X-Men Page #2

And the pellets are getting larger. Until they land as

hunks.

The white haired girl drops to the ground and covers her

head as hailstones the size of baseballs plow into the

Earth.

Before long, tents are collapsing and panic ensues.

And all along the white haired girl sits huddled in the

dust, crying.

As hailstones fall in a circle around her, never coming

closer than then a few feet or so.

INT. HIGH SCHOOL GYMNASIUM - NIGHT

ONE MORE SKY. This one a backdrop. Cheap paint and

tissue paper hung with hooks on a wall just behind the

basket on a full court.

As we pull back, we see the skyline of New York, crudely

made out with its silhouette buildings of dark gray and

black - windows of yellow.

Among the famous landmarks represented is the Statue of

Liberty, complete with a real light bulb burning in the

torch.

We are at a prom. The theme is RHAPSODY IN BLUE and the

decor has made tragic efforts to show it. The

tablecloths are blue, the napkins are blue - far too many

of the tuxes are powder blue, and the blue eye shadow is

as heavy as expected.

Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes" gives painful indication

of the era, but here it is, nonetheless:

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA - 1986

MOVE ACROSS THE FLOOR and through the swaying, clutching,

sweating dancers to the bathroom.

Through the door to the usual -

INT. BOYS BATHROOM - NIGHT

Several boys are here, bow ties undone - unclipped in

most cases. Smoking, drinking from whatever inventive

container was used to smuggle in booze. Breath freshener

and Visine are the chaser.

Some of the guys are rolling joints while others make the

sad effort to wave smoke away. Who are they kidding?

It's a fog in here.

MOVE DOWN THE ROW OF TOILET STALLS to one in particular.

Here we find A FRECKLED KID standing in front of mirror,

clearly holding himself up from the effect of God knows

what.

He talks to his friend in the he stall behind him.

FRECKLED KID:

Man, what's the matter with you?

His friend is on the toilet with his head in his hands.

He seems to be in some pain. He is SCOTT SUMMERS - AGE

17.

FRECKLED KID (contíd)

Dude. Lighten up. She's just a girl.

You just gotta-

SCOTT:

No, my eyes... my eyes are killing me.

The Freckled kid offers a small plastic bottle.

FRECKLED KID:

You want some Visine, man?

SCOTT:

My... eyes...

The freckled kid looks and sees that Scott's eyes are

watering so badly that tears are literally streaming

through his fingers.

He goes back to the mirror to look at his own.

SCOTT:

... they're burning...

The freckled kid turns back to him.

FRECKLED KID:

Dude, how much did you smoke?

SCOTT:

I didn't smoke anything.

Scott looks up, taking his hands away, revealing for an

instant that his eyes are merely bright red embers in his

head. Featureless but for the color.

Freckles takes a step back.

INT. GYM - OUTSIDE BOYS ROOM - NIGHT

A blinding flash of light shows through the frosted glass

in the double door and cuts through the crack into the

dark of the gym.

All who see it are stunned. Frozen. A lingering moment

of confusion, then:

BOOM, the doors to the Boys Room burst open and the

occupants scatter into the gym.

INT. GYM - STALL - NIGHT

Freckles is still there, legs locked.

FRECKLES' P.O.V.

He looks at Scott who is now crying meekly in the stall,

covering his eyes again -- afraid to open them.

The door of the stall across from him swings closed TO

REVEAL:

A HOLE, PUNCHED THROUGH THE STALL DOOR framing Scott's

face perfectly. Pull back to reveal that the hole

continues through the wall, into the girl's bathroom next

door.

In the corner several girls huddle together, they are

afraid.

INT. SENATE HEARING ROOM - DAY

Packed with reporters and photographers. There's a dais -

a raised panel of senators - and a second, lower panel.

This is where the "experts" are testifying.

Panning across the faces of several G.O.P. creeps as they

watch something with varying degrees of interest.

TITLES:

WASHINGTON D.C. - THE NOT TOO DISTANT FUTURE

A woman's voice holds over the proceedings. It is the

voice of JEAN GREY - whom we will soon meet.

As she is speaking, we come to a large screen television

at one end of the room.

JEAN (O.S.)

In every organism on Earth there

exists a mutator gene - the X-factor,

as it has come to be known. It is the

basic building block of evolution -

the reason we have evolved from homo

habilus...

FOOTAGE REFLECTS THE VARIOUS STAGES OF HUMAN EVOLUTION.

Accompanying it is a GRAPH with a DIAGONAL LINE

indicating the ascent of the "human being" as we know it.

Accompanying the graph are evolving images of the

"evolution of man."

JEAN (O.S.) (contíd)

... to homo erectus, to homo sapiens

Neanderthals, and, finally, to homo

sapiens.

The animated demo on the screen zooms in on the lowest

order of human depicted - homo habilus - a primitive, ape-

like humanoid covered in hair. As he is singled out, the

terrain of his time appears, along with the harsh signs

of his winter.

JEAN (O.S.) (contíd)

Taking it's cues from the climate,

terrain, various sources of

nourishment, the mutator gene tells

the body when it needs to change to

adapt to a new environment. The

process is subtle, normally taking

thousands of years.

As the graphic changes and depicts WARMER CLIMATE, the

HAIR STARTS TO DISAPPEAR ON THE MAN'S BODY - gradually

evolving into the human we now know as ourselves.

Now the terrain is modern, the weather pleasant. The

image pulls back and places this man back in line at the

front of evolution.

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