"48 HRS."
by
Roger Spottiswoode and
Walter Hill
&
Larry Gross and
Steven E. De Souza
FADE IN:
OPEN COUNTRY - DAY
Endless green hills bisected by a ribbon of highway. A road
gang clearing brush by the side of the road... Twenty-five
men in prison fatigues sweating through their mid-afternoon
labor.
THREE GUARDS
Flank the working prisoners... Mountie hats, shotguns,
sidearms, sunglasses; they look
clear, with fields of floating lily pads, each with a
stark white flower rising from it.
EXT. FRESH WATER PLANTATION - DAY
The post rider approaches a plantation built between the
banks of the river and the deep green of the swamps,
passing acres of perfectly tended rice paddies. Two
sturdy brothers, NATHAN, 13 and SAMUEL, 12, work alongside
three adult male African freedmen, JOSHUA, JONAH, MICA,
A Midnight Clear Script
Its too hot.
When I get back,
Im gonna put it...
Mother?
Mothers the oldest
in our squad.
He just had his th birthday, and
two days later his baby was born dead.
We call him Mother... Wilkins...
because hes always hounding us
for being sloppy, bugging us...
about leaving things around.
Theyre a little bent.
You want me
to turn you in, Vance?
Between the stuff you did
and t
clearly embarrassed, pokes his head in and looks
around. Under one stall he sees a womans HIGH HEELS. He
hastily ducks back into HALL and signals an okay to Helen.
Before the door behind her closes, we see the COP prepare to
stand guard outside. HELEN walks past the stall with the
high heels to a stall several doors down.
CLOSE UP HIGH HEELS:
And a tattoo that the cop missed seeing on one of the
clearing at a tree. Blam! Perfect shot.
The rope is stretched from tree to tree across the clearing.
Deakins grabs the rope and hand-over-hand across the booby
trapped clearing, feet only inches from skeletons and traps.
DEAKINS
A little low, Connie.
CONRAD
Sorry, Deak.
When he gets to the end of the rope he realizes the tree is
a dozen feet short of the booby trapped area.
CONRAD
Sorry again, De
CLEARS the trees sending Green Monkeys
scattering in all directions. Their angry cries echo;
"KRA KRA KRA!!!"
END MAIN TITLES
CUT TO:
A GREEN MONKEY - ROASTING ON A STICK
THE VIEW SHIFTS TO REVEAL:
??
EXT. EBOLA RIVER - FERRY CROSSING - MORNING
A handful of ZAIREAN POLICE guard the primitive landing.
REFUGEE VILLAGERS camp along the banks in the b.g.
One POLICEMAN passes out half-cooked monkey.
T
cannot hear him. The vision becomes
completely clear, for an instant - clear enough to see the
face of a young boy at the window.
CLOSE on Reting Rinpoche. Looking. Searching.
Cut to: a portrait of a mountain: Kyeri - a majestic,
glacier mountain - the "house mountain" of the village of
Takster, Amdo Province, North Eastern Tibet.
Sound returns as the wind whistles around this jagged,
mountain
clear to Captain Bligh.
-Whats he like, sir?
-Captain Bligh?
Hes a seagoing disaster.
His hair is rope yarn.
His teeth are marlinespikes.
Marlinespikes? Good.
Sounds rather terrifying. But perhaps,
as your father used to say:
"A taut hand at sea is better
than a slack one."
Youd have made a rare sailor, maam.
Why dont you stow away, Mother?
lve considered it. Very seriously.
Well, heres to the vo
to settle on what looks like a Cryogenic tube, not big enough for a human.
Still TRACKING around it, we glimpse inside some vague, fetal mass encased in a clear, aspic-like gel. Tubes and cables a attached to the mass, running out of the machine.
As we still CIRCLE, the shape begins to be more coherent, till we can see what might even be a face. Eyes, shut tight. Sleeping. Dreaming.
ANGLE: WHEAT
clears for her as she marches
through a pack of fearful students and SLAMS open the door,
entering school.
INT. GIRLS ROOM - DAY
BIANCA STRATFORD, a beautiful sophomore, stands facing the
mirror, applying lipstick. Her less extraordinary, but
still cute friend, CHASTITY stands next to her.
BIANCA
Did you change your hair?
CHASTITY
No.
BIANCA
You might wanna think about it
Leave the girls ro