Total Recall Page #23

DISSOLVE TO:

INT. THE BUBBLE

Rosetti, Trent, Fox, and Welles.

WELLES And Bishop has agreed to undergo complete physical and chemical

analysis?

ROSETTI He requested it himself.

FOX Results?

TRENT No irregularities so far. No trace of the alien cellular

material...

WELLES Tampering, then? Reprogramming? Any new circuits in our Mr.

Bishop? Any little surprises courtesy of the U.P.P.?

TRENT No. Nothing.

FOX And his data on the Aliens? All there? Intact?

TRENT Yes, it seems to be. But if his memory's been tampered with, we'd

have no way of knowing. Neither would he...

WELLES In any case, we have to assume that the U.P.P. accessed Bishop's

memory. That they have the data. They may also have specimens of the

alien genetic material...

ROSETTI In other words, you want to get on with your brief, don't you?

You want Trent to clone the cultures. And you didn't want Shuman at

this meeting.

FOX This isn't a question of diplomacy, Colonel Rosetti.

ROSETTI Isn't it? A violation of the S.A.R. treaty?

FOX Has anyone mentioned military applications, Colonel? Trent?

TRENT (smiles) No. I think a very nice case can be made for applied

exobiology. We do have a standing order to study alien life-forms when

we encounter them. Preliminary analysis of the material from Sulaco

reveals a remarkable adaptive capacity. The potential for cancer

research alone...

WELLES Imagine, Colonel: if it can be programmed to only kill cancer

cells...

ROSETTI And what exactly is it you propose to do, Trent?

FOX (before Trent can answer) We'll nourish the cells is stasis tubes,

under constant observation. We'll terminate them before they become

embryos...

ROSETTI I see. Cancer research. And our motives are exclusively

humanitarian. Is that it?

WELLES Colonel, when Shuman gets his reply from Earth, priority will go

to military development of the Alien. We know that because we know

where our orders came from. The decision has already been made.

FOX And potential U.P.P. research in the same direction only adds to

the urgency, Colonel.

ROSETTI The decision rests with me.

WELLES Perhaps you misunderstood, Rosetti. The decision has been made.

FOX They won't just break you, Colonel, they'll see to it that it's as

though your career never happened. They're top people. That can do

that. And you know it.

Rosetti, with a long, cold look for both of them; he got the message:

ROSETTI Shuman, of course, will have to be informed.

FOX Of course. "Cancer research"...

INT. MEDLAB -- SCAN UNIT

Bishop patiently undergoes a scan; he lies on his back on a narrow

support as a massive donut-shaped sensor moves down the length of his

body. A life-size color scan-image is displayed on a large screen: his

"organs."

TECHNICIAN The knees. Looks like they do the joints in polycarbon...

MEDIC How about it, Bishop? Knees okay?

BISHOP Yes...

Tentative smile.

TECHNICIANS Polycarbon. Won't hold up worth a damn...

INT. RODINA -- BIOLAB

smaller than the Anchorpoint lab. Equipment look less advanced. The

only light is the yellowish glow from a stasis tube; Braun and two

assistants are clustered around the tube, observing the thing

suspended there:
thumb-sized, grayish-pink. An embryo.

INT. ANCHORPOINT -- A TUNNEL AT THE EDGE OF THE CONSTRUCTION ZONE

Hicks jogs through the tunnel. Its brightly-lit arc of white ceramic

recalls London tube stations, but the floor is paved smooth and black,

with freshly- painted traffic symbols. He passes a woman jogging in

the opposite direction, keeps going. Small video cameras are mounted

at intervals overhead, panning slowly form side to side. As he

continues, less of the tunnel is finished; sections of tile are

missing, revealing pipes, wiring, structural steel. Past a certain

point eh's jogging the raw steel tube, splashing through shallow

puddles of condensation. Fewer lights, widely spaced. He reaches a

junction and pauses, chooses a tunnel.

INT. CONSTRUCTION ZONE CHAMBER -- HIGH, LONG SHOT -- HICKS

comes out of the lit mouth of a tunnel. The space he enters is the size

of a football stadium, but dark and industrially Gothic. Stacks of

hull-plate and geodesic struts. A shower of sparks as he passes a

robot welder (a la the machine in the opening sequence of "Aliens").

Down the aisle of material and heavy machinery. Spence is waiting.

SPENCE Hicks.

She's in the shadows, smoking a cigarette.

HICKS You, huh? Why you?

SPENCE I work in the lab with Tully. He couldn't make it.

HICKS Hangover?

SPENCE Sacred... That forfeit agreement he had to sign.

HICKS Doesn't scare you?

SPENCE I haven't signed. Not yet. They've only given them to the ones

who saw what happened.

HICKS Why you?

SPENCE Tully's okay, Hicks. I know him. Believe it or not, he doesn't

scare that easy. He told me what was on that ship, Hicks. What he saw.

You know what is was.

HICKS I don't think anybody knows what it is...

SPENCE They've got us growing the stuff. We've been running recombinant

DNA routines on it, using human genetic material...

HICKS You've been what?

SPENCE (stubbing out her cigarette) Cancer research. Tully says that's

just a cover. Says it's like trying to cure cancer with a shotgun.

Anyway, everybody know those two spooks from Gateway are MiliSci...

HICKS Fox and Welles?

SPENCE Weapons Division. Not even supposed to exist, these days. Not

officially, anyway.

HICKS (lights a cigarette of his own) I still don't see why you're

telling me this.

SPENCE Maybe I don't either. It's just... we've got to tell somebody...

Now there's a rumor somebody came in on a U.P.P. ship today, somebody

off Sulaco...

HICKS Bishop...

SPENCE I don't know.

HICKS Maybe Progressive Peoples'll get their own Alien too. Maybe

they'll grow some...

SPENCE (horrified) Sh*t! You'd better hope not...

HICKS Why's that?

SPENCE Their lab gear's five years behind ours. They'd never be able to

control it.

HICKS Think you can, huh?

SPENCE I don't know...

INT. OPS ROOM

A BLEEP as Tully appears on one of Jackson's screens, looking up at a

camera in the tissue culture lab.

TULLY Get me some maintenance people down here, will ya? Run a check on

the stasis system. Pressure differential's off and the read keep

fluctuating. And punch it Priority One; Trent'll cover it.

JACKSON (with a characteristic little jerk of her head, light-pen

winking) Sure. You want a piece of the Superbowl, Tully?

TULLY Nah.

JACKSON Denver...

TULLY Denver? No way. Gimme a tenth on Chicago.

INT. RODINA -- BIOLAB

Braun is seated at a computer, entering data. Suslov is staring into

the stasis tube containing the developing Alien.

SUSLOV There's an irony in this...

BRAUN (engrossed in the data) Irony, Colonel-Doctor?

SUSLOV The readiness with which it lends itself to genetic

manipulation, Braun. The speed with which its cells multiply.

BRAUN Yes. Remarkable.

SUSLOV As though the gene-structure had been designed for ease of

manipulation. And this apparently universal compatibility with other

plasms...

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