The Power of One Page #16

92.

the cliff in full bloom.

DOC:

(breathing hard)

Ach. You see how beautiful?

PK:

You ever hear of glycerine, Doc?

DOC:

Mr. Going-To-Oxford-Smarty-Pants.

Of course I know about glycerine.

Triglycerine. Biglycerine.

Monoglycerine. What do you want

to know?

PK:

Why you don't use it. It's only

a little pill under the tongue.

DOC:

Tongues were not made to put

little pills under. When I have

to start with that, I become

something else.

PK:

Well, until you become something

else, the little pills would make

this easier on your heart.

A CLAP of THUNDER cuts into their conversation. Thick

roiling rain clouds appear suddenly.

DOC:

Little pills or no little pills

-- we don't find cover, we both

turn into something else.

Lightning splits the sky. Rain begins to fall, pelting

the escarpment.

DOC:

Look for a cave. Always in this

kind of rock there is caves.

Quick! Quick!

PK starts to move horizontally across the cliff face like

a spider on a wall. Doc follows. The rain becomes

torrential.

PK turns to look back at Doc.

DOC:

Don't look at me. Go!

93.

PK forges ahead.

119 HIS POV - OPENING 119

some 20 yards ahead.

120 BACK TO SCENE 120

PK:

I've found something.

The rain is so heavy PK can barely make out Doc behind

him. When he can, he sees the old man pause, breathing

hard. PK makes his way back to Doc. Halfway there,

Doc waves him forward and starts to move. PK reaches

the small opening and slips in.

CUT TO:

121 INT. SMALL CAVE 121

PK stoops in the small cave, dripping wet. A moment

later Doc's foot appears at the entrance. PK helps him

in. Doc slumps down, exhausted.

PK:

You okay?

Breathing too hard to reply, Doc shakes his head in the

affirmative. PK looks out at the rain forming a sheer

wall of water outside. He turns to Doc, who is getting

up, flashlight in hand.

PK:

What are you doing?

DOC:

Exploring.

PK:

Why don't you just rest?

DOC:

Plenty time for resting when I am

something else. Look.

He strikes a match. A wind from inside the cave blows

it side to side.

DOC:

When does a cave have wind? This

94.

is more than some little cave, my

friend.

Doc crouches down and follows the beam of his flashlight

to the rear of the cave where there is a small opening.

He shines the light into it.

DOC:

Here. See? There is a passage.

Before PK can say anything else, Doc has wriggled through

the small opening.

PK, a bit peeved, takes his own flashlight and follows.

CUT TO:

122 INT. SMALL TUNNEL 122

PK crawls after Doc, making his way through the small

tunnel on his stomach.

DOC:

You know the pyramids are nothing

more than man's attempt to recreate

the first safe home our species

had -- the cave. It is the

ultimate safe resting place. The

first place man could lay down

and have a good night's sleep

without worrying about waking up

as something's supper.

Doc stops crawling. So does PK. A DRIPPING can be

heard.

DOC:

You hear that? There is something

waiting for us.

Doc starts moving quicker.

PK:

Let's hope it's not hungry.

Doc squeezes out of the small space. PK joins him in a

slightly larger tunnel, the same size as the first one

-- stoop height.

DOC:

Better, ja?

PK:

What's that smell?

95.

All of a sudden there is a RUSTLING noise.

PK:

What's that?

Doc recognizes the sound. He pounces on PK, knocking

him to the floor and covering him with his body. Not

a moment too soon. For a thousand bats fill the tunnel

flying through.

123 PK'S POV - BATS 123

flying wildly through the flashlight beams.

In a blur, the bats are gone, disappeared into another

tunnel entrance to the left.

124 BACK TO SCENE 124

Doc an PK rise slowly. The silence of the cave is

punctuated by the DRIPPING.

PK:

Maybe it's stopped raining.

DOC:

Who can think about rain when you

are on the edge of the great

unknown cave.

PK:

You don't know that.

DOC:

The bats didn't come from a

shoebox, Mr. Know-It-All.

Doc heads off.

DOC:

Sometimes I think maybe sending

you off to that fancy-shmancy

school was not such a good idea.

PK:

It was your idea. Your'e the

one who pushed for me to go.

DOC:

Ja. But who knew they do such a

good job of boxing up part of

96.

your brain.

PK:

Which part is that?

DOC:

The one where is all the

questions. The curiosity center.

Look.

Ahead in the tunnel is a luminous glow, filling an

entrance.

DOC:

Did I tell you?

Doc and PK hurry on.

125 THEIR POV - TUNNEL OPENING 125

As they come to a tunnel opening: a large cave, perhaps

200 feet wide by 100 feet high, filled with stalactites

and stalagmites composed of pure, crystallized calcium

carbonate.

DOC:

Wunderbar.

The whole chamber glistens with an eerie phosphorescence.

Toward one end of the crystallized room eight stalagmites

grown up from the floor cement to form a huge crystal

slab some ten feet off the floor. A buttress of stalgmites

drip off it forming a natural, if uneven, stairway.

126 BACK TO SCENE 126

Doc and PK stare at the crystal cave in amazement.

DOC:

How many hundreds of thousands of

years to make this masterpiece?

Everything outside can change,

P.K. This remains the same. We

are in the heart of Africa, P.K.

The heart of Africa.

Doc, in his own world of wonderment, wanders down into

the cave among the stalactites. PK follows, soon losing

sight of Doc behind the large crystal columns.

DOC (O.S.)

You know, if a person stayed here

for 100,000 years what would be

97.

left? Crystal. Like a crystal

mummy. Incredible, ja?

PK:

(to himself)

Incredible.

Doc's preoccupation with death irks him. He studies a

piece of crystal.

PK:

I wish we had brought the camera.

Think there's enough light to

shoot?

Doc does not answer.

PK:

Doc?

His concern rises. He moves through the maze of crystal,

his pace quickening.

PK:

Doc?

Still no answer.

His vision obscured, PK reaches the elevated slab. He

clambers up the buttress for a better view. When he

reaches the top he stops cold.

127 HIS POV - DOC 127

lying on the crystal slab, eyes closed, hands folded on

his chest.

PK:

This is not funny.

Doc opens his eyes.

DOC:

This is incredible! The crystal.

You can feel the life go right

through you. Here.

Doc rises.

DOC:

Come try it.

128 WIDER ANGLE 128

98.

PK:

(short)

No. That's all right. Can we go?

DOC:

We have only just gotten here.

What's the matter, P.K.?

PK:

All day long you've been talking

about becoming something else,

about dying. You never talked

about dying before.

DOC:

I'm 87 next month. It's natural.

PK:

Not to a sixteen-year-old it's

not. It's painful.

Doc realizes what PK is saying.

DOC:

You are right. I am sorry.

Sixteen-year-old ears should only

hear life.

Doc starts to whistle "The Marriage of Figaro" by Mozart.

The RESONANCE of the WHISTLING off the crystal sounds

beautiful, exotic. Doc beckons PK to join in with him.

PK does so, hesitantly. Then pleased with the sound and

the feeling, more fully.

Rate this script:3.7 / 3 votes