The Power of One Page #23

inherently wrong with their logic.

Still, I'm beginning to see their

point. Especially with less than

six months to go.

CUT TO:

137.

192 INT. PK'S HUT - NIGHT 192

PK and Rasputin play a game of chess as TCHAIKOVSKY

plays in the background.

There is a KNOCK on the DOOR.

PK:

Come in.

JOCKO, the bookmaker, enters.

JOCKO:

Ay, man. If you'd let him win

once in a while we could take a

little book on it here.

PK:

He doesn't care if he wins. He

just likes to play.

JOCKO:

And you?

PK:

I like to win.

JOCKO:

Which is why I'm about visiting

you. You've come on the board,

man. There are odds on your

making it or not.

PK:

How are they?

JOCKO:

(low)

Not in your favor, my boy.

PK:

Why are you telling me this,

Jocko?

JOCKO:

When you come up on the boards,

boyo, it's time to bow out.

It's an omen.

PK:

I bow out you can't make book.

JOCKO:

PK, it's not a bet I want to

collect.

138.

PK:

Tell me, Jocko, how high will the

odds go on something like this?

JOCKO:

The shorter your time, the higher

they go. With you probably ten,

twelve, thirteen to one when

you're short a month.

PK:

When the odds hit the top put me

in against all bets for two

hundred quid.

JOCKO:

I did not come here to solicit

your bet.

PK:

I know that. I appreciate it.

But if you don't take it,

someone else will.

JOCKO:

All right. You're a bleery fool.

And I'll be prayin' every night

it's the only bet I ever have to

pay off on.

PK:

And so will I.

Jocko rises to exit.

JOCKO:

You should let him win once in a

while.

PK:

When he wins it won't be because

I let him.

Rasputin says something in Russian as he moves a piece,

excited to have taken one of PK's pieces. PK turns and

checkmates him.

PK:

Checkmate.

Rasputin laughs, speaks in Russian, and starts to set

the board up again.

Jocko exits.

139.

CUT TO:

193 INT. MINE ELEVATOR 193

The elevator descends into the shaft. PK and his crew

exit. There is a low sound of a blast, muffled, that

stops them all.

PK:

Did you hear a blast whistle?

ELIJAH:

No, baas.

Then after a moment the vague sound of a drill leaps

through the rock.

PK:

I never heard a drill at night.

The Africans get nervous. They chatter to one another.

PK:

It's not a ghost. It's just some

driller trying to squeeze extra

pay. Come on.

PK moves forward. The Africans follow him out of the

elevator with reluctance.

CUT TO:

194 INT. END OF TUNNEL 194

PK steps out onto the bars with Elijah and examines the

debris.

ELIJAH:

(whispered)

Baas.

There is a tremor of fear in his voice. PK follows

Elijah's face upwards to a hangup.

PK:

Not the first bloody thing!

ELIJAH:

Bad sign, baas.

PK:

Bad drilling's more like it.

Come on. Let's get it going.

140.

Elijah goes back to fix the charge while PK studies

the hangup. He hears the Africans talking in the dark.

When his light points on them they stop, turning their

heads away.

Elijah comes back with the bomb.

PK:

(whispered)

What's the matter with them?

ELIJAH:

They say juju. Bad magic is

in the mine tonight.

PK heeds the warning, somberly. He takes the bomb from

Elijah and starts to climb the wall.

TRACK with PK as he makes it up to the hangup.

He quickly seals the bomb and drops the cordtex.

CUT TO:

195 ELIJAH 195

on the bars, catching the rope. He is growing more

nervous by the moment as he fastens the fuse.

CUT TO:

196

PK 196

making it down the side of the tunnel.

The hangup shifts. PK freezes.

CUT TO:

197 THE AFRICANS 197

peeking out of the safety tunnel, scared.

CUT TO:

198 ELIJAH 198

scared, but standing his ground.

CUT TO:

199

PK 199

141.

making it back onto the bars. He carefully makes his

way to Elijah as the hangup sends some pebbles down.

PK:

She's playing with us tonight.

Fuse set?

Elijah nods.

PK holds his hand out for the cheesa stick. Elijah

lights the flare. He goes to hand it to PK. PK

notices Elijah's hands shaking. He sees the fear in

Elijah's eyes.

PK:

Go on.

ELIJAH:

I stay with you, baas.

PK:

That's an order.

Elijah, released from his responsibility, retreats

quickly.

PK stands holding the flare, a little distracted by

Elijah's fear, wondering.

Elijah sounds the BLAST WHISTLE.

PK:

One... two... three.

A MUFFLED BLAST comes from the other side of the hangup

deep in the stope. PK freezes, confused, and then a

SECOND BLAST goes off. The hangups starts to give. And

ANOTHER BLAST.

PK lights his own fuse and runs like hell over the bars

toward the tunnel.

The hangup, loosened by the explosions inside, gives

before PK's bomb ignites. The rock is crashing down.

PK races the rock. The tunnel is within sight.

The men yell for him to jump.

PK is about to leap when a rock hits the bar, bounces up,

and catches him in the stomach. He loses his balance

and goes over the side as the hangup comes crashing down.

PK hits the wall of the lower funnel -- once, twice -and

then lands in the soft stuff -- the shale flake,

cushioning the steel doors below.

142.

200

HIS POV 200

against the wall of rock.

A rock ledge carelessly left when the funnel was

originally built.

PK rolls under it. A moment later fifty tons of ore in

large chunks and small chunks and dust comes crashing

down, burying PK. He lays there, semiconscious, buried

but alive.

CUT TO:

201 INT. TUNNEL 201

The falling rock has stopped. The funnel is full. The

bars as well. Elijah and the crew look out of the

safety tunnel tremulously. Elijah looks up the stope.

His light catches a man at the very top of the stope

climbing out.

Elijah pulls the WARNING WHISTLE. Five blasts over and

over.

CUT TO:

202 INT. HAULAGE 202

Men hear the WHISTLE and stop work.

CUT TO:

203 INT. LASHERS 203

Men shovelling ore stop shovelling.

CUT TO:

204

INT. TUNNEL 204

Rasputin is timbering with his crew, fitting huge timbers

into place, making new haulage, when he hears the

whistles.

RASPUTIN:

PK!

He yells at his crew to grab the tools and he runs off

down the tunnel.

CUT TO:

143.

205 INT. PK'S GRIZZLY 205

A deep hole has been dug through the rock piled in the

lower funnel. Rock comes up in a bucket and is carted

off. Timber is passed down. A crowd of miners, black

and white, watch and help where they can.

MINER #1

He's dead. No doubt about it.

MINER #2

You give me a fair odds on ten

quid?

MINER #1

Four to one.

MINER #2

Make it a sixer and you got me.

MINER #1

You're on.

MINER #2

Anyone else? Six to one he's

dead.

CUT TO:

206 INT. HOLE 206

Rasputin works like a man possessed, piling rocks in the

bucket to be passed up, shoring timbers as they are

passed down.

CUT TO:

207 INT. BARS 207

Elijah is pointing up the stope to two Mine Managers as

dozens more mill around, hauling the rock out, trying to

help.

TWO MINERS observe Elijah and the managers.

MINER #3

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