PREY
"Escapes"
ACT THREE
FADE IN:
INT. HALLWAY IN GOVERNMENT LAB – DAY
BOB SANTIAGO
confronts a GUARD standing in front of a door with no window.
BOB
I want to see him!
GUARD
This is off limits.
BOB
If I’m going to do research on this subject, I must have a look at him.
GUARD
BUT -
We STAY ON BOB as he unlocks the door and enters the
INT. EMPTY DARKENED ROOM - CONTINUOUS
BOB
stares at the figure in the cage in the SPOTLIGHT. We can’t tell if he’s transfixed or aghast or both. He’s like a little kid at a zoo, who’s seeing his very first magnificent, real live tiger. And he can’t take his eyes off him. The guard follows him in.
GUARD
Dr. Santiago, keep away from the cage, please –
BOB
Get out. I want to see this man alone and undisturbed.
GUARD
It’s too dangerous – he hasn’t been sedat-
BOB
Do I have to call the dragon lady?
The guard retreats reluctantly, stopping just outside the door.
BOB
And shut the door!
Bob walks over to a chair some safe distance from the cage and settles down in it. He just watches the figure in the cage for a few minutes.
BOB
So. I hear you just gave the behavioral psychologists a run for their money this morning.
Tom barely moves his head to see who’s talking to him. He’s just returned from a demeaning session. He’s been forced to repeatedly press a bar to avoid electric shock of increasing severity – a well-known animal experiment to test physical barriers and limitations. We sense a new resolve in him. He’s put all soft memories of being human behind him. Except for one thing. He must get back to Sloan. And reverting back to dominant is the thing that will serve him best.
BOB
They say you can sense us coming way before you see or hear us, that you can jump off two-story buildings, that one of you can easily overpower one of us and snap our necks.
TOM
studies Bob peripherally. He senses a childlike curiosity emanating from the scientist. Wonder and fire with a hint of sadness. And a lack of fear that he admires. He’s already sensed his presence in the building. Sometime yesterday – from 183 meters away and 15 meters above him, he’d tracked him through the building and noted the feelings changing – from enthusiasm, to shock, to protest. While he mixed briefly with several other humans, including LL, there was one who always seemed to accompany him. One who was very quiet, harder to read.
TOM
That’s somewhat exaggerated.
BOB
They say that you attacked the immune systems of a school full of children, dug up the Spanish flu, … just to name a few things.
TOM
They say you bombed Hiroshima and killed 6 million Jews in extermination camps.
BOB
Why don’t you all just sit back and let us finish the job?
TOM
What do you mean?
BOB
I mean – why go to all this trouble? We’re already competing with ourselves. Out of greed, we starve our children mentally and physically. We’re robbing ourselves of our own future. Have you ever been to East St. Louis? We relegate millions of our children to live on contaminated ground, breathe air polluted by chemical plants, play near water contaminated by sewage, go to substandard schools, put them at risk of long term developmental damage, and render them powerless to do anything about it. We pretend they don’t exist. We spend less than $2,000 a year to educate them, and then we spend $50,000 a year to keep them away from us in prisons.
(beat)
What damage could a new species inflict upon us that we aren’t already inflicting on ourselves?
As TOM considers this statement
BOB
stands up and approaches the cage. It’s almost as if he wants to reach through the bars and touch Tom. They look each other over.
TOM
Can’t you read the sign? It says "Please don’t feed the animals."
BOB
So you’re the next step in evolution ... have you guys figured it out? How do you treat your children?
The question evokes in Tom a fleeting sadness. And a sudden memory.
TOM
My mother – she was only ten when –
(long beat)
BOB
- you were born?
(eagerly)
I want to do some research on the differences between your physiology and ours. All you have to do is lie still for an MRI. It won’t hurt. Will you come willingly?
TOM
Why should I cooperate with you?
BOB
Because we have an unparalleled opportunity. How can we let it pass? This is the first time evolution has been aware of itself. Our history – and yours is buried so deep in the past that we’ve forever been trying to discover where we came from, how we got here. And now ... another speciation event has taken place. Millions of years from now, will your children wonder the same thing?
TOM
We know where we came from.
BOB
But do you know where we came from?
(beat)
Aren’t you curious?
(beat)
Each side holds a piece to the puzzle. Together we have the opportunity to solve that mystery – your scientists … our scientists - and who knows where that will lead us?
LL
And if we’re really sure we want to go there?
Bob pauses briefly. He hadn’t heard her come in. Tom, on the other hand, doesn’t seem surprised.
BOB
Wherever it leads us, it will probably be to a place that none of us imagined…
LL
Dr. Santiago, you should not have come here without first checking w-
BOB
If you want me to study this subject, then you will find him decent and humane living space.
LL
You must remember they are not human – he could turn on you at any time and without warning!
BOB
I don’t believe that!
TOM
Dr. Santiago, just comparing biological structure and function between the two species isn’t enough. You know that. And you can’t always promise me it won’t hurt, can you?
EXT. JUNKYARD OR TRASH TRANSFER STATION SOMEWHERE IN LA - DAY
SOMEWHERE IN ITS DEPTHS
of junk and litter PILED HIGH to the sky,
A GROUP OF PEOPLE
all ages, men, women, children gather around the BODY of an older man laying on BROKEN CRATES. Somber. Crates are surrounded by litter. A can of kerosene is sitting off to the side at a safe distance.
CLOSER we see it’s
THE SLAIN LEADER
Of the peaceful dominants. One person lights a match and throws it on the litter. He runs back to stand with the rest as HOT flames engulf the "funeral pyre."
INT. DINGY DARK MOTEL ROOM NEARBY
MARK
sits back in an armchair. Tense. Beads of sweat on his face and forehead. The door OPENS and a YOUNG WOMAN enters, closing it behind her.
MARIANA
It's done.
(long beat between them)
Where do we go from here?
MARK
We go forward.
MARIANA
We go forward, Mark? They'll never accept us. Or give us a voice.
(her voice sounds desperate)
And our own people will hunt us down. We have no place in this world!
MARK
In the words of my old teacher, "Patience. Without it we shall never succeed."
(reflects disdainfully)
Lewis with his programming boxes and his crippled chameleons. You think men like Lewis will give you a voice, Marianna?
MARIANA
But how can we fight men like him? Especially now that many of our own no longer side with us.
MARK
Another opportunity for peace will come along. One of them will listen to us. Maybe they aren't ready just yet.
(ominously)
But they will be.
(leans forward slightly)
Help me off with this?
As Mariana helps him remove his jacket, we see that he's been SHOT THROUGH THE CHEST. Just below the TATTOO on his shoulder.
MARK
I've seen too much death in my life, Mariana. Theirs and ours. Heard too many cries for mercy go unheeded.
(shakes his head)
Until that day ... when I heard yours.
MARIANA
This isn’t healing as we’d hoped.
(lays her hand against his forehead)
Perhaps you should have told the two humans that you were hit by the sniper.
MARK
There wasn’t time. We had to get him out of there before the police or ambulance arrived.
MARIANA
You saw them the next day.
MARK
I didn’t want them to know, Mariana!
(beat)
They would have insisted on further contact. It’s too dangerous. I’ll be fine.
MARIANA
Mark, you need a doctor!
MARK
It isn’t an option, Mariana. There are none among us - at present.
MARIANA
Perhaps a human one will have to do.
OFF MARK we
CUT TO:
INT. GOVERNMENT NMR LAB SOMEWHERE UNSPECIFIED – DAY
TOM, off to the side next to two guards, looks a bit sedated.
JONATHAN MITCHELL and BOB SANTIAGO
pore over their first READINGS with LL looking over their shoulders. They look frustrated – the new magnet is too primitive to measure what they're trying to measure, and they don't even know how to ask the right questions.
BOB
Most advanced MRI I’ve seen and we can’t even - How can we do these experiments when we can't even establish a baseline?
JONATHAN
Maybe we're going about this the wrong way. Maybe we should be using ourselves as the baseline.
BOB
But that’s ... unthinkable.
LL
It can be arranged. How soon can you get me a new design of the experiment?
JONATHAN
We’ll need a couple of days for the design.
(short laugh)
We also need an instrument with ranges in excess of 2 gigaherz. But they haven’t been invented yet.
LL
Don’t be so sure.
As LL leaves she and Tom eye each other.
LL
Take him back.
BOB
I asked you not to sedate him! It could skew our experiments. And I've seen animals in a zoo that have more room to move around than he has!
LL
This is not a zoo, Dr. Santiago. It's a research facility.
As the DOOR CLOSES
BOB
turns to Jonathan – they have long been colleagues.
BOB
Are you crazy! You can’t do invasive experiments on human subjects!
JONATHAN
Didn’t I just buy us all –
(briefly leans his head in Tom’s direction)
more time?
SLOAN’S APARTMENT – DAY
A PHONE RINGING.
SLOAN
grabs it as ED looks up from a book.
SLOAN
Hello?
WALTER
It’s Walter.
SLOAN
Have you found out anything about Tom?
WALTER
No, but I think you’ll want to turn on your television set.
She does. We see
A STILL PICTURE OF LL on the T.V. screen.
REPORTER
In a shocking development, Alexandra Luthor is being sought in connection with illegal experimentation on human subjects. President Clinton’s National Security Advisor John Maxwell and Al Paxter of P.E.T.S., a well known animal rights organization, have uncovered evidence ...
(voice fades into the background)
WALTER
By the way, you can go back to work anytime you like.
SLOAN
We already have the lab back?
ED gives her a thumbs up. Hot dog, we’re finally getting somewhere.
Walter
Get used to more security people on your doorsteps and everywhere else until she’s picked up.
SLOAN
You’ll let us know as soon as you know anything about Tom?
END INTERCUT
CUT TO:
INT. RAY’S HOUSE - DAY
RAY
walks in after the press conference. Past the security.
GRACE greets him at the door, smiling. Glad to have him back safe with them. But -
GRACE
Where’s Matt?
RAY
Isn’t he here?
GRACE
He’s supposed to be with you – you left me a message saying you were going to pick him up after school.
RAY
Honey, I didn’t leave a message.
GRACE
But it was you, Ray. You said you wanted to make sure he got home without any trouble.
Ray heads back out the door, walking quickly.
GRACE
Where are you going?
RAY (Off Stage)
To the school!
GRACE
I’m going with you!
GRACE
grabs her purse, and runs out after her husband.
EXT. RAY’S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS
RAY
Honey, you stay here in case he shows up. I’ll call you as soon as I know anything.
Ray gets in
INT. RAY’S CAR – CONTINUOUS
the car and heads toward the school. Tense. Scared to death.
PHONE RINGS.
MATTHEW
Dad.
RAY
Matthew, Son, where are you?
MATTHEW
At the Village Pantry on 18th and Brady.
RAY
Honey, how’d you-
MATTHEW
It was weird, Dad. The security guard you sent picked me up from school and stopped here to get gas. Sent me in to get a couple of sodas. When I came out he was gone.
RAY
Matthew, I’m on my way. Don’t you leave there with anyone except me or your mother, you understand?
Hangs up the phone – and it immediately RINGS. When he answers it
LL
See how easily I can still get to your family?
(beat)
Next time you won’t find him so easily.
END INTERCUT.
OFF RAY WE
