The Terminator Page #23

FULL SHOT as a DOUBLE-TRAILER KENWORTH GASOLINE TANKER smashes

him down and under with a METALLIC CRASH.

ANGLE UNDER TANKER as Terminator rolls, clattering, and the

mass blurs above him. He RICOCHETS between the pavement and

the speeding undercarriage until a stray bounce flings him

up into the rear suspension.

CUT TO:

233 EXT. FREEWAY OVERPASS - NIGHT 233

UP ANGLE ON SARAH

at the railing, looking down. She raises one fist into

the air triumphantly.

SARAH:

Alriiight!

CUT TO:

234 INT. TANKER CAB - NIGHT 234

The stunned DRIVER hits the brakes. His PARTNER grabs

his arm.

PARTNER:

Don't stop.

They lock eyes for a moment.

DRIVER.

I have to, man.

CUT TO:

235 EXT. FREEWAY/TANKER 235

ANGLE UNDER THE REAR TRAILER

Terminator clings with inhuman strength to the rear suspen-

sion. The pavement blurs by beneath him. The air brakes

howl.

CUT TO:

236 EXT. FREEWAY OVERPASS - NIGHT 236

Sarah watches the truck roll on without leaving a body

in its wake.

She feels a premonitory dread.

CUT TO:

237 EXT. FREEWAY/TANKER - NIGHT 237

Beneath the braking semi, Terminator CRAWLS UPSIDE DOWN,

hand over hand like a HUMAN FLY, toward CAMERA. The

left eye GLOWS LIKE A COAL in the dark. As the pavement

stops beneath him he drops off and rolls out from under

the truck.

CUT TO:

238 INT. TANKER CAB - NIGHT 238

The driver looks around in astonishment as his door is

ripped open.

Terminator appears. A grisly apparition.

FLINGS THE DRIVER OUT and takes his place behind the wheel.

Ignoring the terrified partner, he examines the controls.

CUT TO:

238/FX POV - TERMINATOR 238/FX

In digitized cyborg-vision we see an ABSTRACT OF THE

INSTRUMENTS. The shift lever is extended graphically

down into a three-dimensional SCHEMATIC OF THE TRANS-

MISSION. Analytical DATA PRINTS OUT RAPID-FIRE.

CUT TO:

239 EXT. FREEWAY OVERPASS - NIGHT 239

From the railing Sarah sees the tanker below as

a body falls beside it, rolling.

The truck swings in a slow arc.

TEARS THROUGH THE DIVIDING FENCE.

Heads back toward her on the wrong side of the freeway.

She stares in numb horror.

The nightmare refuses to end.

She runs to the crippled pickup and sees a front tire flat,

shredded by a crumpled fender.

She searches the cab frantically for the KEYS TO THE

MOTORCYCLES. Finds them above the sun visor.

Sarah leaps into the bed of the pickup and attacks the

motorcycle strap-downs frantically.

Panting with terror she rolls the bike off the truck.

It crashes on its side and she falls on it painfully.

Straining until she CRIES OUT INVOLUNTARILY, she lifts

it upright.

KICKS the engine over.

LOW ANGLE:

as the tanker crashes back through the divider and starts

UP THE OVERPASS. Sarah is trapped in that concrete corridor.

She kicks for her life.

The bike catches for a moment. Dies.

The truck BELLOWS, down-shifting on the curving grade.

Sarah kicks again and again, crying out with each stroke.

Again and again, furiously.

The engine CATCHES.

SARAH:

(rapidly)

Come on, come on, come on

...run, you...

The bike runs with a healthy roar.

LOW ANGLE:

up the face of the tractor-trailer, the retaining wall blur-

ring by. Terminator's red eye can be seen through the wind-

shield.

Sarah drags Reese, stumbling,to the bike, props him on the

seat behind her. He clutches the satchel weakly.

SARAH:

Hold on real tight, okay?

She guns the engine and roars off.

LOW ANGLE:

as the tanker demolishes the pickup a moment later, TOSSING

IT OVER THE SIDE LIKE A BEER CAN.

CUT TO:

240 EXT. FREEWAY - NIGHT 240

Sarah hits level freeway with a quarter-mile lead on the

tanker, distant B.G., but the little bike is overloaded

and she can't coax it above seventy-five.

ANGLE ON TANKER roaring forward, shifting up through

the gears.

CLOSE ON SARAH AND KYLE, his head lolling on her shoulder.

He starts to fall sideways.

SARAH:

(shouting)

Hold on, goddamnit!

He rouses slightly, gripping her tighter.

HIGH ANGLE - MOVING WITH BOTH VEHICLES as Sarah starts to

ZIGZAG desperately across all four lanes. The truck stays

with her, closing, its trailer WHIPLASHING VIOLENTLY.

CUT TO:

241 EXT./INT. TUNNEL - NIGHT 241

The truck is right behind them as then enter a TUNNEL.

A half-mile of exitless concrete and strobing fluorescent

lights.

M.C.U. - SARAH AND KYLE (PROCESS SHOT) - He blinks and looks

back at a SOLID WALL OF METAL AND LIGHTS looming behind them.

Sarah hunches down. They hit eighty.

FULL SHOT - The leviathan dwarfs them, its big tires ROARING

like the hubs of Hell.

CUT TO:

242 EXT. FREEWAY - NIGHT 242

The tanker is twenty feet behind them as they clear the

tunnel. Sarah dodges to one side and LOCKS THE BRAKES.

The bike slides, fish-tailing.

The truck roars past, hitting the air-brakes.

The trailers force her closer and closer to the guardrail

as Terminator tries to sandwich her.

The bike slides to a stop.

The rearmost set of trailer wheels slams into the guardrail

right in front of Sarah.

Sarah emerges from a cloud of tire smoke, cutting across

all four lances behind the stopped semi.

CUT TO:

243 EXT. FREEWAY EMBANKMENT - NIGHT243

Sarah tries to ride down the steep embankment but loses

control, spilling the bike. She and Kyle tumble down

the slope.

MOVING WITH HER as she scrambles, half-dragging Kyle, through

a row of trees at a chainlink retaining fence. She crawls

under the fence, tugs Kyle and the satchel through after.

Sarah looks up at the source of a SUDDEN THUNDEROUS ROAR.

CUT TO:

243/FX ANGLE ON TANKER 243/FX

It appears above them, grinding over the embankment. It

rolls down the steep slope TOWARD CAMERA, FLATTENING TREES.

CUT TO:

244 EXT. INDUSTRIAL SITE - NIGHT 244

Sarah and Kyle scramble up and run across the STORAGE LOT

of a MODERN FACTORY COMPLEX of LOW BUILDINGS. Kyle struggles

to keep up, holding the satchel.

LIKE A JUGGERNAUT the truck follows, smashing through parked

cars and FLATTENING A PRE-FAB STORAGE BUILDING.

They enter an alley-like space between two buildings.

Kyle is fumbling to open the satchel.

ANGLE BACK as the tanker enters the alley. It TEARS THE

CORNER OFF ONE BUILDING as it turns in. Terminator looks

down from his mountain of steel.

CUT TO:

245 INT. TANKER CAB - NIGHT 245

OVER TERMINATOR'S SHOULDER, looking down at a tiny figure

below, running in the headlights' glare. It is Sarah, alone.

CUT TO:

246 EXT. ALLEY - NIGHT246

Reese crouches in a TRASH-DUMPSTER which is sandwiched

between the wall and the tanker. There are only inches

of clearance as the trailers pass by.

He lights a PIPE CHARGE, jumps up and wedges it under the

tank-cylinder of the second trailer.

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