The Gorge: The Screenplay
Page 5
CUT TO:
EXT. RIVERBANK, FOOT OF THE WATERFALL.
Ace looks up at the top of the falls. He has a vision—the rain is red, clouds golden, the waterfall is like lava. Demons with scorched, screaming faces roil in the yellow-and-red fluid, reaching for the sky.
Clara grabs his shoulder and the vision dissolves. Now it’s just a waterfall. A backpack bobs down river below the falls.
CLARA
Look up there.
The group is heading down the side of the falls, carrying gear down the steep terrain, stumbling over slick rocks and hanging onto branches.
CUT TO:
EXT. RIVERBANK. EVENING.
C.A.’s corpse lies on the sandy bank under the thin blue blanket. Rain drums on it. The blanket twitches. Under the blanket, one of the arms lifts.
CUT TO:
EXT. FOREST TRAIL. EVENING.
It’s getting darker—the rain is falling harder. Dove and Bowie have moved together, Farrengalli and Raintree well ahead and Castle behind them. Bowie now has a thick walking stick. Dove slips and Bowie catches her before she takes a vicious tumble.
DOVE
Are we going to make it, Bowie?
BOWIE
I don’t know. Floods have changed the river since last time I was here.
DOVE
That’s not what I mean.
BOWIE
If those things find their prey using radar, we’re safer in the woods.
DOVE
That’s not what I mean, either.
BOWIE
Oh. This morning.
DOVE
Forget it.
BOWIE
Listen, if anything happens to me, Raintree is the only one you can count on.
DOVE
I wasn’t counting on you.
Dove hurries ahead, trying to catch up to Farrengalli and Raintree. Bowie is limping, slows. Suddenly—
SKEEEK. Branches snap overhead. Bowie drops his pack and crouches, trying to locate the attacker to his left.
FARRENGALLI
Bogie at twelve o’clock!
Farrengalli runs ahead, carrying the deflated Muskrat like a football. He disappears into the woods. Raintree and Dove stop. A second SKEEEK erupts to Bowie’s right.
BOWIE
Two of ‘em!
The creature to Bowie’s left breaks through the canopy, swoops down toward him. Another shriek, from behind Bowie, but this one is human. Raintree runs in with a sharpened wooden spear, emitting a Cherokee war whoop.
RAINTREE
Ai-eeeeeee!
The goregoyle spins in midair as if confused by the movement and the noise. Bowie, realizing the goregoyle is trying to home in on the new attacker, smacks his stick against a tree.
BOWIE
Come to poppa, you son of a bitch.
The creature turns toward Bowie again. Dove picks up a rock and hurls it at the creature. It missed, but the creature’s head turns and tracks the movement.
Raintree seizes the opening, leaps at it, and skewers it in the chest. The creature writhes and struggles, its weight forcing its torso deeper onto the spear. Gray fluid oozes from its wound and down the spear handle. Raintree struggles, brought to his knees by the weight of the creature.
The second goregoyle explodes from the forest in a spray of leaves and a mighty SKEEEK. It is larger than the first one. Bowie reaches out with his stick but the creature knocks it aside. Dove has thrown another rock but the creature is focused on Bowie, knocking Bowie down and crawling up his body.
DOVE
Bowie!
Its mouth is six inches from Bowie’s throat, eyes deep and milky but somehow hungry and evil. The creature’s claws rip at Bowie’s life jacket and Bowie’s arms are torn as he tries to fight the creature off. Raintree is still struggling with the goregoyle on his spear.
The creature’s sharp teeth are almost on Bowie’s cheek, saliva joins the rain on his skin, Bowie closes his eyes—
SLOOSH. Dove drives the point of a large, jagged rock into the creature’s skull, which busts open like a rotten pumpkin.
Bowie opens his eyes—the creature’s brain is revealed, throbbing in the bowl of skull, shivering like Jell-O, and still its mouth is moving.
The creature raises itself on its haunches and looks toward Dove, who is lifting the spattered rock for another blow. It emits a malicious skeeek, as if acknowledging its attacker.
BOWIE
Get away, Dove.
DOVE
You’re not the only hero, asshole.
As if on cue, Castle bursts onto the scene, his Glock leveled. The creature turns from Dove to Castle. Bowie wriggles from beneath it and grabs his stick. Raintree shucks the first goregoyle from his spear.
Now the creature is surrounded—it turns slowly, sniffing the air.
BOWIE
Don’t move!
The creature’s busted head jerks toward Bowie. It hesitates, head swiveling, then it lifts toward the treetops, gray blood leaking from its wound. Castle fires, the bullet strikes the creature but it keeps flying, though off kilter. Then it’s gone, lost in the trees.
RAINTREE
Better take care of this one.
DOVE
(to Castle)
Save your ammo.
Dove carries her rock to the speared creature and slams the rock onto its head. The skull splays open and it stops twitching. Bowie wipes the gooey fluid from his face.
BOWIE
So much for the theory that we’re safer in the woods.
CASTLE
Let’s go. They know where we are now.
RAINTREE
Did you see how they coordinated their attack?
CASTLE
Yeah. That’s the other bad news. They’re learning.
DOVE
What’s the good news?
Bowie cups his palm and lets rain pool in it.
BOWIE
We won’t die of thirst.
CUT TO:
EXT. CLEARING IN WOODS. NEAR DUSK.
Faint rumble of falls in the background. Raintree, Dove, and Castle sit under a vinyl canopy that’s tied off between trees. Bowie has attached the pump and is inflating one of the Muskrats.
Castle tends a fire, but it’s a losing battle—the rain is steady. Raintree is checking a soggy map, the spear leaning against his shoulder.
RAINTREE
BabelTower is just ahead. It is sacred to the Cherokee. We call it ‘Attacoa,’ the High Place.
CASTLE
We couldn’t get a wireless signal in the gorge. Up there, we figured there would be line of sight to a cell tower.
BOWIE
The FBI uses cell phones?
CASTLE
Sat Comm gear is too bulky. Once we got him, we were going to climb Babel and make a report.
DOVE
Got who?
Ace calls from the edge of the forest.
ACE
Me.
Ace steps out of the forest, his revolver pointed dead at Castle. Castle starts to go for the gun in his shoulder holster.
ACE
I don’t mind killin’, Haircut. I done it before.
Castle freezes.
ACE
I gotta hand it to you. Never figured you’d make it this far.
(yells to woods)
Clara! Come get his gun.
Clara comes out of the woods, glances at the group in sympathy.
CASTLE
I need my gun in case the vampires come back.
Ace cackles so hard he almost chokes as Clara moves toward Castle.
ACE
Vampires? This ain’t no fuckin’ comic book. Them’s angels.
As Clara takes Castle’s gun, Castle flinches for a moment like he’s going to draw, then he relaxes and lets her take it.
ACE
(to Bowie)
Keep on pumpin.’
Bowie, on his knees, resumes filling up the second raft.
CUT
TO:
EXT.FOREST—CONTINUING
Farrengalli watches from the woods. From his POV, Ace is looking through the backpacks, strewing clothes and gear around. Ace prowls in Castle’s backpack, finds Samford’s toboggan.
Ace holds it up so Castle can see.
ACE
This your partner’s?
Castle says nothing. Ace tosses it on the fire, where it throws off oily smoke. Castle clenches his jaw. Farrengalli hears noises in the trees above and ducks low.
CUT TO:
EXT. CLEARING IN WOODS—CONTINUING
Ace dumps out one of the backpacks. Climbing gear spills out.
ACE
Climbing shit.
Ace pulls the cell phone out of Castle’s backpack, checks it. Clara holds Castle’s Glock as if it’s a snake.
ACE (CONT’D)
No fuckin’ bars. Deader’n a mule’s dick.
He tosses the phone down, pulls out a magnesium flashlight with headstrap, switches it on and nods approvingly. He sticks the Maglite in his belt, points his gun at Raintree and Dove.
ACE (CONT’D)
Take off them life jackets.
BOWIE
They can’t get on the water without jackets. It’s suicide.
ACE
They ain’t coming. You are.
DOVE
(to Clara)
You can’t leave us out here to die.
CLARA
I’ve got my own problems.
ACE
(to Dove)
Sorry, good-lookin’, but it’s hard to keep two women satisfied.
DOVE
Asshole.
Ace slams the backpack to the ground and storms up to Dove. He’s momentarily forgotten Bowie and Castle.
ACE
Goddamn it, don’t nobody around here know their place? You took the apple from the snake and fed it to the world. You’re to blame for all of this.
Raintree steps protectively in front of Dove.
ACE (CONT’D)
Nice move, Tonto. Now load these packs in the raft or I’ll blow a hole in both you and your squaw.
Raintree doesn’t budge or blink.
CLARA
(to Raintree)
Don’t get him riled up.
CASTLE
One more notch on his belt won’t matter, Raintree. He’s already facing a death sentence.
ACE
That’s where you’re wrong, Haircut. I’m facing eternal life.
Ace waves the gun, Raintree loads a couple of the packs into a raft. Ace and Clara snap on life vests.
BOWIE
(to Ace)
They’ll just slow you down. I know the river.
ACE
A hero man, huh? Well, let’s see how much faith you got. Take off your jacket.
Bowie hesitates, then removes his life jacket.
ACE (CONT’D)
Just in case you’re thinking of dunkin’ us.
As they start to leave camp, Bowie dragging the Muskrat, Ace pauses.
ACE (CONT’D)
Wait a sec. Wasn’t there two rafts, Clara?
Clara, weary and dragging, shrugs. Dove points at Castle.
DOVE
Didn’t you hear the shot? He sank it.
Ace grins at Castle.
ACE
Crackin’ under pressure, huh? Just wait ‘til the angels track you down.
Ace waves his gun and spreads his arms like a fired-up evangelist.
ACE (CONT’D)
I seen it. Hell will break open and the river will turn to fire. The lost and the wicked will drown in their own sin. The world will be washed in blood.
As Ace builds to a manic crescendo, Castle leaps for him, aiming for his knees. Ace calmly levels the Python and squeezes off a shot. The bullet slams into Castle’s shoulder and he plummets to the ground.
ACE (CONT’D)
Couldn’t wait for the angels, huh?
The suddenness of the attack leaves the others stunned. Ace waves Bowie toward the river, and Clara follows, sharing a glance with Dove first.
CUT TO:
EXT. GORGE LEDGE. TWILIGHT.
The creatures perch at the lip of the cave, the sunset red as blood behind the clouds. The rain falls in thin needles. The Samford-thing tests its wings, ragged clothes hanging from its body. From the dark cave comes the chaos of clicking claws, fluttering wings, and squeaks.
CUT TO:
EXT. CLEARING IN WOODS. SUNSET.
Rain. Castle sits propped against a tree, semi-conscious. His shirt is off. Raintree and Dove tend his wound, which is a big gash. Dove yanks off her shirt, leaving only her wet suit.
Dove tears her shirt into strips and winds the strips around Castle’s shoulder and chest. Farrengalli comes out of the woods.
FARRENGALLI
I lost you guys.
DOVE
Bullshit. Where were you?
RAINTREE
Never mind that now. Looks like the bullet went through clean.
DOVE
Might have shattered some ribs.
Castle moans. Raintree pulls his leather medicine bag from the crotch of his drysuit. He puts a pill to Castle’s mouth.
RAINTREE
Take it. Here, better take two.
Raintree feeds him another. Castle swallows with difficulty as Dove gives him a sip from a canteen.
FARRENGALLI
Man, that looks like oxycontin. Horse pills.
CASTLE
This is the part where I’m supposed to tell you to go on without me.
FARRENGALLI
He’s right, he’s vampire bait. You heard Bowie. Once they smell the blood...
RAINTREE
No way.
FARRENGALLI
(to Raintree)
Who made you chief?
DOVE
Bowie did. And he’s right. We need to stick together. Where’s the Muskrat?
Farrengalli nods into the woods.
FARRENGALLI
I left it out there with my pack.
RAINTREE
You have the other hand pump?
FARRENGALLI
Yeah. Like I was getting paid extra to haul all this shit.
RAINTREE
We’ll have to try the river.
DOVE
In the dark?
RAINTREE
Better the river than the woods. Those creatures track by radar.
FARRENGALLI
Bowie said the rapids fuck up their signals. They can’t tell us from fish.
DOVE
Will the kayak hold four of us?
CASTLE
There’s...one other option.
The cell phone lays near the fire, open, its tiny screen still glowing neon green. They all look up through the trees, to the moist and rocky peak of BabelTower.
FARRENGALLI
(to Raintree)
Your call, Chief.
CUT TO:
EXT. ON THE RIVER. DUSK.
Rain. Ace is in the back of the raft, Clara in the middle. Clara and Ace have Maglites strapped to their helmets. Bowie is in front, struggling to guide the Muskrat. He’s the only one paddling. The wounds on his arms are red and wet. The water is wild, frothy, and brown.
ACE
How much farther?
BOWIE
We’ll never make it in the dark.
Suddenly, the raft skids into a long shelf of rock, throwing the three to one side. Clara clutches the grab loop circling the bow. Bowie is the first to regain his balance. He spins and slams the paddle against Ace’s head.
Ace flops against the bow and his Python bounces into the middle of the raft. As Ace and Bowie struggle over her, Clara scoops up the gun.
The raft bounces and plunges down the rapids. Clara steadies herself. Bowie has his arm around Ace’s neck, choking.
ACE
Shoot the bastard.
Clara moves the gun back and forth, rocking with the rapids. Bowie gives her a
look, awaiting her decision.
ACE
(choking)
Shoot!
CLARA
I can’t.
Bowie reaches for the gun. Ace bumps him while he’s off-balance, knocking Bowie over the side. Two of the backpacks tumble into the water.
Bowie hangs onto the grab loop with one hand, his body trailing into the water and knocking against river rocks. Ace bends his head and bites Bowie on the hand, trying to get him to let go.
The Muskrat pitches on a swell of water and Clara is thrown forward, dropping the gun into the pool of water in the kayak. Ace looks up with a bloody grin, rain running down his face.