The Gorge: The Screenplay
Page 7
FARRENGALLI
Keep dreaming, sweet cheeks.
A moment passes. Dove is shivering. Farrengalli stands, strips off his shirt, and drapes it over her.
CUT TO:
EXT. GORGE. NIGHT.
The clouds break for a moment, letting in a purple wedge of moonlight. Three goregoyles swoop over the river. The water is swollen from rain, leaping its banks, carrying fallen trees, pounding in a froth of brown and white.
SKEEEE. The goregoyles shriek in unison. Far below, a light bobs on the river—the Maglite on Clara’s helmet.
CUT TO:
EXT.RIVER. NIGHT.
Bowie struggles with the paddle to keep the Muskrat moving. Water slops over the sides and the raft is taking a beating. Clara hangs on for dear life. In the rear, Ace holds his pistol, stoic, the unused paddle in his lap.
They hit a calmer stretch. The raft is visibly sagging, riding low in the water.
BOWIE
The raft’s leaking. We can’t go any farther.
ACE
Pull it over.
Bowie paddles toward the sandy shore. The shrieks of the creatures penetrate even above the roar of the water.
CLARA
They’ll kill us.
BOWIE
There’s too much motion. They won’t detect us.
ACE
I told you, them’s angels.
BOWIE
So whose side does that put them on?
ACE
The right side.
CUT TO:
EXT. RIVERBANK. NIGHT.
Bowie gets out of the raft in knee-deep water and drags it to shore, then helps Clara onto land. Ace steps out and faces Bowie, who has his arm around Clara, supporting her.
ACE
Well, I reckon you’ve outlived your usefulness.
Bowie moves away from Clara and squares up with Ace like a gunfighter.
CLARA
(rubs belly)
It’s a little Bobby Wayne. I can tell.
BOWIE
(to Ace)
What’s going to happen to it?
ACE
That’s between me and her and God.
BOWIE
You keep talking about God. But God is merciful.
Ace’s jaw trembles, then he busts out laughing. He’s about to speak when the SKEEE erupts and a goregoyle swoops over the river toward them.
FX: ACEVISION—From Ace’s POV, the goregoyle transforms into an angel in flowing white robes and wings, but the angel’s grin is slightly off—the teeth are too sharp. The river appears to be shimmering with fire.
Clara screams and runs for a tangled rhododendron thicket. While Ace stares at the “angel,” Bowie dashes for the fiery river and dives. Ace gets off one shot but Bowie’s gone into hell’s lava.
The creature flies by Ace as if Ace doesn’t exist, zeroing in on Clara, who struggles into the thicket that shimmers like a bonfire.
CUT TO:
INT. THICKET—CONTINUING
Clara hides in the tangled branches, ducking low, whimpering as the SKEE approaches like a guided missile. Suddenly the creature goes silent. Rain patters on the leaves. Clara’s trying to calm her breathing, but she rasps. She makes a Catholic sign of the cross.
CUT TO:
EXT.RIVER—CONTINUING.
Bowie breaks to the surface, gasping, 30 yards downstream. He struggles to swim toward shore. The river punishes him, making him work to survive. He slams off a rock, winces, and keeps churning for shore.
CUT TO:
EXT. THICKET—CONTINUING
Clara pants quietly, moving her head slowly, the Maglite cutting like a laser into the leaves above.
ACE (O.S.)
You ain’t good enough, Clara.
Suddenly the canopy explodes as the creatures shriek and slap against the leaves. Clara reaches up to flip off the Maglite—the creatures stop at the sound. Claws caress the leaves.
CUT TO:
EXT. RIVERBANK—CONTINUING
Bowie works his way through the trees at the edge of the river and sees the goregoyles thrashing in the thicket where Clara disappeared. Bowie jumps out into the open and yells at them, waving his arms.
BOWIE
Hey! Over here!
The creatures pause and sniff the air. Bowie picks up a stick and bangs it against a tree two times.
BOWIE (CONT’D)
Come on, you dumb fucks. Fresh meat here.
ACE
You ain’t fit.
Ace fires at Bowie but the shot goes wild. Bowie ducks behind a tree as the creatures return to their task.
CUT TO:
EXT. THICKET—CONTINUING
Clara tries to sink deeper among the tangled branches. A claw reaches down and snags her hair, yanking her upright. She struggles but the second creature has her by the arm, tugging her out of the thicket.
The two goregoyles work together, pulling her out of the thicket, cutting her flesh. She screams and grabs at branches, trying to hang on, but the wood is slick with rain.
With a massive SKEEE, one of them pulls her free and she is airborne, clutching a handful of leaves as she is carried toward Ace.
CUT TO:
EXT. RIVERBANK—CONTINUING
Bowie runs after Clara and the flying creature, which is slowed only slightly by its cargo. Clara’s helmet knocks against a branch and the Maglite switches on. Ace watches the creature, rapt.
BOWIE
(chasing)
Clara!
The goregoyle is over the river now, followed by the second one, and they head upstream, low over the water, Clara almost dragging in it.
Bowie, giving chase, stops when he reaches the water’s edge and falls to his knee.
CUT TO:
INT.BABELTOWERCAVE.
Raintree stops walking, shines the light deep into the cave, striations of crystal sparkling in the slick walls. He sits with the light propped between his legs. He is sweating and trembling.
His hands shake as he opens the medicine bag. He fishes out five different pills, then shines the light on them.
RAINTREE
No sleep tonight.
He swallows the pills, switches off the light. In utter darkness, the red LED from his watch comes on: 12:57.
CUT TO:
EXT. RIVERBANK. NIGHT.
Ace comes over behind the kneeling Bowie, gun dangling. Ace is emotionally dead, uncertain, his self-righteous cockiness gone.
ACE
She wasn’t good enough.
Bowie leaps to his feet and spins.
BOWIE
No, you crazy babykiller, you weren’t good enough.
ACE
I don’t kill babies. I save ‘em.
BOWIE
Well, you just killed one. That was your baby she carried.
ACE
God sent down the angels and they took her, not me.
Bowie takes a step forward and Ace points the gun at his heart. Bowie pauses.
BOWIE
Just shoot me and get it over with it. I’m tired of this shit.
ACE
(puts hand to his ear)
I don’t hear nothing. I don’t hear no messages.
BOWIE
Maybe God’s tired of this shit, too.
Bowie steps forward and puts his hand around the gun barrel. Ace, vacant-eyed, lets him take it. Bowie looks down as if he doesn’t know what to do with it.
ACE
We got to save her.
BOWIE
She’s already dead.
ACE
No, she ain’t.
FX: AceVision—Ace “sees” the goregoyle carrying Clara toward a crevice, this one in rocks just above the river, the mouth of the crevice glows like the porch lights of hell, squeaks and rumbles come from inside it. The beam of Clara’s Maglite bobs around.
The sounds from the cave become a chorus of trumpets, the depths of the cave flickering with light and heat, sinister shadows emerging.
>
ACE (CONT’D)
I see her...them...
Ace collapses onto the ground before a stunned Bowie and begins writhing as if in a seizure. He erupts in a gibbering foreign language, speaking in tongues.
ACE (CONT’D)
Essesuitus hominem e mortem dominus—
CUT TO:
INT.BABELTOWERCAVE.
Silence. Red lines bend, dance and weave against blackness, undulating like bleeding snakes. Heavy breathing. At last the shapes coalesce into numbers: 1:32.
RAINTREE (O.S.)
Strong medicine.
Skittering, squeaking, flapping in the darkness. Raintree breathes harder.
RAINTREE (O.S.)
Fuh...fuh...fuh...
More squeaking, leathery flapping. The light explodes, spotlighting bats in the shaky cone of the flashlight beam. Raintree is one his hands and knees, crawling away from them, panting, holding a piton like a knife.
Five feet onward, he stops, shines the light behind him, then ahead. The bats scatter in both directions.
RAINTREE
Shit. Which way is back?
CUT TO:
EXT. RIVERBANK. NIGHT.
Ace’s seizure has played out and he’s writhing slowly in the sand, mud, and wet leaves. Sand is sticking to his lips, blood leaking from one nostril. Bowie shoves him with a boot.
BOWIE
Get up.
ACE
She’s the whore of Babylon.
BOWIE
She’s just a kid.
ACE
They’re babykillers. They can’t take my baby.
BOWIE
Maybe they’ll come back. You didn’t kill me, and I don’t feel like killing you.
Bowie heads into the woods.
ACE
(yells)
I saw her. She’s on a rock. In the cave.
(louder)
I know about your wife.
Bowie stops, hand clenching around the gun grip, face contorting. He turns slowly.
BOWIE
What the fuck did you say?
ACE
You let her die, but God’s giving you a chance to make up for it.
BOWIE
What about my wife?
ACE
I told ya, I see things. Hear things. Know things.
Bowie runs toward Ace, and for a second, his face twists, torn between killing Ace and maybe killing himself. He grabs Ace by the shirt and yanks him to his feet, their faces inches apart.
BOWIE
There’s...no...redemption.
ACE
Take a life, save a life. Pay what you owe.
Bowie releases Ace and flings him to the ground. Ace crawls to his feet, scooping up his backpack. He staggers upriver, toward the rocky clefts in the direction the goregoyles had gone.
BOWIE
No redemption.
He follows Ace.
CUT TO:
INT.BABELTOWERCAVE.
Raintree plays the flashlight beam around. He hears a scratching sound from beyond the beam.
RAINTREE
Spirit guide...reveal yourself.
He clenches the piton in his fist. The scratching gets louder. A rat skitters into the light.
RAINTREE (CONT’D)
I need better drugs.
He checks his watch. 2:33.
RAINTREE (CONT’D)
Time’s up.
The flashlight grows dim, then winks out. In dark, Raintree bangs it against his hip.
CUT TO:
EXT.BABELTOWERCAVE. NIGHT.
Raintree is stumbling out of the dark, sees the lesser darkness of night from the cave mouth. Harsh, rhythmic panting, a low squeaking groan. Raintree freezes for a moment, then Dove cries out—
Farrengalli in silhouette is bent over Dove, reaching as if to wake her. Raintree hallucinates Farrengalli is one of the creatures.
Raintree lets out a Cherokee war whoop and propels himself toward Farrengalli.
Farrengalli peers into the dark cave, he doesn’t see Raintree yet and he withdraws and tries to scramble away—
FARRENGALLI
Goregoyles!
Raintree slams into Farrengalli, knocking them both down, and they struggle on the ledge. Raintree lifts him up and slams him as if on a wrestling mat.
RAINTREE
You goddamned monster.
FARENGALLI
You’ve gone crazy, man!
From behind them, Dove calls, Farrengalli’s shirt draped over her.
DOVE
Robert!
Raintree gets him in a full-nelson headlock, but Farrengalli drives an elbow into his gut. While Raintree flinches, Farrengalli twists and plants a boot in his crotch.
Farrengalli spins free, gets to his feet, and backs toward the ledge. He holds up his hands in an “Easy does it” gesture.
FARRENGALLI (CONT’D)
Easy, Chief.
Dove races to Raintree, grabs his shoulder, but her shrugs her away.
RAINTREE
Stay in the cave!
FARRENGALLI
(to Raintree)
It’s me, your old buddy Vince.
Raintree takes a couple of menacing steps toward him, drugged out of his mind, raging.
RAINTREE
(uncertain)
Does white man speak with forked tongue?
FARRENGALLI
You been hitting the medicine bag?
RAINTREE
(to Dove)
You’re one of them, too?
DOVE
I’m one of us. Just like you are.
Raintree squares up with Farrengalli, but he’s looking past him, over the gorge. Farrengalli turns and looks, too.
Three goregoyles are flying down the gorge, soaring under the moonlit clouds. Then more emerge, four, then a half-dozen. A flock of monsters. The last one is wearing blue drysuit rags—it’s C.A. McKay, only different, changed. It veers slightly toward them, then away.
FARRENGALLI
(under his breath)
Shit, it’s Bike Boy.
CUT TO:
EXT. ROCKY RIVERBANK. NIGHT.
Ace clambers over huge, rugged boulders. This area looks like it was created by a recent landslide, with fallen trees and debris. Bowie is behind him, carrying the gun.
Ace stops and points ahead to a large cleft about 10 feet above the river—the rocks look like the entrance to a crude, dark temple.
ACE
They took her in there.
BOWIE
How do you know?
FX: AceVision: The interior of the cave pulses with bloody red fire.
ACE
I see things.
An angel soars down from the heavens, gilded, glistening, but its eyes are red like the throat of the cave.
ACE (CONT’D)
(whispers)
They come for the Change.
BOWIE
What, your baby is some kind of Christ?
ACE
Clara wasn’t no virgin.
BOWIE
Either way, she’s dead.
ACE
Being dead don’t mean much anymore.
The angel disappears into the cave and two more appear, following.
CUT TO:
EXT. BABEL TOWER LEDGE. NIGHT.
Dove is by the cave entrance. Raintree is frozen in place, while Farrengalli has shrunk a little away from the edge.
Over the gorge, the last of the flock has faded into the mist.
DOVE
They didn’t sense us.
FARRENGALLI
They did. But they acted like they had bigger fish to fry.
(turning)
What do you think, Chie—
WHOOF—Raintree launches himself into Farrengalli and they go over the ledge, but Raintree’s feet are tangled in the secured belaying ropes.
Raintree free falls 10 feet, Farrengalli clinging to him. The rope tightens, snapping Raintree’s leg as they slam into the clif
f face. Raintree screams.
Farrengalli almost loses his grip to fall into the rocky darkness below, but clenches Raintree at the last moment. They dangle upside down below the ledge.
DOVE (O.S.)
(from above)
Robert!
Farrengalli hooks his hands in Raintree’s belt and drags himself up, the weight deepening the leg fracture. Raintree’s face contorts in pain, blood drips from his split scalp.
For a moment, they are face to face.
FARRENGALLI
Happy hunting, Chief.
Farrengalli scrambles up Raintree’s leg, then grabs for the cell phone in Raintree’s belt. Raintree chops Farrengalli’s hand, making them both squeal in pain. Raintree pulls a piton from his belt and jabs it into Farrengalli’s calf. Farrengalli plants his boot on Raintree’s chin and scrambles up the rope.