Total Recall Page #24

BRAUN (reluctantly abandoning his task) And you find this ironic?

SUSLOV Ironic that we are attempting to program it as a weapon, yes.

BRAUN How is that?

SUSLOV Perhaps it is the fruit of some ancient experiment... A living

artifact, the product of genetic engineering... A weapon. Perhaps we

arelooking at the end result of yet another arms race...

BRAUN A defeatist attitude, Colonel-Doctor. Our project can only

strengthen the Union of Progressive Peoples...

CLOSE -- THE STASIS TUBE -- A CHEST-BURSTER

is suspended there like an eyeless fetal dolphin.

INT. MACHINE SHOP

Hicks, alone in the shop, mechanically going through the motions of the

busywork he's been assigned to keep him out of the way.

BISHOP (from the doorway) That's quite a piece of machinery, Corporal

Hicks...

HICKS (looking up, grinning) That's what we used to say about you. How

the hell are you, Bishop? Brass said you were snatched by the U.P.P.

How're things in the socialist paradise?

BISHOP I was returned. I assume they had no further use for me.

He moves among the silent machines, touching them as he speaks.

BISHOP (continuing) There are rumors, Hicks, that Weapons Division

intends to develop the Alien.

HICKS (with a glance at the video camera on the wall) Where'd the

bastards get one, Bishop?

BISHOP One of them managed to board Sulaco, Hicks. Ripley killed it...

HICKS Good for her.

BISHOP She called it "the queen." It was larger than the others. Very

large. Somehow is deposited genetic material in the ship.

HICKS Then they're stone cold crazy, man. I hear the U.P.P. might try

it themselves.

BISHOP Given the current state of the arms race, it's entirely

possible. I'm programmed to protect human life, Hicks. It's my...

nature. Everything I am, everything I know, tells me this experiment

must be aborted.

HICKS Yeah. I know the feeling.

BISHOP But I can't be entirely sure you can trust me, Hicks.

HICKS You can't what?

BISHOP The U.P.P. may have reprogrammed me. I've been very thoroughly

examined, of course, but the possibility does exist.

HICKS Wouldn't you know?

BISHOP No. I may be functioning as an enemy agent.

HICKS (beat) What the hell. We have to kill it, don't we?

BISHOP I have to try.

HICKS I'm in man. And I think I know where we can find us a little

help...

DISSOLVE TO:

INT. TISSUE LAB

Spence and Tully are alone.

SPENCE What coffee? I'm going to the machine.

TULLY No.

He peers into one of the stasis tubes; a small ovoid of tissue

suspended there.

SPENCE Maintenance cure your pressure differential problem?

TULLY Said there wasn't any. Said it was a glitch.

SPENCE Didn't want to get his hands dirty?

TULLY It settled down by itself.

Spence exits; Tully moves closer to the tube.

CLOSE -- THE SINGLE DEVELOPING SPORE

inside; it looks like a much smaller version of the alien egg.

WIDER ANGLE:

TULLY Hey there. Hi ya. How ya doin'? Nutrient solution agreeing with

you, hm? We're looking lots bigger today, aren't we? You bet. Terrific.

Just absolutely f***ing wonderful...

His monologue is interrupted by Welles' entrance; he's startled, looks

up

guiltily. The heavy glass doors HISS shut behind her.

WELLES Communing with nature, Tully?

TULLY Your not wearing a badge. (taps the plastic ID clipped to his lab

coat) White strap registers contamination. Turns red if you're

accidentally exposed to something. Got it?

WELLES Where's Trent?

TULLY Lunch.

WELLES And how's our friend?

She moves to the stasis tube, looks in.

TULLY Friends. Our little friends. Growing.

WELLES Get me hard copy for the past six hours.

TULLY Sorry. Ask Trent.

WELLES I don't think you understood me, Technician Tully...

She's following him as he nears the main computer console; in the b.g.,

a stasis tube begins to HISS. CRACKS loudly, a hairline fracture emits

a superfine spray of fluid. An alarm SOUNDS.

WELLES (continuing) What does th --

TULLY O Jesus...

Two of the tubes BLOW OUT. Nutrient fluid and plastic shards

everywhere. Welles and Tully go down. A louder ALARM cuts in; red

lights strobe. Locks in the doors THUNK shut, an automatic containment

measure, as Spence, outside, throws down her coffee and begins to

struggle with the door-controls, trying to reach Tully. Tully,

facedown in a pool of the fluid, see that he's nine inches away from

the gray pigeon's-egg of alien tissue. His eyes widen. Gets to his

knees as carefully as he can. Reaches slowly -- slowly -- sideways,

manages to snag a pair of plastic tongs and a shallow lab tray from

the counter...

Welles tries to scramble to her feet, loses her balance in the slippery

goop, and snatches at his arm. He nearly falls on top of the thing, but

cuffs her roughly away, kneels, tongs poised... Beat. A tiny orifice

opens; for a split-second something glitters above the thing, a faint,

fist-sized cloud of dark mist. Then it's gone and Tully's moving,

swooping in with tongs and tray.

SPENCE (V.O.) (intercom) Tully! Tully, Goddamn it! What's happening?

Are you okay?

TULLY De-con. Get us down to De-con!

Welles is struggling to her feet.

INT. DECONTAMINATION CHAMBER

Drenched, naked, furious, Welles is nearly invisible behind a scalding

downpour as techs in biohazard gear scrub her down with detergents and

antibacterial agents. She shoots eye-daggers at Tully, who's being

worked over by two more techs.

DISSOLVE TO:

INT. OPS ROOM

Jackson at work. PAN ACROSS screens to security camera view of the DNA

lab, clean now but minus two stasis tubes -- image identified: TISSUE

CULTURE / 25 AUGUST / 1900:15 HOURS. Jackson's attention is elsewhere.

INT. A CORRIDOR

Hicks keeps watch as Bishop open a panel, exposing complex wiring; no

hesitation whatever as he strips two wires, removes a Walkman-sized VCR

from his belt, and clips lead to the stripped wires.

INT. OPS ROOM

CLOSE on monitor image of the lab. The picture fuzzes out, scrambles,

returns -- but now reads: TISSUE CULTURE / 23 AUGUST / 1200:02 HOURS

and the missing tubes are back in place.

INT. ENTRANCE -- OUTSIDE LAB

BISHOP We have three minutes at the outside.

HICKS Go.

Bishop punches the code-sequence and the door hisses open; they're

through, moving.

INT. TISSUE CULTURE LAB

They move down the row of stasis tubes. Bishop pauses when they reach

the two units with missing tubes, then quickly moves on. He opens a

wall panel, exposing controls and a large, very serious-looking red

switch. Label above switch:

STASIS SYSTEM MICROWAVE STERILIZATION

Then, he hesitates. Turning slowly, as if under compulsion, he looks

back; the line of glowing tubes.

HICKS Do it!

And still he doesn't move... Hicks darts his arm past Bishop, breaking

the trance and yanking the red switch.

A burst of unpleasant high-frequency SOUND as the fluid in the tubes

instantly begins to boil.

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