DEEP RISING
formerly
known as TENTACLE
by
Steven Sommers & Robert Mark Kamen
extended
revisions by Robert Mark Kamen
Revised
Draft
Jan.
1st, 1996
-
- -
OPEN TO:
A FLASH OF
LIGHTNING rips the HOLLYWOOD PICTURES LOGO away, and we
find
ourselves in the middle of...
1 EXT. STORMY SEA - NIGHT
SUPERIMPOSED:
SOUTH CHINA SEA
The dark
blue waters roil and boil and foam. THUNDER CRACKS. LIGHTING
FLASHES.
CUT
TO:
2 EXT. UNDERWATER - NIGHT
An
enourmous Japanese BATHYSCAPHE free-falls through the water. An
autonomous
fifteen-man submersible. Almost futuristic in its design.
The nose
cone is an amazing ultra-high-pressure plexi-dome. LETTERING
along the
side tells us this is the "SHINKAI 90000."
COMPUTER
PRINTED across the SCREEN are the WORDS:
ASSIGNMENT: GEOLOGICAL
EXPLORATION.
SUB-OCEANIC
SEISMIC RESEARCH.
TECTONIC
PLATE SURVEILLANCE.
ADDENDUM: ABOUT
TO BREAK THE WORLD'S RECORD
FOR
THE DEEPEST DIVE...
3 INT. SHINKAI 9000 -
NIGHT
The
JAPANESE CAPTAIN watches a DLD laser tracking system and barks
one-word
questions to his JAPANESE CREW. The Sailors work the consoles
and give
clipped monosyllabic answers.
The
JAPANESE SCIENCE OFFICERS go over charts on the electronic
position
board, a contiuously-shifting graphic representation of the
ocean
contours below.
Behind them
is an elaborate DEPTH GAUGE with computerized graphics.
READ:
34,000 feet and dropping. The Crew works at a fevered pitch.
An ALARM
SOUNDS as the depth gauge sounds 35,000 feet. All eyes on the
depth
gauge. Several Science Officers share excited looks.
4 INSERT ON THE DEPTH
GAUGE: 35,100 -- 35,200 -- 35,300 -- 35,400...
The
excitment builds. Even the Captain's weathered eyes widen. And
then, as
the depth gauge hits 35,801 feet below sea level, the entire
Crew breaks
into CHEERS, WHOOPS, HANDSHAKES AND HIGH-FIVES.
CUT
TO:
5 EXT. SHINKAI 9000 -
NIGHT
As it
continues its descent, it passes corroding metal drums leaking
toxic
waste, radioactive waste, dumped in the depths, away from prying
eyes, and
populated areas.
The vessel
drops into the SULU BASIN. Imagine the Grand Canyon under
forty
thousand feet of water. But the Sulu Basin is ten times the size
of the
Grand Canyon. Down here, ten thousand fathoms below the storm,
all is
calm.
The dual
TURBO-PROPS on the ear of the submersible KICK ON. The
Bathysaphe
is now mobile. It glides down the side of an enormous rock
face,
carefully avoiding massive sandstone pinnacles which jut up from
the ocean
floor far below.
DISSOLVE
TO:
6 EXT. DEEP SEA - NIGHT
THE SHINKAI
hovers near a gigantic tectonic plate.
A ROBOTIC
ARM extends out from under the plexi-dome. Its "hand" is a
high-tech
LASER CUTTER. It approaches the plate, steadies, then fires
a direct
BLUE BEAM at the bedrock, burns the rock into magma and cuts
a perfect
round pattern.
Another
ROBOTIC ARM reaches forward, its CLAW rips out the cut rock
from inside
the pattern, then takes the sample and sets it inside a
hydro-basket
on the submersible's port side.
DISSOLVE
TO:
7 EXT. MINDINAO DEEP -
NIGHT
A desolate,
barren, spooky place. Nothing breathes. Nothing lives. Or
so it would
appear. The creepy, foreboding MUSICAL SCORE tells us
otherwise.
The Shinkai ENTERS a huge ROCK FISSURE.
CUT
TO:
8 INT. SHINKAI 9000 -
NIGHT
The Captain
and the Science Officers stare through the plexi-dome and
out into
the freezing, cobalt blue of the PALAWAN TROUGH. The MUSIC
intensifies
as they round each curve. Then, dead ahead, is the end of
the trough,
which is half-blocked by a rock-encrusted embankment. The
MUSIC
builds.
The Shinkai
approaches the embankment. Slowly starts to glide up the
side. The
Captain and Science Officers seem mesmerized by all the
lonely
creepiness. They crest the embankment.
And the
plexi-domed VIEW FILLS with an unimaginable horror. As far as
the eye can
see, the entire murky landscape is filled with WHALE
BONES. A
valley of death. Cluttered here and there, carelessly flung
about, are
the rusting hulks of several ships. Seemingly ripped apart.
Clusters of
shark cartilage float through the water like white ghosts.
The
Captain, the Science Officers and the entire Crew just stare,
frozen in
place by the strage horror before them.
CUT
TO:
9 INT. SHINKAI 9000 -
NIGHT
The vessel
cruises through the valley of death.
Everyone is
nervously taking readings, making calculations and
adjusting
equipment. Gone is the excitement and euphoria of the record
breaking.
Several Crewmen cast nervous glances out through the plexi-
dome. Giant
skeletons everywhere.
CUT
TO:
10 EXT. SHINKAI 9000 - NIGHT
The Shinkai
approaches an eerie-looking rock formation. The robotic
arm comes
out. The laser cutter steadies, aims, then shoots out its
blue beam
and cuts into the rock.
WHOOSH!! A
HUGE JET STREAM OF INKY BLOOD BLASTS OUT OF THE FORMATION!
CUT
TO:
11 INT. SHNKAI 9000 - NIGHT
The Captain
and the Science Officers recoil as the inky stuff
envelopes
the plexi-dome, completely blotting out the VIEW.
CUT
TO:
12 EXT. PALAWAN TROUGH - NIGHT
The Shinkai
VANISHES into a huge cloud of inky blood. We HOLD for a
LONG
OMINOUS BEAT. And then, like a slow-motion earthquake, large
boulders
and giant crevices begin to shift in the murky waters. WHALE
BONES
TOPPLE and SCATTER. Several feet under the ancient silt,
something
is coming alive.
CUT
TO:
13 INT. SHINKAI 9000 - NIGHT
Everything
outside the plexi-dome is still BLACK. Everyone is staring
at the
position board, which shows a large section of the OCEAN FLOOR
STARTING TO
MOVE, its contours incogruous with the rest of the graphic
representation.
The Science Officers look stunned.
The Captain
barks commands. The Crew leaps into high gear. Then the
Captain
reverses the trottle, and petal-to-the-metal he starts to back
out. The
inky blood swirls past the plexi-dome.
Then
suddenly, and impossibly, the SUBMERSIBLE JERKS TO A HALT.
Everybody
goes ass-over-teacups. EQUIPMENT SHATTERS. SPARKS FLY. GLASS
BREAKS.
Lots of YELLING in Japanese.
The SHINKAI
starts to ROCK and SHAKE. Something has a hold on it. More
EQUIPMENT
SHATTERS. Men are thrown about.
Then it
stops rocking. The Sailors stop yelling. Everything goes dead
quiet.
Frightened eyes share terror-filled looks. A SOUND is HEARD
coming from
the exterior of the ship, like feet runing across the
outside of
the hull. Very creepy. The HULL starts to MOAN and CREAK
from an
UNSEEN PRESSURE.
And then
the sub begins to be crushed like it's a beer can.
The metal
HULL TORQUES on all sides. RIVETS POP and SNAP. WATER SPRAYS
and SHOOTS.
More SPARKS FLY. The STEEL PLATING DIMPLES, CRUMBLES and
SCREAMS in
agony. CHAOS. PANDEMONIUM. And then the SHINKAI IMPLODES. A
massive
CHURNING SWIRL of water, metal and men.
SMASH CUT
TO:
14 EXT. SOUTH CHINA SEA - SUNSET
THE SAIPAN,
a tricked out Jet Foil, built for speed not looks,
gunmetal
blue, lean and mean, rips across the choppy water. The
Rolling
Stones STREETFIGHTING MAN pours out of the jet foil,
reverberating
over the waves, as the CAMERA rushes right at the
windsheild
and into...
CUT
TO:
15 INT. PILOT HOUSE - SUNSET
Stripped
down, low frills, high tech...
...where
JOHN T. FINNEGAN, bathed in the last light of day, all taut
muscle and
sinew, all business, with every one of his 38 years etched
on his
rugged, good looking face, is harnessed into the steering
pylon,
wrestling with his steering-sticks, holding the bouncing
jetfoil
steady as he can, hauling ass, propelled, it seems, by the
music blasting
out of four state of the art speakers bolted to the
metal
walls.
Light from
the laser imagers plays across Finnegan's face. The face of
a man in
his element, on the edge, in control. He barks commands into
his RADIO
HEADSET.
FINNEGAN
How we
doing out there?
THROUGH THE
WINDSHEILD we see LEILA, a muscular Filipina clambering
over the
foredeck. She's dripping wet. Tough as nails. She turns to
Finnegan
and "mouths" something into her headset. Finnegan flashes her
his most
charming smile.
FINNEGAN
Yes,
I'm very warm and dry in here,
thank
you for your concern.
His HEADSET
comes alive withe the SOUND of LEILA bitching in an
unitelligible
foreign tounge.
FINNEGAN
A
raise? I already pay you two bucks
a
day.
He watches
as Leila fights the WIND and SEASPRAY and dogs-tight a
series of
hatch-latches across the foredeck.
FINNEGAN
Missed
one darling.
Leila turns
and gives him a "jerking-off" sign with her hand.
FINNEGAN
I
love you too.
The Radar
Imager suddenly blinks, and goes to black. Dead. Finnegan
taps on the
screen. Nothing. Taps on the console. Still nothing.
Simutaneously
two more imagers shut down. His mouth screws tight.
CUT
TO:
16 INT. ENGINE ROOM - NIGHT
Crammed
wall to wall with enough horsepower to fly a 747. Pumped out
of two
thumping engines. The domain of a scruffy, shifty-eyed,
likeable
little weasle of a mechanical genius...JOEY PANTUCCI. Wearing
a
mechanic's toolbelt, slung sideways across the hips like a
gunslinger,
singing the theme to "Gilligan's Island" over the engine's
roar. Way
off-key. His hands crammed deep in a tangle of wires. On the
walls are a
few pictures: Of a few major league engines. Of a few
major
league pinups, and a few of Pantucci and Finnegan...together in
the U.S.
Navy...in front of the Saipan in shinier days.
PANTUCCI
(singing)
"
-- if not for the courage of the
fearless
crew -- "
He tugs at
the wires.
PANTUCCI
"
-- the Minnow would be lost, the
Minowwww
would be lost."
Finnegan's
voice explodes through his headset...
FINNEGAN
(V.O.)
(radio
filtered)
PANTUCCI!!
Unperturbed,
Pantucci works at the wires.
PANTUCCI
(into
radio)
Can
we use our indoor voice
please...
FINNEGAN
(V.O.)
(radio
filtered)
I'm
flying blind here God damn it!
Pantucci
pulls two wires from the tangle.
PANTUCCI
You
trying to make me feel guilty?
He begins
to strip the wires with his teeth.
CUT
TO:
17 INT. PILOT HOUSE - SUNSET
Finnegan
peers out of the windscreen, trying to see ahead of himself.
FINNEGAN
Guilty
will be the least of what you
feel
when I run my rig into one of
these
god damn no name islands! Get
me
well here!
CUT
TO:
18 INT. ENGINE ROOM
Pantucci
twists one wire around another.
PANTUCCI
All
better...
19 INT. PILOT HOUSE - SUNSET
The console
lights up. The screens come back on line. Finnegan is
pleased.
PANTUCCI
(V.O.)
Now
tell me again...
CUT
TO:
20 INT. ENGINE ROOM
Pantucci
works his wrench around an engine mount. And his nervous eyes
around six
men, big, bad men, standing on the far side of the engines
out in a
narrow passage. A Maori(VIVO). Two Assies(MASON and
MULLIGAN).
A Samoan(MAMOOLI). A Chinese(CHIN). And an Aborigine
(BILLY).
Tattooed, armed to the teeth, packed in Kevlar body armor.
Mercenaries.
Who would as soon wring your neck as shake your hand. And
a sixth
man. HANOVER. The obvious leader. Smoother than the rest, but
still
showing the edge of a man risen from their ranks. He consults
his watch
with a growing concern.
PANTUCCI
...why
we took this job?
CUT
TO:
21 INT. PILOT HOUSE - SUNSET
Finnegan
hits a button on his console. The Stones are replaced by the
first
chords of LAYLA.
FINNEGAN
If
I told you once...I told you a
thousand
times...
&nb