The Terminator Page #18

and I don't even like cats.

She pulls the bandage tight with a knot.

REESE:

Ow! No, it's okay. It's

better tight.

SARAH:

And anyway, what do I know

about guerrilla warfare?

REESE:

You'll learn.

SARAH:

(angry)

Look, Reese, I didn't ask for

this honor and I don't want it.

Any of it.

REESE:

John gave me a message for

you. Made me memorize it.

'Sarah"...this is the message...

'Sarah, thank you. For your

courage through the dark years.

I can't help you with what you

must soon face, except to tell

you that the future is not set...

there is no such thing as Fate,

but what we make for ourselves

by our own will. You must be

stronger than you imagine you

can be. You must survive, or I

will never exist.' That's all.

Sarah stares at him as the enormity of it all becomes real

to her. Reese moves his arm, testing the bandage.

REESE:

(continuing)

Good field-dressing.

SARAH:

(brightening)

You like it? It's my first.

He rebuttons his shirt and they return to the warmth-

conserving embrace. Sarah gazes out the entrance, into

the night.

REESE:

Sleep. It'll be light soon.

SARAH:

(closing her

eyes)

Okay. Talk some more.

REESE:

About what?

SARAH:

(murmuring)

About where you're from.

Kyle watches the helicopter circling far in the distance.

REESE:

Alright.

(pause)

You stay down by day, but at

night you can move around.

The H-K's use infra-red so you

still have to watch out.

But they're not too bright.

John taught us ways to dust them

them. That's when the infiltra-

tors started to appear. The

Terminators were the newest,

the worst...

During his monologue we have PANNED into the darkness outside

and to the helicopter, which flies OUT OF FRAME, leaving

black. A ROTOR ROAR fades up.

CUT IN BLACK TO:

183/FX EXT. CITY RUINS, 2029 - NIGHT 183/FX

Black sky. Stars.

With a roar an AERIAL PATROL CRAFT enters close overhead.

It has flashing red and blue lights and powerful search-

lights which stab down.

TILT DOWN:

to a vista of moonlit devastation.

White ash blows in drifts among fire-gutted ruins.

Blackened bones lie everywhere in heaps.

Searchlights sweep the night.

Another aerial unit hovers several blocks away, firing

tracers into the ruins.

CUT TO:

184/FX EXT. RUINS/STREET - NIGHT 184/FX

LOW ANGLE:

as a gleaming chrome H-K grinds through the debris of the

shattered street on its tank-like tracks, crushing burnt

skulls.

Its head turns slowly, playing high-intensity lights over the

buildings.

Its hydraulic arms are folded, mantis-like, against its

'torso'. After it passes a number of human figures dart

from shadow to shadow, B.G.

CUT TO:

185 INT. TUNNELS - NIGHT 185

Reese is among a SQUAD OF MEN in black fatigues, carrying

equipment and energy rifles, who enter a debris-littered

tunnel.

PANAGLIDE WITH THEM as they trot through a labyrinth of

tunnels, pass several guard-posts. Reese has a GERMAN

SHEPHERD on a short leash.

CUT TO:

186 INT. PARKING STRUCTURE - NIGHT 186

The platoon enters a cavernous chamber, an old parking

structure, in which a large group is gathering.

As the entrance, ARMED SENTRIES with dogs are passing in

new arrivals:
men wearing mismatched uniforms or rags and

carrying all types of weapons from lasers to shotguns.

Weapons are left at the sentry post.

FOLLOWING REESE as he patrols the perimeter.

He walks along a row of CARS, models from the eighties and

nineties, now stripped, rusty and modified to carry weapons.

There are conventional military vehicles as well.

He passes several family groups.

Gaunt kids are huddles around an old TV SET.

Its glow bathes them.

REVERSE ANGLE reveals that the set has been gutted and a

small cookfire crackles inside the shell.

Nearby a kid has a LARGE RAT cornered and is whacking it

with a stick.

Reese pauses at the end of the row of vehicles and unsnaps

a pocket in his tunic, removing a small paper rectangle,

a worn photograph.

C.U. - REESE, gazing down. His head snaps around at the

sudden sound of BARKING.

ANGLE ON SENTRY POST as the dogs go crazy.

SENTRY:

(shouting)

Terminator!

An innocuous, RAG-DRESSED MAN flips back his poncho to

reveal a powerful PLASMA-RIFLE. He opens FIRE, running

forward. ENERGY BOLTS rip into the crowd.

MOVING WITH REESE, running toward the Terminator.

RAPID CUTS:

POWERBOLTS EXPLODE among the fleeing people.

Beams sear the darkness.

A running CHILD is BURST by a plasma hit.

ANGLE ON REESE running. He levels his energy-rifle and

starts firing. A powerbolt grazes his cheek, EXPLODING

a support column behind him. Part of the ROOF COLLAPSES

as Reese tumbles.

Everything is lit as if by lightning.

C.U. - REESE, semi-conscious. Burned. Bleeding.

Impressions implode on him: running feet, flashes, energy

beams raking the ground leaving molten worm-tracks, scream-

ing, a burning dog howling.

DETAIL - The picture Reese has been looking at has fallen,

forgotten. It catches fire and starts to curl. Before

the image vanishes we see that it is a picture of Sarah.

Reese looks up.

A figure looms above, a silhouette in the smoky, hellish

glare. THE TERMINATOR. Its eyes glow red.

A brilliant EXPLOSION WHITES OUT THE SCREEN.

CUT TO:

187 INT. CULVERT - DAWN 187

C.U. - SARAH, brightly lit by daylight. Asleep. She grimaces

and groans.

In the distance a dog is barking.

Reese, still holding her, lightly lifts her hair from her

face. An uncharacteristically tender gesture. He gently

caresses her cheek with the backs of his fingers. When

she awakens suddenly he snaps his hand away.

Sarah looks around, momentarily disoriented. Looks up at

Reese.

SARAH:

I was dreaming about dogs.

Reese extricates himself from her and steps out of the

culvert.

REESE:

We used them to spot Terminators.

Sarah groans as she straightens her legs.

SARAH:

Your world...it's pretty

terrifying.

CUT TO:

189 EXT. HIGHWAY - DAWN 189

Sarah catches up to him just as he is about to try and

stop an approaching car. She pulls his gun hand down with

both of hers.

SARAH:

Put that away. I'll get one.

She hold out her thumb to passing traffic.

Reese watches this incomprehensible ceremony skeptically.

SARAH:

(continuing)

This works...really.

CUT TO:

189A EXT. HIGHWAY/PICKUP - DAY 189A

Reese and Sarah are crammed into the cab of a beat-to-hell

PICKUP TRUCK with the DRIVER, obviously a surfer. Laid-

back, long-haired and well-tanned.

Reese glowers and watches the scenery through slitted eyes.

DRIVER:

...and when it breaks right

off the point they get some

pretty rad tubes up there.

Not awesome, but I mean, worth

the drive, if you're hardcore

like me.

REESE:

(to Sarah)

Rad tubes?

SARAH:

(to Reese)

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