Total Recall Page #16

134INT. VARIOUS CORRIDORS, CATWALKS, STAIRS

ALARMS continue as Quail and Melina dash down the side passageway. MORE

GUARDS cut them off; Melina's machine gun sends them scattering --

Quail pauses at a corner. He looks around quickly and sees that an

elevator is arriving. He motions Melina back. The doors of the elevator

begin to open. Very quickly, Quail bobs his head and arm around the

corner. He calls out, loudly...

QUAIL Catch! He hurls something toward the armed men in the elevator.

Instinctively one of them reaches for the thrown object. It is an

explosive device of some sort. Quail and Melina press themselves

against the wall just around a corner from the elevator. There is a

tremendous explosion.

Quail, followed by Melina, rounds a corner. The elevator is in ruins;

bodies are scattered everywhere.

MELINA Great stuff, but how do we get up?

She points toward the upper levels.

135INT. CONTROL ROOM (LEVEL THIRTEEN)

Melina and Quail can be seen on the security monitor from a high angle.

Quail looks up, spots the monitor, and shoots is to pieces. The image

on the screen goes black.

COHAAGEN Forget them. We'll pick up Quail once the shuttles have left

for Earth.

137INT. CORRIDOR

Quail spots a large WINDOWED AIR LOCK at the end of the corridor. He

and Melina race to it. Quail starts to open the inner door of the air

lock.

QUAIL If you're afraid of the heights, you better get over it real

quick.

He is pulling Melina through the inner air lock door just as --

GUARDS stampede around the corner of the corridor toward them.

Quail is out of sight, but they see Melina poised near the window. She

waves and smiles to them, hiding her gun behind her body. They slow

down and approach less cautiously, beguiled by her manner and

attractiveness. As they get close, she suddenly lifts her gun and

opens fire, mowing them down.

140EXT. SPHINX'S FACE - DAY

Quail and Melina climb through the outer air lock door. They are at the

Sphinx's shoulder, with a dizzying drop beneath them. Melina looks

down. She's sorry she did: the fall is at least 200 feet. (Both are

wearing their breathing apparatus.)

Quail and Melina start to climb. Up the Sphinx's shoulder, along its

Egyptian-like headdress --

141INT. CONTROL ROOM - DAY

Cohaagen's chief aide, Emile, addresses him quietly.

EMILE If Quail's the only one who can operate all this... (gestures

toward Sphinx's controls) ...then he can call all the shots.

COHAAGEN We'll tell him the computer's worked out the operational

details so we don't really need him. We're just doing him a favor.

EMILE And if that doesn't work?

COHAAGEN We offer him rewards.

EMILE What if that doesn't work?

COHAAGEN We'll torture him. You don't think I got this far by being a

nice guy?

142EXT. SPHINX'S FACE - DAY

Quail and Melina traverse across the cheekbones, haul themselves up at

the base of the red translucent eyes --

142A INT. CONTROL ROOM - DAY

The video monitors show the space shuttles. An operator, with

earphones, turns to Cohaagen.

OPERATOR First of the shuttles ready for departure, sir. Two minute

countdown.

142B EXT. SPHINX - DAY

Quail jams THREE GRENADES against the glass of the eyes, pulls Melina

back behind the stone cheeks --

143INT. SPHINX CONTROL ROOM

A MUFFLED EXPLOSION (due to the thin Martian atmosphere) detonates

overhead. THE SPHINX'S RIGHT EYE BLOWS IN a storm of shards and

shrapnell.

Instantly, the room turns into a hurricane as the Martian vacuum sucks

out all air! Everyone panics, grabbing their

COHAAGEN Seal the breach! Repressurize!

An aide dives for an EMERGENCY SWITCH. But now --

Quail and Melina, wearing breather masks, bursts in onto an overhead

catwalk. They OPEN FIRE on the Guards, who are choking, struggling with

their masks.

An EMERGENCY PRESSURE SEAL powers into place, sealing the breach in the

eye. REPRESSURIZATION comes up, the internal atmosphere stabilizes --

None of the men inside the control room still moves. The victors tug

off their masks, spring down to the main level. Melina hurries to the

main control panel.

Melina looks towards the video monitors showing half a dozen huge space

shuttles lined up for departure.

MELINA Those shuttles are starting up any minute. If you know how to

work this thing, you better do it now.

Quail tentatively approaches the imposingly complex machinery.

QUAIL Yes...

He hesitates.

MELINA Don't you know how?

Transfixed, mesmerized, Quail moves closer to the control panel.

QUAIL Yes... there's a vital connection missing...

He approaches even closer. He begins to raise his arm towards a blank

area a little above his head.

QUAIL (continuing) ...me...

COHAAGEN Wait!

MELINA Don't wait!

COHAAGEN If you activate the mechanism you'll die...there were glimpses

of it in your memory.

QUAIL Wrong, Cohaagen, there's a long tunnel, a brilliant white light,

hands reaching for me...

COHAAGEN (assured) That's your death. That's what it looks like. That's

what is always looks like.

Quail looks around him, half-convinced.

MELINA (looking toward space shuttles on video screens) Charles - for

Mars's sake....

Quail hesitates. He looks from Melina to Cohaagen.

COHAAGEN It's not too late. Join us again. U've a lot to offer. A whole

world.

Quail continues to look at him, thoughtfully.

QUAIL You don't deserve a new world, you and people like you made too

big a mess of the old one. Time someone else had a chance.

He turns back to the machine and slowly raises his arm again. His

fingers reach towards the blank section on the panel. Slowly, through

the panel, a luminous hand reaches toward Quail's fingers. Gently, the

fingers of the two hands touch.

The entire control room begins to rumble and shudder. As Quail reaches

for Melina, Cohaagen suddenly dives on him. They grapple amid the

shuddering Sphinx and can be seen only intermittently as debris

crashes around them.

The fight ends as Cohaagen is hurled backwards and disappears when a

section of floor collapses underneath him.

144INT. SURREAL TUNNEL

A reprise of the sequence that opened the movie.

Quail RUNS THROUGH A LABYRINTH OF TUNNELS. THE GROUND HEAVES BENEATH

HIM ... HUGE STONE BLOCKS CRASH DONW ON ALL SIDES! We hear an

EXPLOSION and ANOTHER and ANOTHER, each one SOUNDING CLOSER than the

last --

Quail clamps him breathing mask on as he runs. Is this his own death?

Where is Melina?

The tunnel walls are just like the ones in Quail's original nightmare -

- bright reddish-orange, clay and quartz.

Quail throws a backward glance fearfully over his shoulder. The

EXPLOSIONS are closer. Suddenly --

Up ahead appears a BRILLIANT WHITE LIGHT. Quail sees it, but it only

terrifies him more. Is it death he's running to? He hurries on with all

his strength, but --

Just as he nears the white light, HE FALLS. On his knees, too weak to

move. He struggles --

HANDS ARE REACHING OUT TO HIM, from out of the brilliant light. Quail

stretches for them, just as --

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