Total Recall Page #12

QUAIL But - the Sphinx. Why is that stuck in my mind? Why's it so

important?

MELINA I don't know.

BENNIE Just an ole heap o' stone, boss.

QUAIL It's more than that, Bennie, I know it's more. Somehow it's

connected.

He slumps into a chair with frustration.

MELINA (reflecting) Maybe there's a way you can get your memory back.

QUAIL How? What? Where? When?

MELINA A bit of Martian Wisdom. We're not all stupid colonists.

99EXT. CITY - NIGHT

Bennie, Quail and Melina are walking in a crowded area of town. Water

sellers and food stalls are everywhere. An ARMORED LOUDSPEAKER VEHICLE

appears, broadcasting to the crowd. It is also swinging a powerful

searchlight along the footpaths and streets.

VOICE FROM LOUDSPEAKER ...all residents are to report to their nearest

space-travel agent within twelve hours, all residents will be departing

on shuttles within twenty-four hours. Air and water supplies will be

cut off at that time. I repeat...

MELINA He's doing it!

QUAIL What? Why?

MELINA Clearing everyone out! It's been rumored for months...

The searchlight approaches Bennie, Quail and Melina. Bennie ducks into

a doorway, while Quail grabs Melina and kisses her passionately. The

light sees only the back of his head. She responds warmly to his kiss.

QUAIL Wow. I can see why I was willing to betray E.I.O.

MELINA I though you believed in our cause?

QUAIL Yes. Of course. That, too.

They move into the crowd. The message on the loudspeaker is repeated.

101INT. KUATO'S SANCTUARY - NIGHT

The interior of the room is an amazing contrast to its ghetto exterior.

The decor is a baroque combination of Middle Eastern opulence and 21st

century flash. It looks like something out of "The Arabian Nights".

A man enters from another room. Although the man's features are East

Indian, he is very much a Peter Lorre type; he wears a small fez cap

and a white linen robe with a cowl draped around the back of his neck.

STRANGE MAN (nodding to Quail) Your servant, Fahreem Kuato. I greet you

by the twenty-seven names that still remain, praying that you cast

jewels into the darkness and given them to glow with the colors of

life.

As Kuato speaks, Quail, unimpressed, talks, sotto voce, to Melina.

QUAIL What use is this weirdo?

MELINA Ssssh...there are skills on mars that Earth has forgotten.

KUATO No need to introduce yourself, Mr. Quail. (smiles at Quail's

surprise) Tolerate my presumption, but it does not tax my powers to

know that you are the most sought-after man on two worlds.

From the street the sound of loudspeakers giving information about

Quail and Co. can be heard. Searchlight beams occasionally sweep past

the windows.

KUATO (continuing) This way, my dear man. We have much to accomplish --

(ominously) -- and very little time.

102INT. KUATO'S INNER SANCTUM - NIGHT

A Bysantine salon filled with enormous Oriental pillows.

(NOTE:
In the scenes inside Kuato's sanctum, the loudspeaker vans in

the outside streets can be heard from time to to time. They are

repeating the evacuation message from scene 99, but alternating it

with a call for the apprehension of Quail and Melina...

VOICE FROM LOUDSPEAKER ...for information leading to these arrests,

first-class travel to Earth will be provided plus a weekend at the

Leningrad Disneyworld, all expenses paid. I repeat, an Oriental girl

and Earthman, possibly to be found in the company of a black taxi

driver. These are dangerous subversives and sworn enemies of the

glorious Peoples Republic of Mars...)

KUATO The turbulence you hear outside is but a reflection of the

turmoil within you. You have brought it to Mars in your search for

yourself. Kuato takes a seat on the pillows, invites the others to

join him. Quail hesitates.

QUAIL And you're going to help me by reading my mind?

KUATO Indubitably. There is only small matter of a fee.

THREE RESPONSES COME TOGETHER.

QUAIL A fee!

KAUTO Naturally.

MELINA This is for our cause!

KUATO (soothingly) Income before ideals. Shall we say five-hundred-

thousand dollars?

QUAIL (appalled) Five-hundred-thousand Martian dollars, that's...

(think,

calculating the exchange rate)

KUATO Not Martian dollars, Mr. Quail - Earth dollars.

MELINA That's interplanetary robbery!

QUAIL With today's exchange rate... that's over two million Martian

dollars!

KUATO (suave) What price do you put, Mr. Quail, on the future of the

solar system?

BENNIE Aw, come off it, man. Just for a bit of mumbo-jumbo with a

crystal ball.

KUATO (his manner slipping) Listen, buster, we're talking heavy stuff

here. You try and work out what's with this guy!

He jerks his thumb toward Quail. QUAIL Okay! Okay! I'll pay it, but

the Interstellar Trade Practices Commission might be interested in

this.

Everyone calms down.

Kuato smiles. He extinguishes all the lights save one small blue one,

which illuminates the room eerily, like a seance.

KUATO Retrieving the past is like walking backwards along a perilous

road. The half-recalled, the half-forgotten, the repressed, the

fantasies, the triumphs, joys, failures, betrayals...

He closes his eyes and concentrates.

KUATO (continuing) Yes... I can feel it... a wall. Erasure techniques

are so brutal. (frowns; scans harder) Blocks. Side channels. Future

and past all

jumbled. I shall have to enter deep trance to break through. (rising) I

will be scanning you through the Oracle Head.

Kauto turns around and sits down with back toward Quail. He reaches up

and lowers his cowl, REVEALING:

A TINY LITTLE HEAD GROWING OUT OF THE BACK OF HIS NECK!

The head's eyes are closed in sleep. It is utterly hairless and looks

like one of those dolls made from dried apples; a shriveled, ancient-

looking yellow little ball.

The LITTLE FACE TWITCHED, YAWNS and OPENS ITS EYES, BLINKS. It looks at

Melina, then at Quail.

It opens its toothless little mouth and SPEAKS.

ORACLE HEAD Do not fear me. I need your openness...

ZOOM IN ON QUAIL'S EYES.

ORACLE HEAD (continuing) Open you thoughts to my presence...CONTINUE

ZOOM UNTIL ENTIRE FRAME is filled by QUAIL'S EYE.

ORACLE HEAD (continuing) Open...

DISSOLVE TO:

BLACKNESS BROKEN BY PULSES OF WHITE LIGHT

The alternations between dark (ACTION) and white (LIGHT) are RHYTHMICAL

so as to create a hypnotic, dream-like feeling.

103WHITE LIGHT

Fades to reveal a dramatic CLOSE UP of the SPHINX. We see its face,

shoulders and behind it the red Martian sky --

103A PULL BACK

to reveal the Sphinx is a PROJECTION on a screen in a windowless

briefing room. Quail is seated across from Cohaagen and other SENIOR

E.I.O. OFFICERS. On the walls are numerous satellite photos, recon

maps and excavation drawings -- all relating to the Sphinx.

107EXT. MARTIAN SPHINX - SUNSET

Scaffolding and excavation works cover a wall of the Sphinx; the

Sphinx's huge CARVED FACE visible in the background.

Quail and several other E.I.O. agents stand poised, wearing breathing

masks and protective gear, as a powerful excavation device prizes back

a huge stone, revealing an ENTRANCE TO SOME KIND OF HIDDEN CHAMBER.

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