"GHOST SHIP" (Continue)
A beat as Dodge looks back, then out at the Chimera.
INT. ARCTIC WARRIOR - MASTER'S QUARTERS - NIGHT
A pencil point on a map follows across Saudi Arabia, coming
to the Persian Gulf and tracing the coast of the Arab Emirates
to Dubayy.
Murphy sits at his desk over the map. His pencil point follows
the Persian Gulf from Dubayy, through the straight of Hormuz
into the Gulf of Oman. Murphy marks an "X" there. A beat
as
he looks on at it.
He opens a large envelope he found aboard the Chimera. He
empties it on the desk. He looks through it, docking receipts
from various ports of call, bills of lading, etc. He looks
over the passenger manifest.
INT. ARCTIC WARRIOR - MASTERS QUARTERS - DAY
Murphy wakes. He lies on his bunk, having fallen asleep last
night in his clothes, still holding the envelope and some of
the papers inside.
INT. ARCTIC WARRIOR - DECK - MOMENTS LATER - DAY
Dodge disassembles the turbine fans on deck as Greer reads
in the shade of the deck house. Dodge's hand slips and he
skins his knuckles.
DODGE
Fucker!
GREER
Take it easy, Dodge. It's only a
piece of metal.
DODGE
(inspecting his skinned
knuckles)
Damn mind of it's own.
GREER
(seeing Murphy)
Morning, skipper.
Murphy has stepped out into the sunlight.
MURPHY
Morning.
GREER
You're up late.
MURPHY
Guess I must've fallen back to sleep.
Where's Epps?
DODGE
Went aboard.
MURPHY
She take a radio?
GREER
Yeah.
Murphy nods. A beat.
INT. CHIMERA - PUBLIC ROOM - DAY
Epps steps from a passageway into a large public room. Tables
and chairs are scattered haphazardly, light falling in from
windows along the wall where tattered curtains hang. She
walks on.
A pair of empty glasses sit on a table, an empty sherry
decanter beside them. An ashtray sits beside that. Epps stops,
reaching down. She pulls back a half-smoked cigarette,
lipstick smudging the end, yellowing and fragile from time.
And, as she stands there, we see a FIGURE, IN MURKY
SILHOUETTE, MOVE PAST THE DOORWAY IN THE BACKGROUND. In an
instant it is there and gone.
She puts down the cigarette, having sensed a presence. She
turns to the doorway across the room, but there is nothing
to be seen now.
INT. CHIMERA - PUBLIC ROOM - MOMENTS LATER - DAY
A doll's white face, eyes haunting and coldly blue, stares
into the middle distance. It lies on a love seat as Epps
steps up. She lifts it. Several other toys lie scattered
about as she studies it, when the sound of a TICKING CLOCK
CAN BE HEARD.
A beat as Epps holds there. She turns, trying to locate the
sound. From across the room, Epps stands, listening. As the
TICKING CLOCK sounds from here. She turns, putting down the
doll, holding a beat. She approaches, crossing the room,
coming finally to a stop before us and what we come to see
is an ancient grandfather clock.
All but it's minute hand has fallen off its corroded face,
but from inside it emits a weak though steady TICKING.
Epps stands there as the clock ticks, looking on, when the
TICKING CEASES. A beat as she holds there, as the clock faces
her, now silent.
INT. CHIMERA - PASSAGEWAY - LATER - DAY
Epps shines her light in the darkness as she comes to a door
where daylight falls from a small port. She looks through
it.
INT. CHIMERA - SWIMMING POOL - MOMENTS LATER - DAY
Epps stands in a white tiled room. Light falls from port
holes high in the wall. Running its length is a small swimming
pool, it's rusted fixtures and stained surface creating
bizarre patterns.
INT. CHIMERA - SWIMMING POOL - MOMENTS LATER - DAY
Epps comes to a row of changing stalls. Old clothing hangs
there, unused for fifty years. A pair of woman's shoes lie
on the floor.
INT. CHIMERA - SWIMMING POOL - LATER - DAY
Epps moves along, passing through a doorway into
INT. CHIMERA - GYMNASIUM - CONTINUOUS - DAY
Epps enters another room scattered with old exercise equipment
circa 1950, a wooden rowing machine, barbells and a medicine
ball.
She steps up to the wall, where pictures hang. The Chimera
can be seen in better days, sailing full speed on a calm
sea.
INT. CHIMERA - SUB-DECK - LATER - DAY
Epps jumps down to a lower deck. She shines her light up to
see that she is in an engine compartment, showing a massive
diesel burner. She passes through into another compartment
where the giant pistons of the ship's power plant rise up to
the ceiling.
INT. CHIMERA - SUB-DECK - PASSAGE - MOMENTS LATER - DAY
Epps moves, passing still more diesel burners, towering over
her in the cavernous space. She moves into a narrowing
passage, piping and machinery ducts winding their way into
the depths of the ship.
Finally the passage opens into yet another compartment,
apparently a cargo hold. Crates and boxes are stacked on
loading palettes.
In the corner, a rotting canvas drape covers something. Epps
comes to it. She lifts the canvas, which crumbles away to
reveal a 1951 Ferrari sportster. For the exception of a coat
of dust and a small amount of corrosion, it is perfectly
preserved.
Mail bags lie in piles along the wall, stacked between more
wooden crates and palettes, when something catches Epps'
eye.
A heavy, metal door in the wall is twisted on it's hinges,
as though blown back from some terrific explosive force.
Epps approaches, coming to the twisted door. She shines her
light inside.
A clutter of debris, shelving and wood, are visible in the
shadows, when her light catches a glint of something. She
swings her light back, revealing a yellowish bright object
between broken wood slats.
Epps steps in. She kneels, shining the light closer. The
yellow glint is metal. Epps pulls back a slat, sliding away
some of the debris to reveal that it is cast from a kilogram
ingot of gold.
She reaches out. She raises it, completely untouched by the
years. She pulls back still more debris, revealing a stack
of gold ingots, some having tumbled to the side. She slides
away a large trunk that has fallen, pushing off more junk to
see that the stack is much larger, perhaps four feet high
and five feet across.
A beat as Epps stands there, looking on at $50,000,000 in
gold.
INT. CHIMERA - CARGO COMPARTMENT - DAY
The debris has been cleared away to reveal a clean 5'x 5' x
4' stack of gold ingots.
DODGE (O.S.)
What the fuck we gonna do with it?
Greer, Murphy, Epps, and Dodge all look on.
GREER
What the fuck you think we gonna do
with it? It's ours, baby. It's all
ours.
Murphy has stepped forward, taking an ingot, inspecting it.
GREER
How much you figure that's worth,
skipper?
MURPHY
(still looking it
over)
Hard to say. Maybe forty, fifty
million.
GREER
Ho, baby!
EPPS
That's a lot of money for somebody
to just let float away.
Murphy looks up at her from the gold.
MURPHY
Yes, it is.
A beat as they all hold there.
MURPHY
It's a hell of a lot of money.
DODGE
What, you think there's something
funny about it?
MURPHY
A ship with fifty million dollars in
gold aboard, adrift? And nobody seems
to care enough to come looking for
it?
GREER
If they thought it was lost at sea,
they probably just wrote it off.
MURPHY
Not for fifty million. An ocean liner
maybe. But fifty million in gold,
they come looking for.
EPPS
Maybe they didn't want it back.
Maybe the whole fat deal was insured.
MURPHY
Maybe. But there's always somebody
whose interest's at stake.
GREER
All I gotta say is it looks like
that somebody's us right now.
Greer cackles as he high fives Dodge.
EPPS
And it looks like somebody got here
before us too.
The steel hatch is twisted, as from a great hand ripping it
back from the wall.
DODGE
(inspecting it)
Didn't happen yesterday, I'll tell
you that. Torn parts rusted bad as
the rest of the boat.
MURPHY
Then it happened before they scuttled
her.
EPPS
You mean, before she sank.
GREER
Cargo like this could make a crew
think twice.
MURPHY
That it could.
A beat, as they all look on at the gold.
INT. ARCTIC WARRIOR - CREW QUARTERS - NIGHT
After dinner, Murphy, Greer, Dodge and Epps sit around the
galley table.
GREER
Then why didn't they take it.
EPPS
Probably didn't have time.
DODGE
Or somebody stopped them.
MURPHY
Either way, they must've had a pretty
good reason.
GREER
Must be a damn good reason to jump
ship and leave fifty million dollars
aboard.
A beat as they consider it.
DODGE
So what're we gonna do. That's the
big question, right?
MURPHY
A salvage claim to a vessel's cargo's
as valid as a claim to the vessel
itself. It's ours.
DODGE
Then we're rich. We're damn, filthy
stinking rich.
MURPHY
It looks like it.
A beat as they let this sink in.
GREER
So what? We gonna unload the gold
and get a move on?
MURPHY
We leave it where it is. Stick to
the plan.
DODGE
You gotta be kidding? What the hell
we need that tub for, we got fifty
million bucks?
MURPHY
So we get a little more for the boat.
Besides, the gold'll be safer where
it is.
GREER
Yeah, but we still gotta haul that
big piece of shit all the way back
to Sitka.
MURPHY
It's worth the effort. Believe me.
Besides we're gonna need her to prove
the salvage.
EPPS
Why not call for help?
MURPHY
For now the best thing we can do is
to keep quiet about this.
DODGE
Last thing we want is extra partners.
EPPS
Or uninvited guests.
GREER
I heard that.
MURPHY
Dodge, you gotta get on those repairs.
DODGE
Yeah, yeah. I'm on it.
MURPHY
The sooner we get under way, the
sooner we are to spending what's
ours.
INT. ARCTIC WARRIOR - ENGINE ROOM - DAY
Dodge, wearing a welding mask and gloves, braises an aluminum
fitting over one of the open turbines.
INT. CHIMERA - SUB-DECK CARGO COMPARTMENT - DAY
Epps finishes stacking the gold ingots in a cleared space
beyond the twisted hatch.
GREER
Two hundred twenty. Two twenty one.
(as Epps stacks the
last one)
Two twenty two.
Greer makes a note.
GREER
Two hundred twenty two kilograms of
solid gold.
EPPS
That's what I call a payday.
GREER
Hell yeah.
They slap hands.
INT. CHIMERA - TOP DECK - PASSAGEWAY - DAY
Murphy moves down the darkened passage, coming to a door
marked "CAPTAIN." The door is ajar. He pushes it open.
INT. CHIMERA - CAPTAIN'S QUARTERS - CONTINUOUS - DAY
Murphy stands in the doorway of a spacious cabin panelled in
dark wood. A large desk occupies a corner of the room by the
windows. Though dirty and worn with time, everything is
ordered and in its place.
Murphy comes to the desk. He sits down in the chair behind
it. The surface is clear and uncluttered. He pulls out the
drawer to reveal pens, writing paper, a ruler, compass and
protractor amidst other sundry items.
INT. CHIMERA - CAPTAIN'S QUARTERS - BEDROOM - MOMENTS LATER -
DAY
Murphy steps in. The room is undisturbed, light falling in
on the taught green bedspread through dirty, tattered
curtains. A robe hangs on the back of a chair. A pair of
slippers lie beneath it.
INT. CHIMERA - CAPTAIN'S QUARTERS - BATHROOM - MOMENTS LATER -
DAY
Murphy stands in the bathroom. The tile has yellowed with
time, but everything is exactly as it was left. Even the
shaving kit is neatly arrayed on the sink as Murphy looks on
at it. He looks up, seeing himself in the mirror, when an
EXPLOSION SOUNDS.
EXT. CHIMERA - TOP DECK - MOMENTS LATER - DAY
Murphy comes to the railing, looking out over the bow of the
ship to see black smoke rising from where the Arctic Warrior
is tied.
EXT. CHIMERA - FORWARD DECK - MOMENTS LATER - DAY
Greer and Epps run to the side to see billowing smoke rising
from the Arctic Warrior as Murphy climbs down the crane to
the deck.
EXT. ARCTIC WARRIOR - CONTINUOUS - DAY
Murphy jumps down to the deck. Flames belch from an open
hatch as Murphy grabs a fire extinguisher from a deck locker,
coming to the engine room door.
INT. ARCTIC WARRIOR - ENGINE ROOM - CONTINUOUS - DAY
Murphy enters to find the engine room engulfed in flames and
black smoke. He finds Dodge spraying at it with an
extinguisher of his own.
The flames belch up from an oil fire in the turbine well,
the heat searing paint on the metal covers. Murphy sprays a
cloud of halon and the fire dims, but only for a moment.
Dodge grabs another extinguisher, his leg burned, face and
hands singed.
An EXPLOSION ROCKS THE BOAT and molten flames hurl through
the air, catching Murphy's pant leg. He's so engrossed in
fighting the flames, he doesn't realize he's on fire.
DODGE
(over the roar)
Murphy!
Murphy looks down to see his pant leg is on fire, as Dodge
turns a cloud of halon on him, putting it out.
DODGE
Propane tanks're gonna go!
Murphy crosses in the smoke, coming as close as he dares to
the most intense part of the flames. He turns the extinguisher
into them, holding it there.
The flames dim, as Dodge joins him on the other side, turning
his extinguisher on it too. The fire seems to dim yet again
as clouds of halon rise up.
Fire belches from a duct, crawling across the ceiling. Dodge
fires his extinguisher at it, pushing it back across to the
wall again.
Murphy extinguishes the last of the flames in the turbine
well as Dodge brings a snaking tendril of fire down to the
deck, and finally out.
They stand there in the sudden silence, the air heavy with
smoke. A fine layer of halon powder lies over everything,
but the fire is out.
EXT. ARCTIC WARRIOR - DECK - DAY
Dodge smokes a cigarette, now starting to feel his burned
leg, which is oozing as Murphy and Greer look on.
DODGE
One minute I'm minding my own
business, the next thing I know the
whole place is burning up.
(taking a drag)
An oxygen tank must've blown on the
welder. Started an oil fire.
GREER
Looks like it took out the backup
genny too.
MURPHY
Terrific.
Epps arrives with a first aid kit.
MURPHY
How's that leg?
Epps cuts back the burned pant leg to see the burn.
DODGE
Seen better -- Ow!
Epps cleans the burn with hydrogen peroxide.
EPPS
This's gonna hurt a little.
DODGE
Thanks for the warning -- Ow! Damn!
Epps keeps cleaning as Dodge bears it.
GREER
What now?
MURPHY
We could call for help.
GREER
And get a bunch of fools sniffin'
around here?
EPPS
What other choices have we got?
DODGE
I tell you one thing, we're not gonna
be towing no ship now.
INT. ARCTIC WARRIOR - PILOT HOUSE - NIGHT
A gas lantern sits on the map table illuminating Murphy as
he holds the radio mic.
MURPHY
(to radio)
United States Coastguard, this is
tugboat Arctic Warrior whiskey alpha
sierra bravo four zero niner two.
Radio check. Over.
A moment, then:
COASTGUARD DISPATCHER (V.O. RADIO)
Arctic Warrior, Arctic Warrior, Arctic
Warrior. This is United States
Coastguard Station North Island.
Your radio check is affirmative.
Over.
MURPHY
Roger that, North Island. Arctic
Warrior whiskey alpha sierra bravo
four zero niner two. Over and out.
INT. ARCTIC WARRIOR - CREW QUARTERS - NIGHT
Dodge pours out a few cans of cold chili into a bowl and
takes it to the table where Epps, Greer, and Murphy sit under
the stark light of a gas lantern.
GREER
Fifty million four ways. That's twelve
million and change a piece. What
you gonna do with your share, skipper?
MURPHY
Not much at all, I guess. Retire.
Live out my golden years and all
that.
DODGE
I'm buyin' me a nice outrigger.
Spend my time hauling rich Seattle
business men through the Puget.
MURPHY
How about you Epps?
EPPS
Guess I'll just keep working.
DODGE
What're you crazy?
EPPS
I like my job.
MURPHY
Greer?
GREER
Moving to Sweden.
DODGE
What's so great about Sweden?
GREER
It's a beautiful country. Very clean.
Very civilized. And cold.
EPPS
That's a good thing?
GREER
Hell, yeah. I like it cold. Colder
the better.
DODGE
Yeah, but not as cold as those Swedish
girls you only gonna dream about.
GREER
We'll see who's dreamin', m'man.
MURPHY
Dreamin's all any of you're gonna be
doing if we don't get this boat
running.
DODGE
Yeah, yeah.
A STRANGE SOUND BEGINS. IT IS LIKE A DISTANT SHRIEKING, AS
OF METAL AGAINST METAL, BUT ALMOST HUMAN, DISTANTLY ECHOING.
GREER
What the hell is that?
The SHRIEKING CONTINUES, ECHOING EERILY AS IF FROM THE SEA.
EXT. ARCTIC WARRIOR - DECK - MOMENTS LATER - NIGHT
Dodge, Epps, Murphy and Greer emerge on deck.
The DISTANT SHRIEKING IS LOUDER HERE, BUT SEEMS TO BE
EMANATING FROM DEEP IN THE SHIP as they stand facing it on
the bow.
EPPS
It's coming from inside.
They hold there listening as the SHRIEKING CONTINUES.
DODGE
Sounds like the hull.
MURPHY
Warm water current maybe, making the
metal expand.
GREER
That shit is seriously bizarre.
The DISTANT SHRIEKING ECHO continues as they hold there.
EXT. ARCTIC WARRIOR - DECK - DAY
The engine room is black with soot, the turbines covered in
halon powder. Dodge stands there looking at it. He sighs.
INT. CHIMERA - GALLEY - DAY
Greer goes through shelves of supplies, finding a stack of
sterno cans and warming candles. He throws them into a wooden
crate of other supplies he's gathered.
INT. CHIMERA - FIRST CLASS STATEROOM - DAY
Epps slowly pushes open the door. She holds a sack with a
few items she's managed to scavenge. Light falls from
curtained windows onto the room. A divan sits against the
wall. A table stands in the middle of the room, a moth-eaten
velvet table cloth sitting under a brass lamp on top. Two
twin beds stand on either side. They are covered in dust and
are moth-eaten, unmade, as if the occupants had just gotten
up, fifty years ago.
In one corner is an armoire. Epps steps up to it, pulling
back the door to reveal a rack of woman's clothing hanging
there undisturbed.
INT. CHIMERA - STATEROOM - MOMENTS LATER - DAY
A pair of slippers lie on the floor beside a chair, over
which is draped a woman's robe. Epps lifts it, the material
crumbling in her hands.
INT. CHIMERA - STATEROOM - MOMENTS LATER - DAY
A drawer comes back to reveal a number of personal affects,
a man's billfold, cuff links, tarnished silver cigarette
holder and case, coins, black horn-rimmed glasses, pocket
watch and fob, and a room key.
Epps pulls back the billfold. She opens it. Inside she finds
a Canadian passport a picture of a dark-haired man with a
mustache and black horn-rimmed glasses, circa 1950. In the
folds she finds three hundred Canadian dollars. An insert
holds pictures, of a suburban home, children, and a woman,
presumably his wife.
INT. CHIMERA - "A" DECK PASSAGE - LATER - DAY
Epps steps from the room. She turns to close the door, but
stops, holding there, strongly sensing something.
THE CAMERA SLOWLY COMES AROUND TO HER OTHER SIDE, revealing
the long passageway behind her, each bulkhead hatchway
creating the impression of a tunnel of mirrors that frame
one another and, standing at the very end of this tunnel in
the foggy light from a porthole, a MAN in dark clothing.
Epps slowly turns her head to see what she already senses,
the man standing at the end of the passageway facing her. A
beat as they hold there. The man only stares back at her,
then turns to walk away.
EPPS
Hey!
Epps moves off as the man walks around the corner.
EPPS
Hey, wait a minute! Hey!
MOVING WITH Epps as she breaks into a run, going down the
passageway. She comes to the corner, rounding it out onto
another passageway. The man is nowhere to be seen.
Epps moves quickly down the passageway, coming to the next
corner, rounding it out to see only another long passageway.
She turns back, running right into Murphy.
MURPHY
Take it easy, you'll live longer.
EPPS
Did you see him?
MURPHY
Who?
EPPS
The guy. He just came this way.
MURPHY
What guy?
EPPS
There's somebody else on this boat.
MURPHY
What? What the hell're you talking
about.
EPPS
I saw him. Just a minute ago. Some
guy.
MURPHY
Are you sure?
EPPS
Of course I'm sure. I saw him.
MURPHY
You sure it wasn't me?
EPPS
It wasn't you. It was somebody else.
There's somebody else aboard.
A beat as Murphy looks back at her.
INT. ARCTIC WARRIOR - PILOT HOUSE - NIGHT
Greer, Dodge, Murphy, and Epps stand around by lantern light.
DODGE
Light in those passages ain't so
good.
EPPS
I'm telling you, I saw somebody. I
don't know who it was. But I saw
somebody.
GREER
What'd he look like?
EPPS
Maybe six feet. Lanky. I didn't get
a good look. He was far away. But I
saw him. I saw him as sure as you're
standing there.
DODGE
Where's his boat, then? Where's his
crew? He ain't gonna be out here by
himself, that's for damn sure.
GREER
She's so big somebody could come
alongside her on the other side and
we'd never know it.
EPPS
Maybe that is his boat.
DODGE
Gimme a break.
A beat as they sit in silence.
MURPHY
If somebody's aboard her already,
she ain't ours. She's theirs.
DODGE
Bullshit. That boat hasn't made steam
for fifty years. We found her. She's
ours.
MURPHY
Not in the eyes of the law.
EPPS
So, we find this guy and make a deal
with him.
MURPHY
We don't exactly have the best
bargaining position.
DODGE
I say fuck the motherfucker. We're a
professional salvage crew going about
our business. What's some yahoo doing
way out here by himself anyway?
MURPHY
And what do you propose? That we
knock this guy off?
DODGE
Why not? Why the fuck not?
A beat as Murphy, Greer and Epps exchange looks.
DODGE
Fifty million dollars. Fifty million.
We gonna let this guy just take it
from us? One guy?
EPPS
So we kill him?
DODGE
I'm saying we gotta do whatever we
gotta do to preserve our interest.
GREER
I don't know.
MURPHY
Let's just take it easy here, alright?
Nobody's gonna kill anybody.
GREER
Supposing he wants to get bad with
us?
DODGE
One guy isn't gonna be so stupid.
EPPS
Maybe he isn't alone.
They consider this a moment.
GREER
I say we off-load some of that gold
now.
MURPHY
Would you hold on just a minute here,
please? Look, there's no reason to
panic now. Epps saw somebody. Fine.
It's a big boat. Chances're real
good he doesn't even know about the
gold. If we stay cool, nobody'll be
the wiser.
(a beat)
The gold stays where it is til we're
ready to go. Like I said, it'll be a
hell of a lot safer there than here.
DODGE
What if that fucker finds it before
we're ready to go?
MURPHY
We'll stand a watch. Four on, eight
off. Low man first.
EPPS
Guess that'd be me. Again.
MURPHY
Dodge, get on that turbine. I don't
care if you don't sleep for a week.
The sooner you're done, the sooner
we can get out of here. How's the
food situation?
GREER
Pretty low all around.
MURPHY
We'll have to take it easy then. I
don't think we'll find much aboard
the ship, but it's probably worth
looking around.
EPPS
Say we run into this guy again.
A beat as they consider this.
MURPHY
If he's reasonable, maybe we can
make some kind of deal. If not.
We'll have to re-consider our options.
DODGE
Yeah, reconsider fucking his shit
up.
INT. ARCTIC WARRIOR - WARD LOCKER - NIGHT
Epps is dressed in her cold weather gear as she opens a
locker, revealing a flare gun and a shotgun. Epps pulls back
the shotgun and a box of shells.
EXT. ARCTIC WARRIOR - DECK - NIGHT
Murphy and Dodge look on as Epps loads the last of several
shotgun shells into the pump action short barrel 12-gauge.
She expertly shuttles a round into the chamber with one hand.
Dodge takes a hit from his cigarette as Greer crosses from
the deck house.
DODGE
Pretty handy with that scatter gun,
Epps. You raised on a farm?
EPPS
(setting the safety)
Seen a lota movies.
MURPHY
No cowboy shit up there, understand?
EPPS
No cowboy shit. Right.
Greer extends a thermos to Epps.
GREER
Coffee.
EPPS
(pocketing it in her
coat)
You're a pal.
She checks the squelch on her radio, pockets it too.
MURPHY
Got your light?
EPPS
Yup.
DODGE
Smokes?
EPPS
Oh yeah.
Her bravado does little to hide her apprehension as she slings
the shotgun on her back.
EPPS
See you boys later.
(to Greer)
Don't be late, I need my beauty rest.
She looks up, climbs onto the crane and up toward the darkened
ship above them.
INT. CHIMERA - PASSAGEWAY - NIGHT
A flashlight beam cuts through the darkness as Epps
approaches. If this place is creepy in the daylight, it is
terrifying now. She comes to a ladder and climbs down.
INT. CHIMERA - CARGO COMPARTMENT - LATER - NIGHT
Epps shines her light as she passes through, coming to the
cargo hold. She crosses in the darkness, her light catching
the tarnished glint of the gold. She comes up to it, stopping
there, looking on at it, a perfectly symmetrical fortune.
She looks around for a place to sit. She drags a palette to
the bulkhead, settling in to face the rest of the compartment.
She puts her shotgun down beside her and takes out her thermos
to pour herself a cup of coffee.
INT. CHIMERA - CARGO COMPARTMENT - LATER - NIGHT
Epps has dozed off when a CLATTERING ECHOES DISTANTLY
somewhere in the ship. Epps wakes. It is silent, as she holds
there, not sure she heard anything, when a DISTANT BOOMING
SOUNDS. She reaches out for the shotgun, intently listening.
As Epps holds there, another deep BOOMING sounds distantly
somewhere. Epps turns, her blood running cold.
INT. CHIMERA - CARGO COMPARTMENT - MOMENTS LATER - NIGHT
Epps moves along in the darkness when the DISTANT BOOMING
CAN BE HEARD BRIEFLY AGAIN. She stops, holding there, in the
silence.
INT. CHIMERA - SHAFT ALLEY - MOMENTS LATER - NIGHT
Epps jumps down into the shaft alley where the ship's massive
propeller shaft hangs suspended above her. Epps moves along.
Finally she comes out into...
INT. CHIMERA - ENGINE ROOM - CONTINUOUS - NIGHT
Where the propeller shaft extends into a large turbine. She
continues on, past huge rusting diesel burners, disappearing
into the darkness above her, when ANOTHER BOOM SOUNDS.
She turns, shinning her light back from where she came.
Nothing moves. Not a sound, but for her breathing and maybe
her heart pounding in her chest. ANOTHER BOOM SOUNDS, again
echoing distantly in the silence. She shines her light through
the line of burners. Nothing moves.
Epps moves quietly between the burners. She comes to a massive
watertight door at the bulkhead. She steps through, finding
herself standing between a row of huge oil storage tanks.
THE BOOMING SOUNDS AGAIN, closer, as suddenly stopping.
She moves on, cautiously walking between the tanks, holding
her light out before her. She comes to the end of the
compartment and another bulkhead. The BOOMING SOUNDS, still
closer. She turns the light into the recesses, showing rusting
machinery and a stack of oil drums.
She approaches, holding the shotgun up. As she nears, the
BOOMING SOUNDS AGAIN. She stops. It is coming from here.
She tenses, raising the shotgun, holding the light as steady
as she can manage. The BOOMING SOUNDS YET AGAIN. It is
metallic and staccato.
She stops in the corner beside an oil drum. Several drums
have toppled and lie scattered in a pile when a draft stirs
her hair. She shines her light up to see that she stands at
the bottom of a giant hatchway shaft rising all the way
through the ship to the top deck and an echoey breeze that
betrays a throughway to the outside.
The BOOMING SOUNDS AGAIN, this time coming from the pile of
oil drums. She steps closer, raising the shotgun, ready to
fire. A beat as she summons her courage, then reaches out to
push a drum with her foot, when A BLUR EXPLODES OUT AT HER.
She fires the shotgun and a spray of buckshot glances off
the steel bulkhead in a shower of sparks, a flurry of frenetic
flapping whizzing by her head as she looks up to see a large
albatross flying back up the hatchway shaft toward the top
of the ship and freedom.
MURPHY
Murphy to Epps.
She settles back, exhausted.
MURPHY
Murphy to Epps.
EPPS
(taking her radio)
Epps.
MURPHY
You just shoot at something?
EPPS
Yeah. Just a bird. Just a stupid
bird.
She wipes her brow on her sleeve, holding there a moment,
when she smells something really awful.
She steps forward, following the smell, pushing aside the
toppled oil drums to see an unidentifiable form in the beam
of her flashlight. She steps still closer, training her light
on the form to see that it is a human torso. A large gash
runs up its middle and the clothing has been torn by
scavenging birds.
She hesitates, then steps still closer when she steps on
something. She starts, then shines the light on the deck in
front of her where the body's decaying head looks back with
wide, unseeing eyes.
It takes everything she has just to hold there. She shines
her light back to the headless torso.
She shines her light beyond that, and up, to reveal a bent
steam pipe hanging out over the deck, stained with dried
blood, a pair of legs dangling from the pipe when, just behind
her, a booted foot comes into frame, lightly touching her.
She spins around to see another body above her. Except this
one hangs in one piece, suspended from another bent steam
pipe. It has been impaled length-wise on the pipe from rectum
to mouth.
One of its arms has rotted off and lies on the deck below
it. A few feet away, a third body hangs impaled from another
bent pipe.
INT. CHIMERA - ENGINE ROOM - LATER - NIGHT
A lantern illuminates the impaled bodies and their various
rotting parts.
GREER (O.S.)
Ho-ly shit.
MURPHY (O.S.)
Couldn't have happened much more
than a month ago.
Greer, Dodge, and Epps look on as Murphy kneels over the
remains of the headless torso.
MURPHY
Bodies're too fresh.
DODGE
Fresh ain't the first word that comes
to mind.
Murphy checks the pockets, finding a wallet. He looks through
it.
MURPHY
Greek citizen. Merchant navy.
(standing)
Obviously we aren't the first to
come across this ship. They probably
stumbled across it just like we did.
GREER
And look what happened.
DODGE
Damn barbaric is what it is.
MURPHY
Could be meant as a warning.
GREER
Stay away. Or else.
EPPS
Because of the gold.
MURPHY
That'd be my guess.
DODGE
So whoever did this might still be
around.
GREER
Maybe Epps's mystery man had something
to do with it.
MURPHY
Maybe.
A beat as they consider the implications of this.
EPPS
So, what? We report this? Call the
Coastguard?
Another beat as they hold there.
DODGE
Let's not be too hasty.
GREER
Yeah. Hell, what difference does it
make if we report it now or later?
We call this in now, gonna be
Coastguard, FBI, who knows who, all
over the place.
A beat as nobody's too sure about this.
MURPHY
Dodge, if this isn't incentive enough
to fix that boat, I don't know what
is.
DISSOLVE TO:
INT. ARCTIC WARRIOR - ENGINE ROOM - DAY
Dodge fires up a compressor, which feebly comes to life,
turning over the turbine, then sputtering out in a cloud of
smoke.
DODGE
All the seals and gaskets're shot.
Anything that was rubber burned up.
Murphy stands at the doorway, looking on.
MURPHY
Can't you use something else?
DODGE
I might be able to find something on
the ship. But it's gonna take time.
MURPHY
Do what you need to do. Just do it
fast.
DODGE
Right.
INT. CHIMERA - CREW QUARTERS - DAY
Epps sleeps in her bunk.
INT. CHIMERA - BETWEEN DECKS - DAY
Dodge and Greer climb down in the darkness.
DODGE
I need lag bolts, especially one
inch standard. And sheet metal.
Preferably steel, about a sixteenth
of an inch. Aluminium, even tin'll
do.
GREER
I ain't no mechanic, just so you
know.
DODGE
You find anything that even looks
like a compressor. I don't care what,
grab it.
INT. CHIMERA - RADIO ROOM - CONTINUOUS - DAY
Murphy stands in the cramped room, full of radios and
communications equipment. He looks through the shelves and
cabinets, when he opens a drawer to find a dusty bound book.
He pulls it back, opening it to see that it is a radio call
log. He takes a seat, paging through it.
INT. CHIMERA - GALLEY - WITH GREER - LATER - DAY
Greer works to disassemble a compressor mechanism. He has
difficulty getting the right purchase with his wrench, when
he slips.
GREER
Dammit!
A beat as he inspects his hand. In the silence A DISTANT
SHRIEK SOUNDS, maybe metal against metal or maybe human,
somewhere in the ship. He holds there, listening.
GREER
Dodge?
He moves on, shinning his light as he goes.
INT. CHIMERA - GALLEY - MOMENTS LATER - DAY
Greer moves along in the darkness when he hears THE SHRIEKING
AGAIN coming from somewhere in the ship.
GREER
Dodge!
INT. CHIMERA - PASSAGEWAY - MOMENTS LATER - DAY
Greer walks up a stairway, stepping into a darkened
passageway. The SHRIEKING SOUNDS, THIS TIME CLOSER, as it
echoes through the ship. He stops, holding there to listen.
INT. CHIMERA - PASSAGEWAY - MOMENTS LATER - DAY
Greer comes out onto another deck, stopping there. He looks
down the passageway a beat, then moves on. He passes through
a hatchway in a bulkhead when A MUSIC BOX CAN BE DISTANTLY
HEARD. He stops. The song is "DAISY" ("Daisy, Daisy,
give me
your answer do. I'm half crazy, oh for the love of you.").
He holds there, listening intently. A door stands open at
the other end of the passage. The MUSIC COMES FROM HERE. He
moves forward, walking toward the end of the passage, and
the light falling from the open door.
INT. CHIMERA - RADIO ROOM - CONTINUOUS - DAY
Murphy pages forward to the last page of the radio call log
book.
On the page his finger runs down the columns of entries,
coming to "TRANSMISSION 1 Feb 53 21:34 hrs GMT. Engine trouble
notification made to passing vessel 'St. Charles.'"
His finger moves down to the next entry, coming to:
"TRANSMISSION 2 Feb 53 09:52 hrs GMT. Dead in Water.
Notification made to passing vessel 'Normandy.'"
His finger continues: "TRANSMISSION 2 Feb 53 14:07 hrs GMT.
Captain relieved of command. Notification made to passing
vessel 'China Sea.'"
MURPHY
Captain relieved of command.
He holds there a moment, moving his finger down to the final
entry, reading: "TRANSMISSION 2 Feb 53 21:24 hrs GMT. General
SOS."
He turns the page to see only the words "GOD SAVE US"
scrawled
in faded red ink. A beat as he holds there, when a CHANNEL
OPENS WITH A SHORT BURST ON MURPHY'S RADIO. He looks to it,
but there is no response from the other end. Another SHORT
BURST AND THE CHANNEL OPENS AGAIN. This time it remains open,
but no one says anything on the other end, UNTIL THE CHANNEL
CLOSES AGAIN.
Murphy takes the radio.
MURPHY
This is Murphy. Anybody trying to
call me? Over.
He waits as no response comes, then THE CHANNEL OPENS AGAIN.
Only silence from the other end as someone seems to be there,
but is not saying anything. Murphy presses the talk button.
MURPHY
Greer? Dodge?
Again, there is no response, until the CHANNEL OPENS. Murphy
holds there as he is answered by silence, WHEN A GRAVELLY,
STRANGELY DISTORTED MALE VOICE COMES BACK ON THE RADIO:
VOICE (V.O. RADIO)
"Cock-a-doodle-doo," said the rooster
to the crow. "Where are you now? I
know, but won't say so."
Murphy is momentarily stunned. He hits the talk button.
MURPHY
Who is this?
The RADIO CHANNEL OPENS. Only silence comes back, as if
someone were there but not speaking.
MURPHY
Who is this!!
The CAMERA PUSHES IN AS MURPHY LISTENS.
VOICE
Penny whistle toy. Penny whistle
toy. Penny whistle toy. Penny whistle
toy.
The CHANNEL CLOSES as the CAMERA STOPS CLOSE ON MURPHY.
Murphy squeezes the talk button.
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