impact.."

PROCESS SHOT - MISSILES COLLIDING

MED. SHOT - MILITARY TECHNICIANS

as they hear the transmissions, their expression of nonunderstanding turns to one of panic. SOUND: Initial VOICE, "Abort firings. Missiles do not conform to nuclear-configurations. Repeat, abort firings. Do not intercept. Non-nuclear attack underway ... Repeat, non-nuclear attack underway.

PROCESS SHOT - MISSILES EXPLODING

Color of explosions should be geared to the color of water in the plaza fountain, which is perhaps illuminated by CAMERA orange and red and yellow spots under the water. IMAGE BLURS at explosion.

CAMERA MOVES DOWNWARD from explosion, picking up earth far below, keeps going down more and more rapidly, finally BLURRING In speed.

VERY HIGH SHOT - SHOPPING CENTER

CAMERA is still going DOWN, less rapidly. This SHOT seems to follow out of preceding one. At first, we SEE the shopping center, then SHOT CENTERS at the sidewalk In front of a single store. It is a Saturday afternoon, hundreds of people milling about, many oars moving. SHOT-finally NARROWS down on a single man walking out of store. CAMERA MOVES TO CLOSE SHOT. Man looks vaguely troubled, then panicked, grabs his eyes, his head CAMERA MOVES IN for a VERY CLOSE SHOT of his face, then his mouth alone as he opens It to give a blood curdling HOWL of agony and fear.

VERY CLOSE SHOT - CAR STRIKING POLE

The driver is dead or dying. His car veers crazily into another car, ends up striking pole.

TV ANNOUNCER - IN THE CLEAR MATTHIAS

MATTHIAS:

... the entire Los Angeles area. Already, hospital facilities have begun to crack under the strain and Civil Defense authorities state that the situation is much the same...

MED. SHOT - TV SCREEN - IN THE CLEAR - MATTHIAS

from between heads of two people watching TV. We watch the screen and then, as fragment of news reporter's story is cut off, CAMERA REVERSES showing people watching are dead, eyes, mouths open.

MATTHIAS:

... across the entire country. Martial law is now nation-wide. Whether a state of war between China and Russia -still exists is not important any longer. Our fellow countrymen are dying. The very foundations of civilization are beginning to crumble...

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