C L E O P A T R A ' S  M U M M Y

 

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This story is about a group of brilliant German, Swiss and Egyptian scientists working to bring Cleopatra to life, when they find her tomb and mummy more than 2,000 years after her death. Amateur anthropologist, John Storm is called in to help identify and stop the sect responsible, the CIA officially fearing retribution from the reincarnated Queen of Egypt and disorder, but actually wanting to steal the cloning technology. The Elizabeth Swann's AI, 'Hal,' plays an important part in helping the tough adventurer solve this riddle.

 

 

 

POSTER - Advertising for 'Cleopatra Reborn,' depicting the splendor of Egypt overlooked by the Queen of the Nile, waiting for over two centuries for the technology to bring her back from the afterlife.


 


CLEOPATRA THE MUMMY (REBORN): CLEANER OCEAN FOUNDATION LTD.
Copyright © 17 February 2023 All rights reserved.

 

(Studio executives: this is a 93 page script written in Final Draft)

 


EXT. CLEOPATRA’S PALACE - ALEXANDRIA - DAY

 

CLEOPATRA’S ROYAL PALACE -- ALEXANDRIA’S ROYAL PORT --
crystal-blue waters bathed in sunshine and dotted with wooden ships hauled by rows of oarsmen...

SUPER: ‘ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT, 365 AD’

RED GRANITE SPHINXES guard the palace and look down on the marble-paved esplanade, where COURTIERS, TRADERS, SEAFARING FOLK and a COLOURFUL MEDLEY OF OTHER HUMAN TRAFFIC give the
scene movement, and life...

ON THE ESPLANADE -- TRADER#1 shows off a swathe of fine raw silk to the attentive crowd of merchants gathered there at his stall. SILK YARNS burst from woven baskets. FINISHED SILK GARMENTS, all hues, hang deliciously from fixed wires --

-- The Trader’s stall is an explosion of texture and colour.

 

TRADER#1
The finest silk from the Orient. (Inviting merchants to
feel the fabric)
No finer silk will you find anywhere in Egypt.

Those gathered nod in agreement. They seem impressed.

IN THE HARBOUR -- A large wooden ship navigating through the harbour’s gentle swells...

 

ON THE SHIP -- Swarthy LEAD SEAMAN barking orders -- LEAD SEAMAN
Bring her to! Steady! Starboard oars, back astern!
ON THE ESPLANADE -- Merchants trading bids...
MERCHANT#1
I’ll give one hundred solidus!

TRADER#1
No more?

MERCHANT#2
One hundred plus the hand of my daughter!

Cheers from the crowd --
MERCHANT#3
I have two daughters. The silk is mine!

Merchant#3 takes the silk amid more cheers and raucous laughter.


IN THE HARBOUR -- Ship glides effortlessly into its docking port -- SHIP’S CAPTAIN (ALEXIUS) disembarks, sweeps up the marble steps and disappears inside the royal palace.

INT. CLEOPATRA’S PALACE - MAUSOLEUM - DAY

Soft light, reverent, almost eerie -- elaborate paintings -- hieroglyphics -- two sarcophagi decorated with gold leaf side- by-side on a marble plinth -- the sculpted face of a man and a woman, and --

-- CLEOPATRA’S ROYAL SEAL.

INT. CLEOPATRA’S PALACE - COURTYARD - CONTINUOUS

A small clique of PRIESTS AND HIGH OFFICIALS converse in the vast colonnaded courtyard. Alexius enters. CHIEF OFFICIAL turns, greets him.

CHIEF OFFICIAL
Alexius! You return with good news?
ALEXIUS
Indeed, Niketas. The Tetrarchy will govern for a thousand years. The walls of Alexandria will stand for all eternity.

CHIEF OFFICIAL
If that be God’s will, Alexius. If that be God’s will.

The two men embrace warmly. All is well with their world, until --

-- THEIR WORLD SUDDENLY SHIVERS -- then starts to grumble beneath their feet. A small tremor to begin, but enough that shock, then fear, registers on the men’s faces.

ALEXIUS
I fear God’s will is otherwise, Niketas. Come gentlemen!

An instinctive scramble for the exit now as the tremor quickly transforms into a rumbling quake that shakes the walls and columns of the palace --

-- CHUNKS OF FALLING MASONRY AND MARBLE CRASH AT THEIR FEET
as the terrified men make their escape --

INT. CLEOPATRA’S PALACE - MAUSOLEUM - CONTINUOUS

-- Also here, down here in the mausoleum, walls tremble, masonry falls...


EXT. CLEOPATRA’S PALACE - CONTINUOUS

 

Out here too, the GREAT COLUMNS OF THE PALACE SHUDDER AND
CRACK AND SPIT DEBRIS -- a violent, turbulent harbour now -- a roaring, raging sea swallowing huge marble boulders that crash into its depths...

ON THE ESPLANADE -- People running and screaming, covering their heads -- others falling to their knees in prayer...

Trader#1 desperate, gathering up his wares, the earth trembling violently beneath him --

-- Merchant#3 scrabbling away with his swathe of silk -- a melee, confused, disoriented, panicked.

IN THE HARBOUR -- Alexius’s ship, pitched and tossed like a child’s toy by an unforgiving sea. Sailors screaming as they are hurled overboard...

AT THE PALACE ENTRANCE -- Alexius exits the palace, stares in horror as his ship is swallowed by the tempestuous ocean.

INT. CLEOPATRA’S PALACE - MAUSOLEUM - CONTINUOUS

Still raining marble and stone down here -- a small mountain of rubble starting to smother the sarcophagi.

EXT. CLEOPATRA’S PALACE - CONTINUOUS

GENERAL PANIC NOW -- PEOPLE RUNNING, SCREAMING, OTHERS THROWN TO THE GROUND BY THE EARTH’S VIOLENCE -- WINDS ROARING, WAVES CRASHING -- THE PALACE SHAKING, SPLINTERING, CRUMBLING -- EVERYTHING LOUD, TERRIFYING, APOCALYPTIC, until, suddenly --

-- SILENCE ... An eerie, unnatural silence. No quaking. No wind. No movement. No one running or yelling. People frozen in a moment, eyes staring in disbelief as the harbour is drained of its load and THE OCEAN IS SUCKED OUT ALL THE WAY TO THE HORIZON as if by some magical force -- the now-dry harbour a graveyard of stranded, grounded ships.

This unnatural silence lasts for a beat, two, then --

MAYHEM as one and then the next the crowd starts to surge forward -- a cavalry charge -- an unruly mob driven by herd instinct -- wild faces leaping down into the harbour, looting the stranded ships, taking whatever they can...

IN THE HARBOUR -- A MERCHANT SHIP laying there on its side -- desperate faces clambering aboard, fighting over garments, silks, other fabrics and goods...

A SECOND SHIP -- hands plying open a wooden chest -- gold coins spilling onto the floor -- people fighting over the coins, filling their bags and pockets...


ON THE ESPLANADE -- Alexius observes the disturbing scenes, then catches sight of something way more disturbing --

ALEXIUS
(to himself) My God.

ALEXIUS POV: THE OCEAN MAKING ITS RETURN -- THERE! ON THE HORIZON! -- A VAST WALL OF WATER HURTLING BACK TO SHORE...

IN THE HARBOUR -- the looters see the returning ocean -- start to scramble back to shore -- terrified faces laden with looted goods, weighing them down -- feet sinking in the muddy seabed -- young and old screaming as they run for their lives
-- the ocean almost upon them...

ON THE ESPLANADE -- ALEXIUS LOOKS ON IN HORROR AS THE VAST WALL OF WATER CLOSES ON THEM -- SLAMMING INTO THE HARBOUR, SWALLOWING THE LOOTERS, DESTROYING ALL IN ITS PATH...

THE HORRIFIED FACE OF ALEXIUS IS THE LAST THING WE SEE AS THE TOWERING WALL OF OCEAN LOOMS OVER HIM, THREATENING, ABOUT TO CRASH DOWN ON HIM...

But we --

                                                                                                        CUT TO BLACK:
AND STAY ON BLACK...

CREDITS.

EXT. LONDON DOCKLANDS - DAY

A SWEEP OF LONDON’S FAMOUS SKYLINE - THE CITY, THE SHARD, TOWER BRIDGE, DOCKLANDS...

SUPER: ‘LONDON, PRESENT DAY’

INT. GEORGE FRANKS OFFICE - DAY

COMPUTER SCREEN IMAGE: ‘MORE CLUES IN HUNT FOR CLEOPATRA’S TOMB...’

Headline accompanied by ruins of Cleopatra’s Royal Palace and associated artifacts eerily discarded on the ocean bed.

GEORGE FRANKS -- fit for his 60 years, expensively suited, distinguished, meticulously trimmed moustache -- sits at his desk and studies the page on his computer screen --

-- Then pushes himself up and stares thoughtfully out the window of his industrial-chic penthouse office.

London stares back at him, the sight breathtaking.


But even more breathtaking is the sight that takes his eye now, moored up down there at the West India Quay Marina hundreds of feet below --

FRANKS’S POV: A GLEAMING FUTURISTIC TRIMARAN with solar-
panelled decking and sleek, space-age design --
-- THE ELIZABETH SWANN.
And there’s a man down there, too --

EXT. DOCKLANDS MARINA - CONTINUOUS

-- A bare-chested 40-year-old with workout torso and rugged good looks hauling supplies aboard the supertech vessel --

-- JOHN STORM offloads a hefty container, then calls to his first mate.

STORM
Hawk! I could do with a hand out here if it’s not too much trouble.

A shout from inside the Swann’s forward helm --
HAWK (O.C.)
Be right there, Skip!

INT. GEORGE FRANKS OFFICE - SAME TIME

Still peering out the window Franks keeps Storm in his sights as he speaks into the voice-activated in-house comms system --

FRANKS
John Storm.

INT. ELIZABETH SWANN FORWARD HELM - CONTINUOUS

It’s a technological playground in here -- touchpads, keypads, organic LED screens, control console --

-- And an impudent master computer called HAL.

22-year-old DAN HAWK -- John Lennon glasses, geekish good looks, former child prodigy and avid gamer with an off-the- scale IQ -- completes last minute checks with Hal.

HAWK
Checks complete, Hal.
HAL
I told you I’d already run the checks myself. If you’d listened...


HAWK
(interrupting)
Always worth a crosscheck. We can all make mistakes.

HAL
Mistakes? I’ll remind you I’m an AI genius, level one.

HAWK
Only while you’re switched on. I can unplug you at any time.

HAL
You wouldn’t dare.
HAWK
No? I also whipped your butt on the gaming console the other day if you care to remember. You’re not that clever.

HAL
You cheated.
HAWK
I did not cheat!
Storm enters --
STORM
Everything in order, Hawk. Only I really could do with some help.

HAWK
Ah, Skip. Yes. I was just...
HAL
He was just about to turn me off. The nerve!

The face of George Franks blinks up on the comms LED screen and puts a stop to the bickering.

FRANKS
I trust I’m not interrupting anything of global importance?

HAWK
Ah, Mr Franks.
STORM
George. No not at all. We were just loading up - right Hawk?

HAWK
(sheepish) Right Skip.


A wry smile from Franks, then --
FRANKS
John. I thought we might have a word before you set sail. There’s been a slight change of plan.

EXT. HYDE PARK - DAY
A BURST OF SUNLIGHT SHIVERS IN WATER MIST thrown up by a
white marble fountain. We are in --

-- THE ITALIAN GARDENS, Hyde Park’s famous water garden -- the old Pump House, stone statues, water basins, fountains...

...And anonymous faces admiring the views as Franks and Storm wander beside the gardens towards Serpentine Bridge.

FRANKS
Steve Green called. A matter of some concern in Brazil. Since your latest adventure is taking you to that part of the world I thought you might like to hear what he had to say.

STORM
I’m all ears.

A WOMAN dressed all in black - skinny jeans, tight top, long black coat - observes Franks and Storm through the fountain’s water mist. The mist partially obscures her from view.

FRANKS
He and Charley are investigating a series of mysterious kidnappings, indigenous people of the Amazon Basin disappearing without trace. No kidnappers. No ransom demands. No apparent motive.

Now we see The Woman clearly. She is tall and slim with closely cropped ice-blond hair and violent-blue eyes. She looks hi-tech automaton - part human, part machine --

-- ENHANCED.

She puts a hand to her ear and we hear Franks’ voice through The Woman’s biologically enhanced auditory cortex. It sounds as though she is wearing a CONCEALED EARPIECE.

FRANKS (EARPIECE VOICE) (CONT’D)
Charley thinks the kidnappings are connected to a covert HET programme she’s been investigating.

BACK WITH STORM AND FRANKS -- Approaching the Long Water...


STORM
HET - Human Enhancement Technology. I read Charley’s reports from last year. As I recall she seemed to think the HET programme wasn’t all that was going on, that it was part of something bigger.

Storm senses Franks is holding back --

STORM (CONT’D)
George...?

FRANKS
Ancient genomics. Genetic editing. Human cloning. The creation of a genetically superior human...

THE WOMAN’S FACE observing them from the HENRY MOORE ARCH now
-- how can she suddenly be there?
FRANKS (EARPIECE VOICE) (CONT’D)
...Or race of humans. The details are still rather sketchy.

BACK WITH STORM AND FRANKS -- Alongside the Long Water --
STORM
Sounds like a neo-Nazi tea party.
FRANKS
Yes, but even more deadly. We believe the kidnap victims are being used as guinea pigs. DNA experiments. The study of the indigenous genome. The details are in Charley’s latest report which she sent to Steve Green yesterday.

THE WOMAN’S POV FROM HENRY MOORE ARCH: ENHANCED BIOTECH
VISION brings Storm and Franks into sharp focus -- Storm struggling to come to terms with what Franks is saying.

STORM (EARPIECE VOICE)
How certain is Charley about all of this, George? Genetic enhancement is one thing, but cloning a race of superior humans from an ancient genome?

BACK WITH STORM AND FRANKS -- Approaching Serpentine Bridge...

STORM (CONT’D)
Next you’ll be telling me they’re digging up the dead and harvesting their DNA. Frankly it’s all a bit...


Franks stops abruptly, fixes Storm with a look that says ‘that’s exactly what they’re doing’.

STORM (CONT’D)
You’re kidding me. (beat)
You’re not kidding me.

EXT. SERPENTINE BRIDGE / ROAD - CONTINUOUS
ON THE BRIDGE -- The Woman’s BIOLOGICALLY ENHANCED EYES ZOOM
IN on Storm and Franks in conversation --
FRANKS (EARPIECE VOICE)
Speaking of digging up the dead ... I presume the archaeologist in you has been following the search for Cleopatra’s tomb --
BACK WITH STORM AND FRANKS -- Face to face by the lake -- FRANKS (CONT’D)
-- The dig in Alexandria.
STORM (EARPIECE VOICE)
With increasing interest, yes, but...?

FRANKS
Keep an eye on it.
CLICK! CLICK! A PHOTOGRAPH OF STORM AND FRANKS captured by
The Woman’s biotech-enhanced iris.
FRANKS (CONT’D)
In the meantime we think it might be of benefit if you factor in a last-minute change to your planned voyage. Take a brief detour.

STORM
To Alexandria?

Franks glances up towards Serpentine Bridge. Is the The Woman he can see up there observing them? He turns back to Storm --

FRANKS
Panama.


EXT. ATLANTIC OCEAN - DAY
The Elizabeth Swann powers through the ocean -- majestic...
HAL (O.C.)
Panama! That’ll add days to our schedule.


INT. ELIZABETH SWANN FORWARD HELM - CONTINUOUS

LED screen highlighting the Swann’s current position off the coast of Dakar -- Hawk plotting a course across the Atlantic to the Leeward Islands and Panama -- Storm at the helm.

HAWK
The only place in the world where you can watch sunrise over the Pacific and sunset over the Atlantic on the same day.

HAL
Nice if you have eyes to see it, I suppose, which I don’t, in case you hadn’t noticed. Why Panama, anyway?

STORM
Why indeed.

EXT. PANAMA - DESERTED BEACH - DAY

A gloriously sunny day -- golden-white sands bordered by lush green tropical foliage, turquoise seas...

SUPER: ‘PANAMA’

A highly toned man in his mid-20s pumps muscle as he sprints along the beach at impossible speed. Ice-blond hair. Violent- blue eyes. He is PANAMA.

MOBILE PHONE SCREEN IMAGE: Panama hurtling towards us now, streaking past us and disappearing along the deserted beach.

IN THE COVER OF THE FOLIAGE: MAJ BOYLE -- mid-20s, knotted
shirt, shorts, hiking boots and AQUAMARINE BRACELET -- tucks her phone in the pocket of her rucksack and looks on amazed as the runner disappears into the distance.

AT THE END OF THE BEACH -- Panama comes to a halt, his implausibly honed physique scarcely catching breath. He is fit beyond imagining -- part-human, part-machine -- ENHANCED.

INT. BEACH HUT - LATER
LAPTOP SCREEN IMAGE: A PROFILE PIC OF MAJ beams back at us
from her YouTube channel -- thumbnails of exotic locations -- beaches, cities, mountains, deserts --

-- The channel is entitled ‘MAJ’S TRAVELS’.

Maj uploads her footage of the runner from her mobile to her laptop, her aquamarine bracelet prominent as she hits play --

LAPTOP SCREEN IMAGE: PANAMA RUNS. AND RUNS. AND RUNS...


-- Maj thumbs out a Whatsapp message. Hits SEND. LAPTOP SCREEN IMAGE: PANAMA RUNS. AND RUNS. AND RUNS...
MATCH CUT TO:

INT. STEVE’S OFFICE - DAY
MOBILE SCREEN IMAGE: PANAMA RUNS. AND RUNS. AND RUNS...

STEVE GREEN cannot believe his eyes. The 40-year-old Afro- American is sat at his desk, mobile phone in hand, watching the Whatsapp video he has just received from Maj --

-- Still watching the video he punches in CHARLEY TEMPLE’S number...

INT. MEDIA OFFICE - MANAUS - DAY

...CHARLEY TEMPLE - early 30s, boyishly attractive, raven- black hair thrown back in a pony tail - takes a coffee from the vending machine just as her MOBILE PHONE PINGS. She picks it up off her desk and sees that it’s a message from Steve.

CHARLEY
(addressing the phone) Good morning, Steve.

She opens the message, sits herself down. Cannot believe what she sees. Her phone rings -- it’s already on SPEAKERPHONE.

CHARLEY (CONT’D)
Steve, where did you get this?
INTERCUT BETWEEN STEVE’S OFFICE AND CHARLEY’S MEDIA OFFICE

STEVE’S OFFICE -- Steve palming his forehead, as if trying to smooth away a headache.

STEVE
Maj Boyle.

WITH CHARLEY -- Still glued to the Whatsapp video --
CHARLEY
The Maj Boyle? The travelogue journo?

STEVE (TELEPHONE VOICE)
That Maj Boyle, yeah.

Charley starts typing frantically on her computer keyboard. Brings up MAJ’S TRAVELS on YouTube --

COMPUTER SCREEN IMAGE: The Panama video has already received 500,000+ views.


STEVE (TELEPHONE VOICE) (CONT’D)
Charley you need to be careful. This throws a whole different light on things.

Charley stares and stares at the YouTube video -- views now 642,000+ -- 793,000+ -- counting...

EXT. NEUWELT RITTERTUM HQ - MANAUS - DAY
ESTABLISHING SHOT: A STATUE OF THE EGYPTIAN GODDESS ISIS
stares back at us. She stands ominously before a bleak baroque edifice with towers, columns and a manicured frontage overseen by crowns and eagles -- like a Reichstag...

SUPER: ‘NEUWELT RITTERTUM HQ, MANAUS, BRAZIL’

A sinister black limousine with blacked-out windows rolls into the front driveway and pulls up at the foot of the broad stone steps leading up to the entrance.

At the top of the steps a man of middle age with studious features wears a formal suit and tense expression. His name is RUDOLF KESSLER. Several others wait with him.

CHAUFFEUR and BODYGUARD climb out of the limo. Bodyguard opens the rear door to reveal --

BARON VON RICHTHOFEN -- Violent-blue eyes and chiselled features framed by meticulously styled ice-blond hair. He wears an expensively tailored suit partly concealed beneath a black leather trench coat draped on his broad shoulders --

-- The Baron is superfit. And as if to prove it he marches up the steps two at a time, brushing past Kessler as if the man’s not there.

KESSLER
Baron von Richthofen. So good to see you.

RICHTHOFEN
We must talk.

INT. NEUWELT RITTERTUM HQ - STUDY - CONTINUOUS

A grand old study -- big burnished table, oil paintings, chandeliers, blood-red leather upholstery --

-- And there, perched above an encircled SWASTIKA on the oak- panelled wall at the head of the table, a NAZI EAGLE IN GOLD RELIEF. Beneath the swastika, the words: ‘NEUWELT RITTERTUM’ speak loud and clear.

Richthofen throws off his coat, seats himself at the head of the table. Kessler remains standing. No one else is in here.


RICHTHOFEN
We have a problem, Kessler.
KESSLER
A problem, Baron?
RICHTHOFEN
We’re on the news. All over the internet. Whose idea was it to run the latest trials in Panama? Out in the open? In broad daylight?

KESSLER
Well I ... the subject is his own person now. He took the decision himself. He has even taken the name Panama. He feels it celebrates the place of his ... rebirth.
(a nervous pause)
Also, the baron will be pleased to learn that the trials were hugely successful. Exceeding even our highest expectations.

A further nervous beat as Richthofen considers Kessler’s explanation. Then --

RICHTHOFEN
Panama. This is his name? He calls himself Panama?

KESSLER
Yes, Baron.
RICHTHOFEN
(like a proud father) Good. I like it. That is all.

Kessler bows his head, clicks his heels together, turns to leave, but --

RICHTHOFEN (CONT’D)
Kessler.

Kessler halts, turns back to face Richthofen.
RICHTHOFEN (CONT’D)
Once Panama has dealt with the girl, bring him in. There is something more he can do for us.

EXT. ATLANTIC OCEAN - DAY

Elizabeth Swann powering ahead at impressive speed -- Storm on deck letting out the main sheet -- the sound of warfare --


INT. ELIZABETH SWANN FORWARD HELM - CONTINUOUS

-- The navigation computer CAPTAIN NEMO manning the helm -- Hawk and Hal playing a ‘shoot ‘em up’ video game on the main LED screen -- Hawk’s fingers dancing across the touchpad at blinding speed -- several enemy soldiers wiped out...

...But then -- ‘GAME MALFUNCTION’ -- flashes up on screen.
HAL
There! See? I told you you were cheating!

HAWK
I am not cheating! That’s a perfectly legitimate move!

Storm enters --
STORM
Problem Hal?
HAL
He keeps cheating!

HAWK
I do not!

STORM
(asserting himself) Progress report, Nemo. Hawk if I could borrow the screen for just one moment? One sat call?

HAWK
Oh, yes, sorry. Of course, Skip.

Hawk fingers a series of touch buttons -- screen eats video game -- switches to video call mode.

NEMO
Progress report Captain Storm. Twenty-four hydrogen-powered, one- hundred-percent sustainable knots heading west due west. Two days out from the Leewards, half a day ahead of schedule.

STORM
Impressive. Thank you, Nemo. (to Hawk)
Get me Charley Temple, Hawk, would you?

HAWK
Skip.

Hawk dials up Charley Temple on the touchpad...


STORM
You think you can maintain the helm for a while Nemo?

NEMO
No poblem, Captain Storm.
A flicker on the LED screen --
HAWK
Charley Temple coming through, Skip.

Charley’s face blinks up on screen. Slightly reddened. Slightly breathless. Wearing sleeveless vest and gorgeous smile, leaning on the bars of a treadmill. She’s in the gym.

STORM
Charley. You look as though you’re struggling.

CHARLEY
You caught me on the back end of a four-minute mile.

She blows a knot of hair from in front of her face and swigs from a reusable water bottle --

CHARLEY (CONT’D)
Seriously though, you’re right. I am struggling - struggling to work out exactly what’s going on here.

STORM
I spoke to George.
CHARLEY
I spoke to Steve. Things have moved on. This is bigger than we thought. When will you be here?

STORM
Hal?

A few beeps and flashing lights from Hal, then --
HAL
Assuming we avoid the dark magic of the Bermuda Triangle, and taking into account our unscheduled stopover in Panama...

CHARLEY
Panama? You’ve seen the footage?
STORM
The whole world has seen it. It’s gone viral.


CHARLEY
That’s no surprise. It was filmed by the travelogue influencer, Maj Boyle. Over a million subscribers and half a billion views. She’s a big voice.

STORM
Well let’s hope she has a lot to say when I speak to her. Meantime it’s probably best you keep a low profile till I get there, if that’s something you’re capable of.

CHARLEY
Ha-ha. I guess it depends how long it takes you to get here.

HAL
Yes, well, ahh ... excuse me interrupting, but I was just in process of calculating our ETA...

STORM
Hang fast, Charley. I’ll be with you as soon as I can.

CHARLEY
Copy that.
Charley blinks out.

HAL
Honestly I don’t know why I bother.

EXT. BEACH HUT - PANAMA - DAY

A glorious sunny day -- Maj in bikini and shades lounging on the veranda, soaking up the rays, working on her laptop. Her AQUAMARINE BRACELET glints in the sunlight as she reaches for the ice-cold drink at her side and sips it, just as --

-- A SHADOW CREEPS SLOWLY ACROSS HER BODY.
Startled, Maj looks up. Violent-blue eyes drill down on her.

PANAMA
Bad girl.


EXT. LABORATORY COMPLEX - NEAR MANAUS - DAY

ESTABLISHING SHOT: A large clearing in the rainforest. A complex of single-storey buildings concealed by the forest’s thick green canopy and surrounded by a perimeter fence with a manned steel gate. The only way in. And out. A rutted dirt- track cuts through the forest all the way to the gate.


INT. LABORATORY COMPLEX - CONTINUOUS

Steel and chrome. And white -- cold white lights -- white walls -- white ceilings -- white floors. White coats worn by the team of scientists and technicians who work in here --

INT. LABORATORY 5 - CONTINUOUS

-- And the pasty white complexion of KLAUS VON KOLREUTER as he steps from his glass-walled office into LABORATORY 5.

It is busy in here, clinical and focused. Heads poring over microscopes, test tubes, pcr plates and more. Molecular biology machines. Incubators. Thermal cyclers. Other scientific paraphernalia, including --

-- THE REPLIVATOR, a giant biological incubator, gleaming steel, but ugly, large enough for fully formed adult humans.

Kolreuter stops at the Replivator bay and addresses the white coat working there - a portly man, late 50s, bald pate, wire- rimmed glasses. His name is FRANCO FRANCISCO.

KLAUS
Ah Franco.

FRANCO
Klaus.

KLAUS
A word if I may.
Ushers him to one side --
KLAUS (CONT’D)
The baron is in town. He wants to know how long.

FRANCO
How long?

KLAUS
Yes Franco, how long.

Klaus holds Franco’s eye, demanding. Franco knows what Klaus means. He holds his tongue for a beat longer, then --

FRANCO
Tell the baron all is well. The minute the samples arrive we are good to go.

INT. GEORGE FRANKS OFFICE - DAY

Franks pours himself a drink as he watches an item on the daytime news...


NEWSREADER
Egyptian fisherman, Ahmed Saleh, today recovered artifacts that experts believe may have belonged to the Egyptian queen, Cleopatra.

The story pricks Franks’ ears. He turns the TV up.

TV SCREEN IMAGE: Screen flicks to a shot of 50-year-old fisherman AHMED SALEH holding the artifacts up to camera -- A COMB AND A HAIRBRUSH. Then pointing out to sea as though indicating the spot where he found them.

NEWSREADER (CONT’D)
The objects, a comb and a hairbrush embossed with what appears to be the ancient pharaoh’s Royal Seal, were discovered by Mr Saleh while he was out fishing off the coast of Alexandria.

EXT. EASTERN HARBOUR - ALEXANDRIA - DAY

A SAND-COLOURED MERCEDES 4X4 idles on the seafront as a SMALL FISHING BOAT chugs into port and docks...

VOICE OF NEWSREADER CONTINUES...
NEWSREADER (V.O.)
It’s believed the artifacts may have been submerged, along with Cleopatra’s tomb, as a result of the earthquake and tsunami that struck the region in AD 365. It’s hoped Mr Saleh’s discovery could finally lead archaeologists to the tomb itself, although to date the fisherman has declined to reveal the precise location of his find.

INT. MERCEDES 4X4 - CONTINUOUS

A body to kill, and to kill for. Tanned. Long raven-black hair swept back off her face. Obsidian pearls for eyes --

-- 24-year-old SAFIYA SABUKA sits in the driver seat and observes the fishing boat as it docks. Then the boat’s gnarly captain -- 50-year-old AHMED SALEH -- stepping out on deck.

VOICE OF NEWSREADER CONTINUES...
NEWSREADER (V.O.)
It’s understood the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities is keen to trace Mr Saleh’s whereabouts.


Safiya prods the man sleeping by her side, scrunched in the passenger seat.

SAFIYA
Musa. Musa.

32-year-old MUSA BOMANI -- languid and unshaven, wearing a lightweight desert suit -- jolts awake. Squints. Shields his eyes from the sunlight. Orients himself ... then sees Safiya peering out the window. He follows the line of her sight.

SAFIYA (CONT’D)
That’s him.

Musa’s bleary gaze homes in on the fisherman. He nods. They climb out.

EXT. MANAUS WATERFRONT - DAY
A CACOPHONY OF SOUND AND COLOUR...

INDUSTRIAL COMPLEXES, RESIDENTIAL SHANTIES -- RIVERBOATS, FISHING BOATS, CARGO SHIPS -- A MARKET SELLING FISH, LIVE PIGS, FRUIT AND VEG -- A BAR, A RIVERSIDE CAFE...

EXT. MANAUS WATERFRONT CAFE - DAY

Charley pulls up an image on her mobile as WAITRESS serves her coffee. Charley thanks her. Calls the waitress back as she makes to leave.

CHARLEY
Wait. Do you ... do you know any English?

The waitress eyes Charley suspiciously. Shakes her head --
-- Charley holds up her mobile.

MOBILE PHONE IMAGE: A man’s face -- a chubby face, late 50s, bald pate and wire-rimmed glasses -- Francisco Franco.

CHARLEY (CONT’D)
You know him? Have you seen him? Ahh ... voce o viu? You seen him?

Again waitress shakes her head. Turns. Hurries away.
CHARLEY (CONT’D)
I guess that’s a no, then.
Charley drains her coffee, gets up to leave --

-- Outside a bar on the opposite side of the street A MAN IN HIS EARLY 40s -- jeans, conquista vest, tarp hat -- lifts his eyes from his mobile --


-- Those eyes follow Charley all the way along the street.

EXT. BEACH HUT - PANAMA - DAY
Storm approaches the isolated hut --

Storm Hello? Anyone here?

No reply. On the veranda an empty recliner. A half-empty glass. A kindle. A discarded AQUAMARINE BRACELET --

-- He picks up the bracelet. Studies it for a brief moment, as though it might hold clues. Then slips it in his pocket.

He goes to the door --

STORM (CONT’D)
Hello?

-- Finds it ajar. Feels instinctively uneasy as warily he pushes it open. Again he calls out.

STORM (CONT’D)
Hello?

No reply. He steps inside -- bamboo walls, a ceiling fan, a bed, a small wooden table, a chair -- a few clothes strewn lazily on the bed, women’s clothes --

-- On the floor beside the bed a pair of hiking boots. On the table a passport, and money. On the chair, a laptop.

He opens the laptop -- password-locked. Closes it. Checks the passport. The photo tells him it belongs to Maj Boyle --

-- Increasingly uneasy now, he turns and edges towards the shower room. The door is ajar. He eases it open --

-- Then he sees it. A woman’s foot lying cold and still. Her body concealed behind the half-open door. Storm pulls out his mobile. Hits a contact.

STORM (CONT’D)
George. If it wasn’t already, the game has just turned deadly.

INT. NEUWELT RITTERTUM HQ - SANCTUM - DAY
A COLD STONE PLACE, LIKE THE CRYPT OF A DARK MAGICIAN...

Richthofen dressed in full Nazi uniform and accompanying regalia - Reichsleiter tunic with collar insignia, swastika armband, dress shirt, jackboots, cap --


-- He stands before an altar -- like a stone coffin draped in a Nazi flag. The altar is flanked by ornate gold candelabrum in which candles flicker, throwing off an eerie black light --

-- Richthofen’s eyes close.

A chant bleeds in, ungodly, like monks chanting a sacred mantra, but backwards. The chant reverberates around the sanctum, increasing in volume, growing louder and louder until it reaches an ugly crescendo...

Then --
Silence. Chant ceases abruptly. Richthofen’s eyes snap open.

EXT. EASTERN HARBOUR - ALEXANDRIA - DAY
Ahmed on deck, mending his nets. A voice calls to him --
SAFIYA
Ahmed Saleh.

Ahmed turns, his eye pleased with what it sees -- Safiya in body-hugging leggings and revealing bralette -- in her hand, a black attache case.

EXT. EASTERN HARBOUR CAFE - ALEXANDRIA - CONTINUOUS

Musa sits at a quay-side cafe with a coffee and a cigarette, eyes fixed on Ahmed’s fishing vessel a small distance away. On the table a PACK OF CLEOPATRA KING SIZE --

MUSA’S POV: Safiya climbing aboard Ahmed’s fishing vessel -- she and Ahmed disappearing inside the cabin...

-- Musa sucks in a lung full of smoke.

EXT. LABORATORY COMPLEX - NEAR MANAUS - DAY
ESTABLISHING SHOT: THE MANNED SECURITY GATE: A GATEHOUSE AND
2 ARMED GUARDS WITH AK-47s...

...Jeep roars up to the gate -- GUARD#1 steps forward and peers in the jeep’s driver seat, sees --

-- Violent-blue eyes.

GUARD#1
Your pass.

PANAMA
No pass.

GUARD#1
No pass, no entry.


Panama simply stares at the guard. Beat. Another beat. The third beat is a blur...

-- BAM! Jeep door smashes open -- Guard#1 launched high in the air -- Guard#2 training his rifle on Panama but Panama moving on him at impossible speed, disarming him and snapping his shoulder from its socket --

-- Guard#1 thuds to the ground, out cold...

-- Guard#2 on his knees, nursing his broken shoulder, sobbing like a baby...

All this in the blink of an eye.
Panama climbs in the Jeep, drives into the compound.

INT. KLAUS’S OFFICE - DAY
A clinical glass-walled office looking out on Laboratory 5... Klaus at his desk, displeased -- Panama before him, unmoved --
KLAUS
The guards, Panama, they are on our team. I would not want to have to deactivate you.

Panama simply stares -- Klaus pushes himself up --
KLAUS (CONT’D)
Come with me.

INT. PROGRAMMING ROOM - CONTINUOUS

Banks of hi-tech equipment -- steel and chrome everywhere -- Monitors. Screens. Cables. Readouts --

-- And a chair, front and centre, like a dentist’s chair.

Panama strapped in the chair, wired up to monitors. Probes running from his head, neck, ears and eyes. He looks like a robo-human, switched off. Only his heart functions.

ASSISTANT studies the readout as Klaus runs a sequence on a keyboard -- Panama twitches.

ASSISTANT
Synapse impulse firing. Memory implant functions normal.

KLAUS
Excellent.

Klaus inserts a nano-implant into one of the probe ports -- again Panama flinches.


ASSISTANT
He knows who he is?
KLAUS
In a sense. He’s a crossbreed. Part Olympic athlete, part elite forces. He also carries DNA from Baron von Richthofen, as well as from...

Klaus activates the implant -- a run of LEDs on the readout --
KLAUS (CONT’D)
...Other things.
READOUT FLASHES: ‘VISUAL CORTEX IMPLANT ACTIVATED’

LED SCREEN IMAGE: Storm with Franks in Hyde Park (it’s the photograph taken by The Woman’s biotech iris).

READOUT FLASHES: ‘IMAGE EMBEDDED’
KLAUS (CONT’D)
The image on the screen is a projection from his visual cortex. It is now an embedded memory, one he believes to be his own.

Assistant runs commands in the keyboard --

LED SCREEN IMAGE: Franks cropped out of the image -- screen zooms in on Storm --

KLAUS (CONT’D)
Unlike the female, who’s brain we were able to organically enhance, he is purely a physical specimen. We feed in the information, he sees what we want him to see --

Another series of commands in the keyboard --

LED SCREEN IMAGE: Storm’s face slowly swivels round until it’s centred on screen.

KLAUS (CONT’D)
-- Becomes what we want him to be.
Klaus locks the image in with a remote, just as --

-- Panama snaps awake! He immediately yanks himself free of the probes and thrusts himself to his feet -- inside a beat Panama has Klaus by the throat -- Klaus two feet in the air, suspended up there by Panama’s muscle and nothing else.

PANAMA
(pure granite) I am Panama.


KLAUS
(squirming)
Yes. Of course. You are Panama.

Beat. Then Panama lets Klaus free and gravity returns him to earth. Panama slams the door on his way out.

EXT. MOUTH OF AMAZON - DAY

The river here’s as wide as an ocean -- thick rainforest choking the southern bank, city industry choking the northern bank -- a multi-kilometer expanse of dirt-brown river keeping the two banks apart --

-- The Swann navigates upstream.

INT. ELIZABETH SWANN FORWARD HELM - CONTINUOUS
Storm video-calling Franks -- Hawk manning the helm...
FRANKS
(on the comms LED screen) The CIA say it was an accident --

STORM
It was a hit.
FRANKS
-- The Brits are in agreement. Dunbar is taking a particularly keen interest in the case.

STORM
Dunbar? MI6?
FRANKS
Special operations, yes. Advanced research technologies -- neural implants to be precise. Turns out MI6 have been secretly developing bio-chip implants and trialling them on elite forces. The recipients are programmed to respond to the commands transmitted to them via the implants rather than reacting to their own neural impulses. Even their most primal instincts are overridden.

STORM
Sounds like a Hollywood nightmare.
FRANKS
It’s a living reality, John. And it bears frightening similarities to Charley’s case report.


STORM
So what, you think Maj Boyle was killed by one of these ... elite war machines?

FRANKS
The parallels are evident.

Storm takes a breath, the sight of Maj -- naked, lifeless -- still a toxin burning behind his eyes.

STORM
Well whoever was responsible, George, it wasn’t an accident. It wasn’t an accident and it wasn’t a burglary gone wrong. Passport, laptop, money - all untouched.
She’d been strangled.
FRANKS
That’s as maybe. But the world must never know. The CIA have taken her YouTube channel down and friendly media outlets are in process of branding the video a hoax --

STORM
(sarcasm)
Friendly media outlets...
FRANKS
-- The world will have forgotten about it soon enough.

A SUDDEN PULSED WAILING! Flashing LEDs accompany the alarm --

HAWK
Hal!

HAL
Oh, oh, ah, yes. Apologies. I’d set my alarm for the crossing.

STORM
The crossing?
HAL
Yes. We’ve just crossed the equator. Everything is upside down from here on in.

STORM
Including reality. I need some air.
Storm turns, leaves -- Hal kills the alarm.


HAWK
It hit him hard, finding the girl like that.

FRANKS
Yes, it can’t have been easy. But we need to keep our focus. Charley will be waiting for you in Manaus. How long before you get there?

HAWK
Hal?

HAL
ETA five-twenty-eight tomorrow morning, local time.

HAWK
Just over eighteen hours.
FRANKS
Noted. I’ll speak to Steve Green later. I’ll get him to arrange for Charley to meet you at the agreed rendezvous point...

EXT. MOUTH OF AMAZON - CONTINUOUS
The Swann powers ahead, Storm up on deck, processing -- FRANKS (O.C.)
...Six AM sharp. Give you half an hour to dock and freshen up.
HAL (O.C.)
Half an hour? No rest for the good guys.

CLOSE ON: The good guy, John Storm, still processing...

EXT. EASTERN HARBOUR CAFE - ALEXANDRIA - DAY
A PACK OF CLEOPATRA KING SIZE CIGARETTES -- a half-empty
coffee cup -- Musa sat at the quay-side cafe smoking, his eye fixed on AHMED’S FISHING BOAT a small distance away...

CLOSE UP: THE PACK OF CLEOPATRA KING SIZE CIGARETTES...
MATCH CUT TO:

INT. FISHING BOAT - DAY

...CLEOPATRA’S ROYAL SEAL -- The seal embossed on an ivory hairbrush that Ahmed has just laid on the small wooden table in front of him.


At the other end of the table Safiya’s obsidian eyes devour the precious object while Ahmed’s hungry eyes devour Safiya --

SAFIYA
Where did you find it?

Her eyes flick from hairbrush to Ahmed, his eyes solid on her flesh -- her bralette reveals a good deal.

SAFIYA (CONT’D)
Tell me.

AHMED
And in return?

Safiya lays the attache case she carries on the table and flicks it open -- an even stack of dollars.

SAFIYA
One hundred thousand US dollars. The coordinates for the money.

Now Ahmed looks her in the eye --
AHMED
It is worth more.

SAFIYA
Name it.

Again Ahmed lowers his gaze and feasts on Safiya’s barely covered breasts --

AHMED
One hundred thousand dollars. Plus one moment with you.

He reaches for the door handle at his side -- door creaks open -- another cabin, an unmade bed...

Safiya closes the attache case -- CLICK! -- moves towards him, all seduction, until barely a hot breath divides them -- Ahmed expectant -- Safiya bewitching --

SAFIYA
You will have me, Ahmed Saleh...

-- Ahmed’s eyes widening to match the width of his grin now as Safiya starts to peel off her bralette --

-- But then SHOCK as she instead peels off her raven-black wig to reveal closely cropped ice-blond hair -- then her obsidian contacts, one and then the next, to reveal intense VIOLENT-BLUE EYES.

SAFIYA (CONT’D)
...The real me. Safiya. Safiya Sabuka -- von Richthofen.


EXT. MANAUS WATERFRONT - FISH MARKET - DAY

A sea of faces -- hustle and bustle -- fishermen hauling their catch, attending their stalls, yelling to punters --

-- JACK MASON approaches the stall, checks out the catch. He wears jeans, conquista vest and tarp hat. He’s the man we saw earlier surveilling Charley.

FISHERMAN
Ei! Peixe fresco -- melhor preço! Peixe fresco -- melhor preço!

MASON
Melhor preço? Best price? You kidding me?

Fisherman hoists up a shoal of hooked fish, breaks into English --

FISHERMAN
For you, one hundred American dollars.

MASON
For the fish, no. For information, yes. Plus an extra C-note.

Mason slides two hundred-dollar bills from his wallet -- the fisherman instantly suspicious --

FISHERMAN
Information?
MASON
A tall guy. Short blond hair. Piercing blue eyes. You seen him?

The fisherman shakes his head, clearly afraid.
MASON (CONT’D)
C’mon. The whole damn world has seen him. He’s the guy in the YouTube video, the running man.

FISHERMAN
I no understand.
MASON
You don’t understand me?
A shake of the head -- he doesn’t understand.
MASON (CONT’D)
The running man. You don’t understand?


FISHERMAN
I no understand.
MASON
(giving up)
No. I don’t suppose you do.
Mason sighs. Hands the fisherman the money anyway --
MASON (CONT’D)
(sarcasm)
Here. If you see him tell him the man from the CIA wants a word.

He turns to walk away, but is immediately stopped in his tracks by the sudden sight of --

-- MASON’S POV: Charley being manhandled into a BLACK 4x4 by two heavies, maybe 50 metres away. There’s another man there, too, ice-blond hair, shades --

-- Panama removes those shades and violent-blue eyes scan... CLICK! Mason snaps him with his mobile camera, then --
-- Panama puts his shades back on and climbs in the car -- car screams off -- Mason hits a contact on his mobile.

EXT. MANAUS WATERFRONT - WHARF - DAY
The Elizabeth Swann sits alongside the wharf...
FRANKS (O.C.)
Jack Mason.

INT. ELIZABETH SWANN FORWARD HELM - CONTINUOUS
Franks on the screen, Storm on the warpath -- STORM
Jack Mason?
FRANKS
CIA. He saw it happen.
STORM
What do you mean he saw it happen? What did he do about it? Did he try and stop them?

FRANKS
Evidently he was too far away.
STORM
Yeah right. Knowing the CIA they were probably in on it.


FRANKS
We don’t believe so, not on this occasion.

STORM
I don’t trust them.
FRANKS
Well we need to work with them. We need their help to find Charley.

A run of beeps and LEDs from Hal --
HAL
Actually I can help you there...
STORM
Not now, Hal.
(sighs)
Typical CIA. Did this Jack Mason character not have the presence of mind to...?

FRANKS
(interrupting)
He says it all happened too fast.
STORM
Too fast for America’s premiere intelligence agency to prevent it!

Another run of beeps and LEDs from Hal --
HAL
As I was saying...

STORM
Quiet Hal!

FRANKS
We need to calm down, John --

STORM
Calm down?

FRANKS
-- And focus on finding Charley.
HAL
If I may just interrupt at this point --

STORM
Hal!

HAL
-- I know where she is, you see.


Beat. Storm suddenly realises what Hal said.
STORM
What did you say, Hal?
HAL
I’ve been trying to tell you. Charley Temple. I’ve located her. Tracked her mobile. GPS.

STORM
Well ... why didn’t you say?
HAL
I know. Remiss of me.

EXT. EASTERN HARBOUR CAFE - ALEXANDRIA - DAY

Musa at the table, lost in thought -- Safiya’s shadow falls on him -- startled, Musa looks up to see --

-- The Woman with ice-blond hair and violent-blue eyes, attache case in hand. She produces a flash drive from inside her bralette. The look on her face tells Musa the fisherman has been dealt with --

-- She hands over the attache case.
SAFIYA
He has no need of this now.

EXT. NEUWELT RITTERTUM HQ - MANAUS - DAY

ESTABLISHING SHOT: The statue of Isis front and centre of the bleak edifice that is the Neuwelt Rittertum headquarters...

INT. NEUWELT RITTERTUM HQ - STUDY - CONTINUOUS

A fine old crystal decanter -- WHISKY -- Richthofen pops the lid, pours himself a generous measure, drinks, just as --

-- An old-school telephone rings -- TRING-TRING -- he picks up, listens, digests, eyes narrowing, then --

RICHTHOFEN
Find out who told her what she knows. Then kill her.

Replaces the handset. Downs the dregs of his whisky.

INT. BLACK 4X4 - DAY

Charley strapped in the back seat, gagged, blindfolded, flanked by two mountains of muscle in dark suits and tees --


-- The biggest mountain of all, Panama, sits in the front, next to the liveried chauffeur.

EXT. LABORATORY COMPLEX - CONTINUOUS

SECURITY GATE -- Black 4x4 with tinted windows pulls up at the gate -- guard approaches -- front passenger window winds down to reveal Panama’s granite glare --

-- Gate instantly opens -- 4x4 drives though.

INT. LABORATORY COMPLEX - CONTINUOUS

Bound, gagged, blindfolded, Charley is led along a series of white-on-white corridors -- bright, shiny -- the two muscle mountains her chaperones -- Panama leading --

JUMP TO:

INT. LABORATORY 5 - CONTINUOUS

-- A security door marked LABORATORY 5. Iris recognition -- PANAMA’S VIOLENT-BLUE EYE -- door hisses, opens -- they step through into --

-- Test tubes, microscopes, monitors, readouts. And white coats focused on their own industry -- Charley led through to Klaus’s glass-walled office at the far end of the lab.

INT. KLAUS’S OFFICE - CONTINUOUS

Klaus at his desk, buried in work -- office door glides open and Charley is manhandled inside by Panama. The two muscle mountains stand guard outside the office. Klaus doesn’t look up from his work when he says --

KLAUS
Miss Temple. Good of you to come. Apologies for the blindfold...

Now Klaus looks up -- motions to Panama, who removes Charley’s blindfold. She’s not happy. Shakes out her hair. Glares at Klaus.

KLAUS (CONT’D)
...Please, take a seat.
Charley remains standing -- Klaus stands up from his desk.
CHARLEY
I know what you’re doing here. If anything happens to me the whole world will know. A copy of my report is...


KLAUS
(interrupting) Ah, your report.

Klaus shoots a remote at the giant LED console and a folder marked ‘NEUWELT RITTERTUM -- ARIOSOPHY AND GENETIC EDITING:
THE HUMAN ENHANCEMENT PROGRAMME’ appears on screen --
-- Klaus tosses the remote to Charley.

KLAUS (CONT’D)
Open it.

Charley looks at the remote, then the screen -- QUESTIONS -- How did they get this? Should she open it? She stalls --

KLAUS (CONT’D)
Open it.

Charley, hesitant, hits the command key -- folder peels open like a digital Christmas box unwrapping itself --

On screen now -- CHARLEY’S REPORT -- notes, profiles, images: AND A LIST OF NAMES -- KLAUS VON KOLREUTER, FRANCO FRANCISCO, RUDOLF KESSLER -- BARON HEINRICH VON RICHTHOFEN.

Horrified, Charley scrolls through the images and documents -- We see sound bites: ‘HUMAN CLONING...’ ‘ANCIENT GENOMICS...’ ‘SUPERCOMPUTING...’ ‘DNA MANIPULATION...’ ‘CYBERCORE ...‘ ‘STEM CELL REPLICATION...’ and more...

KLAUS (CONT’D)
A comprehensive report. Congratulations.

CHARLEY
How did you get this?
KLAUS
Let’s just say the security on your friend’s database is lax.

CHARLEY
Steve...?

KLAUS
Easy pickings for our team of supercomputing technicians.

CHARLEY
You mean your team of hackers.
KLAUS
The world’s best. Not unlike our extensive DNA database, compiled largely from the archives of every nation state. Russia. China.
(MORE)

KLAUS (CONT'D)
The FBI’s National and Combined DNA Index System. The UK’s National DNA Database -- which incidentally, is the most comprehensive DNA database in the world. Apart from ours. Just one piece of the puzzle missing.
But soon we will have that too.

CHARLEY
The mummy.

Klaus is surprised to learn Charley knows about the mummy --
KLAUS
Well, well, you have been busy.
CHARLEY
(a glance at Panama)
I know about this creature too. He’s a replicant, isn’t he. A genetically enhanced human clone. I use the term human loosely.
(beat)
Everything you’re doing here. It’s all in my report.

KLAUS
Yes...
(nodding at Charley’s report on the LED screen)
...But we now have the only existing copy of said report.

CHARLEY
No. Oh no. There are other copies.
KLAUS
Not any longer. Our ... hackers have made sure of that. But there’s no need to worry, Miss Temple. We will take good care of it for you.
(nods at Panama)
And Panama here will take good care of you, won’t you Panama.

Charley stiffens as Panama’s violent-blue eyes fix on her. He takes her by the arm --

PANAMA
Bad girl.


EXT. MANAUS CITY STREET - DAY

A riot of bustle and colour -- shops, vendors, too many faces to count...


Storm anonymous in the sea of humanity streaming along the street -- COMMS WATCH on his wrist -- Hawk in his earpiece --

HAWK (EARPIECE VOICE)
I have your position, Skip.

INT. ELIZABETH SWANN FORWARD HELM - SAME TIME

Hawk working the tracking system on the ops map -- walking Storm along the street --

HAWK
Fifty metres down on your left, there should be a jewellery store.

INTERCUT BETWEEN STORM AND HAWK
WITH STORM -- In the human stream, hand to his ear --
HAWK (EARPIECE VOICE) (CONT’D)
Can you see it?

STORM
I see it.

STORM’S POV: Fifty metres ahead, Mason outside the jewellery store, window shopping.

HAWK (EARPIECE VOICE)
A guy in jeans, conquista vest and tarp hat. He has CIA tattooed on his forehead.

STORM
Ha-ha.

WITH HAWK -- An image of Jack Mason on Hawk’s monitor with brief bio: ‘AGE: 42 -- STATUS: NOC / UNDECLARED -- IN POST: 2 YEARS -- COVER: SOG LETHAL’

HAWK
Be careful, Skip. Mason is designated non-official cover.

WITH STORM -- Still moving with the crowd, closing on Mason --
HAWK (EARPIECE VOICE) (CONT’D)
He’s also SOG.
STORM
Special operations. Well whatever he’s doing here he’s not wet- nursing diplomats. Anything else?

HAWK (EARPIECE VOICE)
Yes. Your handle is Amethyst Stud.


STORM
Amethyst Stud?
HAWK (EARPIECE VOICE)
Blame the CIA.

EXT. MANAUS CITY STREET - JEWELLERY STORE - CONTINUOUS

AMETHYST STUD EARRINGS glint in the shop window -- Mason admiring them -- Storm moving in on Mason -- neither looking at the other -- both studying the earrings now --

MASON
You don’t strike me as the kind of guy to wear earrings.

STORM
Especially not amethyst stud. I’m more a sapphire kind of guy.

MASON
Sorry about that. First thing that came to mind. Kill your wire.

Storm thinks about protesting, but then turns off his comms watch, killing his surveillance feed --

INT. ELIZABETH SWANN FORWARD HELM - SAME TIME

-- Storm’s surveillance feed has just died -- Hawk suddenly frantic on the console touchpad --

HAWK
Skip? You there? Damn. We’ve lost him. Hal?
Several beeps and a run of LEDs from Hal -- HAL
Mine eyes and ears are on the ground. Where’er he wanders he’ll be found.
HAWK
This is not the time for lyricism Hal.

HAL
The Captain’s tracking chip, Chief Engineer Hawk. I have his signal.

HAWK
Ah, yes, of course. Well why didn’t you say? Stay with him.


EXT. MANAUS CITY STREET - SAME TIME
Storm and Mason anonymous in the human flow -- STORM
We know where she is. Now all we have to do is get her out.
MASON
The place is a fortress. You can’t do it alone.

STORM
Do I have a choice?
MASON
As a matter of fact you have a team.

JUMP TO:


INT. MANAUS CIA STATION - OPERATIONS ROOM - DAY

A 3D SATELLITE IMAGE LOOKING DOWN ON A LABORATORY COMPLEX SURROUNDED BY A PERIMETER FENCE AND DENSE RAINFOREST...

The image glows and pulses on a supertech digital plotting table -- Mason hunched over the table, jabbing a finger as he walks Storm through the plan, his face in Chiaroscuro glow, like the face of a devil --

MASON
The complex houses seven laboratories. Only the devil and his mistress know the full extent of what’s going on in there. Two guards on the main security gate, here, both armed. A four-hundred- metre perimeter fence, electrified, every inch covered by security cameras. More armed guards patrolling the fence.

He peers over at Storm --
MASON (CONT’D)
We’ll need to figure a way to get you in...

STORM
I’ll let myself in.

MASON
For real?

Mason deliberates, unsure how to take this guy, but the look Storm gives him tells Mason, ‘yes, he’s for real’ --


MASON (CONT’D)
Suit yourself. But you’ll need help getting out.

JUMP TO:


INT. MANAUS CIA STATION CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUS
Storm and Mason stride, side-by-side --
MASON
A four man delta team. Once inside the complex -- assuming you get in -
- you’ll have precisely fifteen minutes to locate the prisoner...

STORM
Charley. Her name’s Charley.
MASON
...And get her out. The delta team will be there. But be warned -- if you’re late they won’t wait. You’ll be on your own.

They halt outside Mason’s office -- Storm scrutinising Mason, his mind a battlefield -- uncertain, suspicious -- he doesn’t trust the man.

STORM
Why?

MASON
Why?

STORM
Why are the CIA so interested in what’s going on here? Why are you helping to rescue Charley?

MASON
Honestly? Contraband. We’re after the cartel that’s funding this operation. Your friend Charley Temple may be able to help us.

STORM
That’s it?

MASON
That’s it.

All of Storm’s instincts tell him he’s being hoodwinked. But he knows he’s all out of options. He has to work with the CIA man. He says nothing.

Mason opens the door --


MASON (CONT’D)
Come on. Let me acquaint you with the enemy.

-- Storm follows Mason inside. Door shuts firmly behind them.
CUT TO BLACK:

INT. PROGRAMMING ROOM - DAY STAY ON BLACK ... Until --
-- The beam of an infrared spotlight finds Charley’s face -- A GHOSTLY HALO -- she’s groggy, confused, still coming round from unconsciousness -- where is she?

Klaus’s disembodied voice questioning her sounds far away, at first, gradually closing in on her from the darkness --

KLAUS
Who are you working for?
She hears it again --
KLAUS (CONT’D)
Who are you working for, Miss Temple?

Again --
KLAUS (CONT’D)
Miss Temple? Who are you working for?
(beat)
Who. Are. You. Working. For?

This time Charley manages a reply, but her responses are slowed, the probes running from her neck and brow inhibiting her neural abilities, like a debilitating drug.

CHARLEY
I ... I’m a photojournalist. Freelance. I work for myself.

KLAUS
And Steve Green?
No answer from Charley, but --

-- Now we see Klaus’s hand illuminated by the glow from Charley’s mobile as he scrolls through her contacts -- STEVE GREEN -- DAN HAWK -- GEORGE FRANKS -- JOHN STORM --

KLAUS (CONT’D)
John Storm, then. Adventurer. Conservationist. Archaeologist. Environmental activist.
(MORE)

KLAUS (CONT’D)
Which is it, Miss Temple? Who is John Storm? Who does he work for?

Charley’s response is not immediate -- still struggling to speak -- a focussed effort forces the words from her mouth --

CHARLEY
Human genome expert. Genetic enhancement guru. Human cloning mechanic. Who do you work for, Klaus von Kolreuter?

INT. MASON’S OFFICE - DAY
A PHOTOGRAPH OF RICHTHOFEN IN FULL NAZI REGALIA stares back
at us from the giant LED screen...

Mason and Storm studying the screen -- Mason with the remote running a series of images featuring Richthofen in various scenarios...

MASON
Richthofen. Baron Heinrich von Richthofen.

LED SCREEN IMAGE: Richthofen pulling up at Neuwelt Rittertum HQ -- climbing out of the car -- up the steps -- entering the building...

MASON (V.O.)
He heads up a neo-Nazi group with its headquarters here in Manaus. The group is well organised, and very well funded. They’re behind whatever’s going on in those laboratories.

STORM
Do they have a name?
LED SCREEN IMAGE: Richthofen on stage addressing his audience
-- behind him a NAZI EAGLE on an encircled SWASTIKA and the words: ‘NEUWELT RITTERTUM’

MASON (V.O.)
They call themselves the NeuWelt Rittertum, or New World Knighthood. They’re an occult secret society and so far as we’ve been able to ascertain their aim is to establish some kind of new world order.

Mason shoots the remote at the screen, flicks it off --
MASON
Or more precisely, a Fourth Reich.


STORM
(sarcasm)
How very original.
Mason shrugs on his conquista vest --
MASON
They’re serious though. Quite how they plan to carry it off we’ve yet to fully determine. But we do know it involves...

STORM
(interrupting)
Cloning. Human cloning. Genetic enhancement -- the resurrection of a master race.

Mason looks quizzically at Storm -- the man knows more than he should --

MASON
Something like that.
Picks up his tarp hat. Puts it on --
JUMP TO:

INT. LIMO - MANAUS WATERFRONT - CONTINUOUS

Storm and Mason in the back seat, the limo cruising along the waterfront --

MASON
We need to know their end game. Your friend Charley Temple may be able to fill in some of the gaps.

STORM
So that’s why you’re willing to help get her out.

MASON
All options open, my friend. All options open.

Limo pulls over to the side of the road -- Storm opens the door, climbs out --

EXT. LIMO - MANAUS WATERFRONT - CONTINUOUS
-- Mason calls after him.


MASON
Remember what I said. The place is a fortress. You’ll need someone to walk you in.

STORM
I know just the man.
Storm turns his comms watch back on --
STORM (CONT’D)
You there, Hawk?

INT. ELIZABETH SWANN FORWARD HELM - SAME TIME

Hawk still manning the console -- sees Storm’s signal reactivate -- pinpoints his position on the ops map --

HAWK
Skip. Everything okay? Looks like you’re close, three minutes away. I’ll put the kettle on.

EXT. LIMO - MANAUS WATERFRONT - CONTINUOUS
Mason through the open car window --
MASON
He’d better be good.
He holds Storm’s eye, studies him --
MASON (CONT’D)
It’s not too late. We can still deploy the delta team to get you in and...

STORM
And what? It’ll be a blood bath. Charley will likely be killed along with everyone else. Not that you would care about that.
(beat)
I’m going in. Alone. Charley’s life depends on it.

INT. OFFICE - ALEXANDRIA - NIGHT

CLICK! A desk lamp turned on -- CLICK!-CLICK! Safiya’s hand inserting a flash drive -- RAT!-TAT!-TAT-TAT-TAT! A command on a keyboard --

Beat. Anticipation. Then Safiya gets to work, running the keyboard like she means every stroke.


On screen now a series of encrypted data scrolling so fast it’s a blur -- Safiya’s fingers playing the keyboard like the fingers of a wizard -- the code scrolling -- Safiya focussed -
- obsessed -- her fingers dancing -- fast -- faster -- until finally she hits --

-- ENTER.

Safiya studies the screen in front of her now -- a map of the Alexandria shoreline -- the harbour -- a PULSING CROSSHAIR -- zooming in on the crosshair to pinpoint --

-- CLEOPATRA’S TOMB.

Satisfaction on Safiya’s face now as she retrieves the flash drive and kills the light.

CUT TO BLACK:

INT. PROGRAMMING ROOM - DAY STAY ON BLACK...
For a beat, then --

BLINDING WHITE as Klaus hits the lights -- Charley still groggy, disoriented, pained by the sudden dazzle of the bright light.

KLAUS
(to Panama)
Take her to the holding bay. We will talk to her again later.

He hands Panama Charley’s mobile -- Panama crushes it in his hand. Then rips the probes from Charley’s head and neck and hoists her to her feet.

KLAUS (CONT’D)
Be gentle. We have a big fish to hook. She’s our bait.

PANAMA
Big fish -- John Storm.
KLAUS
Yes Panama. John Storm. Your synapse interface is working well.

INT. ELIZABETH SWANN CABIN - DAY

Storm enters, energy drink in hand -- Hawk moulded to the sofa, buried in his laptop, fingers playing the keyboard --

STORM
How are we doing, Hawk?


Hawk doesn’t look up from his laptop --
HAWK
Very well, Captain Storm. Very well indeed. In fact...

Beat. Then Hawk hits ENTER --
HAWK (CONT’D)
...We’re in! Look.
Storm checks the screen, and sees --

LAPTOP MULTI-SCREEN IMAGE: CCTV footage of the laboratory complex, inside and out -- multi screens, multi angles -- laboratories, offices, corridors, the perimeter fence...

Hawk manipulates cameras and angles as he speaks.
HAWK (CONT’D)
Inside their security system. (beat)
They have the cameras. We have the remote.

STORM
I seem to recall you saying that somewhere before.

Hawk chuckles. Enters another series of commands on the keyboard -- more cameras, more angles --

HAWK
We have three-sixty vision inside and out. We also have this.
LAPTOP SCREEN IMAGE: A GIANT IRIS stares back at us -- HAWK (CONT’D)
It’s a capture from the recognition software. It belongs to one of the lab technicians.

Hawk punches in a command -- Storm’s mobile vibrates in his pocket -- he fishes it out -- opens the message --

-- The iris on Hawk’s laptop is now on Storm’s mobile. Hawk continues punching commands into the keyboard.

HAWK (CONT’D)
I just airdropped it to you. It will get you in. Once inside I’ll be in your earpiece, walking you through the complex until we locate...

Hawk’s words tail off as Camera 23X zooms in on a woman bound to a chrome and leather bed in a dimly lit cell --


-- Charley’s face stares back at Storm and Hawk, as if she knows they’re watching her.

HAWK (CONT’D)
...Charley. Oh my god.
STORM
Hang in there, Charley. I’m on my way.

EXT. OFFSHORE - NEAR ALEXANDRIA - DAY
A dive charter anchored offshore...

Musa toiling in open shirt and fisherman’s cap, hauling a weighted rope -- Safiya stunning in bikini, squeezing into a wet suit --

Musa enters the helm -- checks GPS and depth sounder -- MARINE GPS DISPLAY -- COORDINATES LOCKED IN...
DEPTH SOUNDER DISPLAY -- 4 FATHOMS...

Musa removes his cap, wipes sweat from his brow and nods affirmative to Safiya, suited now with face mask and air cylinder. She gives a thumbs up then rolls over the side and disappears beneath the surface --

EXT. UNDERWATER - CONTINUOUS
-- Finds herself in a submerged Greco-Roman graveyard...

TEMPLE RUINS -- MARBLE COLUMNS -- A SPHINX -- STONE BUSTS -- POTTERY SHARDS -- PROCESSIONAL BARGES -- JEWELLERY --

-- And Safiya swimming like a dolphin -- dolphin-grace, dolphin-speed -- an ENHANCED AQUA WOMAN surveying her find, looking for clues.

She palms the face of a partially buried sphinx, tenderly, as though fondling her pet lion -- scoops up a gold necklace -- a child’s bracelet -- an ornamental scarab with human head -- then an alabaster jar engraved with the name CLEOPATRA in ancient Greek...

She puts the jar back down, turns, scans again --

-- And then she sees it! There! A mound of rubble blocking up what looks like the entrance to a cave.

She’s on it, a thing possessed, clearing the rubble away with superhuman speed, superhuman strength -- the wash of sand and rubble kicking up a storm as she hurls one rock and then the next to the seabed, until finally --


-- She squeezes through the hole she’s made, through the rubble and into a chamber.

Too dark to see in here -- she reaches for her diver torch, and suddenly 200 lumens flood the chamber -- WOW!

A KALEIDOSCOPE OF CRAFT AND COLOUR suddenly confronts her -- Egyptian paintings, multicoloured symbols, hieroglyphics -- and there, directly ahead --

-- CLEOPATRA’S ROYAL SEAL EMBOSSED ON A SEALED DOOR.

For a long beat Safiya stares and stares at the treasure she has found, awestruck --

-- Then turns and heads back out...

EXT. OFFSHORE - NEAR ALEXANDRIA - CONTINUOUS

...Safiya surfaces and climbs aboard the dive charter -- Musa on deck to greet her, all anticipation --

-- Safiya removes her face mask.
SAFIYA
Call the baron, Musa. Tell my father we’ve found her.

INT. HOLDING BAY - NIGHT
Quiet in here, silent, restful, soft red light...

Charley on the chrome and leather bed -- on her back -- steel restraints on her wrists and ankles -- gentle music playing, dreamy -- Charley relaxed, even though restrained...

But suddenly --
A SOUND AND LIGHT CACOPHONY!

DISCORDANT SOUNDS -- LOUD -- VERY LOUD -- WAILING -- SCREAMING -- TUNELESS MUSIC -- FURIOUS STROBING LIGHTS...

Charley’s eyes snap wide -- what the? -- she tries to get up but she’s held fast to the bed by her steel restraints.

Then a VOICE, loud, even louder than the noise consuming her, booming and reverberating through big powerful speakers --

-- It is Klaus’s voice.
KLAUS
WHO GAVE YOU THE INFORMATION?
Charley too disoriented to speak --


KLAUS (CONT’D)
THE INFORMATION! WHO GAVE YOU THE INFORMATION?

CHARLEY
(almost delirious) Information...?

KLAUS
WHO?

CHARLEY
I don’t...

KLAUS
WHO?

CHARLEY
No! I don’t know what...?
KLAUS
TELL ME WHO GAVE YOU THE INFORMATION!

CHARLEY
I can’t...

KLAUS
YOU CAN’T?

CHARLEY
I don’t...

KLAUS
YOU DON’T?

CHARLEY
No, I...

STOP! As suddenly as the noise began, it now stops. Instantly the room returns to SILENCE AND SOFT RED LIGHT --

-- Charley stunned by this new noiseless place -- what is happening? -- she sees Panama in the doorway, Klaus suddenly there too, standing over her, speaking in regular tones --

KLAUS
Your report, Miss Temple. We would like to ascertain where you got the information in your report?

CHARLEY
My report...?


KLAUS
The baron wishes to know. And when the baron wishes to know something, you must tell him. Do you see?
That’s how it works.
CHARLEY
I ... I don’t...
KLAUS
Because if you don’t, Panama here will separate your arms and your legs from your body. We will give you a little time to think about it. When we return, you will tell us everything we wish to know. Do you understand?
(in Charley’s face now) I think you do.

Beat. Then Klaus retreats, exits. Panama too. Charley is left traumatised, head flopping back down on the bed, holding back tears, closing her eyes, tight --

-- Praying.

EXT. ELIZABETH SWANN DIVING PLATFORM - NIGHT

Storm suiting up for a dive -- snapping on his dive compass watch -- synchronising with Hawk -- fitting his head torch --

-- Hawk hands him a sealed dry bag.
HAWK
Your party gear. For when you get there.

Storm straps the bag to his back, picks up his sea scooter and turns to enter the river --

HAWK (CONT’D)
Good luck, Skip.
-- Thumbs up, and he’s gone...

EXT. UNDERWATER - NIGHT

It’s gloomy in here, lowering, the light from Storm’s head torch barely illuminating a path through the murk -- Storm swimming deep to keep the light from surface visibility --

-- Hawk in his ear.
HAWK (EARPIECE VOICE)
Making good progress, Skip.


INT. ELIZABETH SWANN FORWARD HELM - SAME TIME
Hawk monitoring Storm’s progress on the tracker --
HAWK
ETA forty-five minutes. Keep an eye out for the river monsters.

INTERCUT BETWEEN HAWK ON THE SWANN AND STORM UNDERWATER

WITH STORM -- He swims past a sunken riverboat -- the thick lithe body of a green anaconda coiled in its innards.

STORM (COMMS VOICE)
River monsters?
HAWK (EARPIECE VOICE)
Anacondas, caimans, piranhas, electric eels -- six hundred volts of raw power.

STORM (COMMS VOICE)
Yes, all right, Hawk. I could do without the natural history lesson. Just keep me on course.

WITH HAWK -- Smiling to himself --
HAWK
Copy that, Skip.

BACK WITH STORM -- Out the corner of his eye he glimpses a sleek dark shadow darting past -- was that a bull shark?

HAWK (EARPIECE VOICE) (CONT’D)
Did I mention the bull sharks? Aggressive, highly territorial, partial to human flesh...

Storm reaches for his comms switch. Kills Hawk’s feed -- WITH HAWK -- Thinks Storm is still listening --
HAWK (CONT’D)
...Pit vipers. Poisonous dart frogs. Not forgetting the black panthers.

A run of beeps and LEDs -- Hal wants in on the convo --
HAL
Ah yes, black panthers. Excellent swimmers. Reach speeds on land up to fifty miles an hour. Kill their prey by crushing the skull in their enormously powerful jaws...


EXT. AMAZON RIVERBANK - NIGHT

Storm surfaces and drags himself up the bank, orients himself, removes his face mask and sees --

THE LABORATORY COMPLEX -- there! -- 100 metres distant, drenched in bright security lights, the glow partially absorbed by thick rainforest.

In a hurry now, Storm strips off his wet suit, covers it in foliage, unzips the dry bag and pulls out its contents --

-- A change of clothes: dark trousers -- white coat -- brogues -- wire-rimmed glasses -- tie. Inside two minutes Storm is every inch a lab technician.

EXT. LABORATORY COMPLEX - CONTINUOUS
Storm at the perimeter fence...

Motion sensor cameras every few metres -- two-guard patrols every three minutes -- a three-metre clearing running the entire length of the fence, inside and out -- both areas fiercely lit --

-- No way into this place.

Storm edging his way towards the gate now -- staying low, stealthy -- eyes fixed on the gatehouse and the two guards he can see in there, through the small window...

INT. LABORATORY COMPLEX GATEHOUSE - CONTINUOUS

The gatehouse guards drinking coffee, laughing, smoking, playing cards...

EXT. LABORATORY COMPLEX GATEHOUSE - CONTINUOUS

Storm hard up against the wall of the gatehouse, edging towards the open door -- stops, looks, sees --

-- Two guards approaching -- harder up against the wall now, holding his breath -- the guards closing in on him, but --

-- They stroll on past the gatehouse and continue their patrol. Storm breathes, relieved. Picks a twig up off the ground and tosses it into the open doorway.

INT. LABORATORY COMPLEX GATEHOUSE - CONTINUOUS

Gatehouse guards look up from their game, startled by the twig that just landed in the open doorway. Even more startled when Storm appears at the door, mobile in hand.


STORM
It’s okay. It’s only me. I tripped over the twig and it...
(flashes his mobile)
...Look, I have my pass. I came outside for some air. Just making my way back inside.

The two guards are suspicious -- each flicking a glance to the other -- AK-47s cocked and trained on the man in white coat and wire-rimmed glasses -- why don’t they recognise him?

GUARD#3 holds out his hand.
GUARD#3
Your pass. Give.
STORM
Pass? Oh. My pass? Did I say pass? What I meant was --

CRACK! Guard#3 doesn’t see the straight-fingered carotid punch that CRACKS the bone in his neck and puts him to sleep. He is already a heap on the floor as Storm’s knee crunches on GUARD#4’s chin, sending him crashing back against the wall, Storm levering the rifle from his grasp as he tumbles --

-- THE STARTLED LOOK ON GUARD#4’S FACE as he sees the butt of his own AK-47 coming at him with weight. THUMP! Lights out.

Storm discards the rifle and bends over Guard#3, rips the guard’s shirt from his back and tears it into strips, gags and ties the two unconscious guards with the strips...

EXT. LABORATORY COMPLEX ENTRANCE - NIGHT
Storm at the security door, recognition camera blinking red. STORM’S MOBILE PHONE SCREEN IMAGE: THE IRIS...
Storm holds his mobile to the camera -- nothing -- tries again -- nothing -- again -- nothing --

-- Panicking now he speaks into his comms watch.
STORM
Hawk. It’s not working.

INT. ELIZABETH SWANN FORWARD HELM - SAME TIME

Hawk watching CCTV of Storm on the LED screen -- checks the console --

HAWK
Everything in order here, Skip.


EXT. LABORATORY COMPLEX ENTRANCE - SAME TIME
Storm panicky now --
HAWK (EARPIECE VOICE)
Suggest you try again.
STORM
I have tried again.
HAWK (EARPIECE VOICE)
Suggest you try again again.
STORM
Again again?
(beat, to himself) Again again.

He tries again -- CLICK! -- and this time the door glides open -- a sigh of relief.

INT. LABORATORY COMPLEX CORRIDOR - NIGHT

Storm a regular lab technician negotiating the corridor -- nods to TWO WHITE COATS as they pass him, walking in the opposite direction -- checks over his shoulder -- White Coats disappear through swing doors at the end of the corridor.

HAWK (EARPIECE VOICE)
Nicely done, Skip.

Approaching an open door to his right now -- an office, unoccupied -- ducks into the office --

INT. LABORATORY COMPLEX OFFICE - CONTINUOUS
-- On the desk a clipboard --
HAWK (EARPIECE VOICE)
Ah, the one piece of equipment we neglected to pack. Perfect.

Storm tucks the clipboard under his arm and exits.

INT. ELIZABETH SWANN FORWARD HELM - SAME TIME

CCTV on the LED screen -- Hawk tracking Storm’s every move -- along a corridor -- through an office complex -- exiting into another corridor --

HAWK
Right off this corridor, Skip. Right, right. Straight through the offices. Exit here. You’ve got it. Left at the end of this corridor.
(MORE)

HAWK (CONT'D)
That’s it. Laboratory Five now in sight.

INT. LABORATORY 5 - CONTINUOUS
Security door ahead, marked LABORATORY 5....

Iris recognition -- Storm’s mobile -- door hisses open. Storm steps through into the laboratory we saw earlier: test tubes, microscopes, monitors, readouts -- white coats everywhere.

HAWK (EARPIECE VOICE)
Make your way all the way to the far end.

Storm looks -- double swing doors at the end of the lab, 30 metres from where he stands -- takes a breath -- sets off.

INT. ELIZABETH SWANN FORWARD HELM - SAME TIME

Hawk watching Storm on the LED screen and referencing his position on a separate monitor --

HAWK
Charley’s in the holding bay, through those double swing doors.

INT. KLAUS’S OFFICE - CONTINUOUS

Klaus in his glass-walled office -- looks up from his work -- notices the man who’s just entered the lab...

INTERCUT BETWEEN STORM AND HAWK AND KLAUS

WITH STORM -- Heading through the lab, appraising as he walks, left and right, then straight ahead -- focussed on the double swing doors -- they seem ten miles away --

-- Are the white coats watching him? -- are heads turning in his direction? -- studying him? -- are they asking questions?
-- do they suspect him?

WITH HAWK -- Tense as he watches Storm striding the length of the Laboratory 5 --

HAWK
That’s it, Skip. Keep walking straight. No one is watching you except me.

WITH KLAUS -- Gets up from his desk -- who is that man?

WITH STORM -- Almost at the double doors -- his attention taken by a giant steel incubator monitored up to a complex configuration of futuristic technology -- the REPLIVATOR --


-- Franco Francisco beavering away in the Replivator bay -- moving equipment -- looks over at Storm as he walks by --

FRANCO
Hey, you!

Storm halts, abruptly, heart pumping, turns to the sound of the voice -- a suspenseful beat, then --

FRANCO (CONT’D)
Give me a hand with this a moment, would you?

Hawk in Storm’s earpiece --
HAWK (EARPIECE VOICE)
Remember we only have fifteen minutes, Skip. Six down, nine remaining.

Franco sensing resistance --
FRANCO
It won’t take a moment.
STORM
Oh, yes. Yes of course. Sorry. I’m just a little tired. My mind is all over the place tonight.

FRANCO
Ah. I know the feeling. They work you to the last thread in here.

The two men heave a large piece of equipment up and into place -- Storm eyeing the Replivator with interest -- Franco eyeing Storm with questions -- does he recognise this man?

WITH KLAUS -- Emerging from his office -- who is that man talking to Franco?

WITH STORM -- Holding it all together --
FRANCO (CONT’D)
You are new here? I don’t...
STORM
Yes, yes. My first week. I ahh ... I was intrigued by...
Franco sees Storm looking at the Replivator -- FRANCO
The Replivator? Ah yes. Between you and me it makes me sad. My greatest invention, but it was never meant for this place. But then, money talks.
(MORE)

FRANCO (CONT'D)
Or in my case, it shouts very loud. (beat)
Thank you for your help.
STORM
You’re welcome. Well I’d better...
Storm turns to go --
FRANCO
Wait! Where are you working? That way is restricted.

STORM
Ah. Still finding my way, I ahh...
WITH HAWK -- Frantically scrolling through the CCTV images -- LED SCREEN CCTV IMAGE: A door marked ‘CYBERCORE -- TEST BAY’
HAWK
You’re running an errand...
WITH STORM -- Scratching for the words --
STORM
I‘m running an errand...

WITH KLAUS -- Taking a real interest now, striding the length of the lab -- is he an intruder? -- how did he get in here?

HAWK (EARPIECE VOICE)
...To the CyberCore test bay.
WITH STORM -- Taking instruction from Hawk -- STORM
...CyberCore ... the test bay. (presenting the clipboard)
Taking these. They said it was...
Motions at the double doors --
FRANCO
Ah yes, CyberCore, the test bay, of course. Through those doors, down on your right.

Franco watches Storm disappear through the double doors, suspicion engraved on him -- then he turns and sees Klaus striding towards him.

KLAUS
Franco! Franco! Who was that man?
Franco shakes his head. He doesn’t know.


INT. LABORATORY COMPLEX CORRIDOR#2 - CONTINUOUS
Storm jogging now, following instruction from Hawk --
HAWK (EARPIECE VOICE)
The next door on your right. It’s unmarked. You have five minutes left, Skip.

Storm at the door, mobile to the recognition camera -- door glides open, just as --

-- THE ENTIRE COMPLEX SCREAMS RED...

Lights flashing, alarm screaming, Storm dives into the room to find --

INT. HOLDING BAY - CONTINUOUS
-- Charley gagged and strapped to the chrome and leather bed.
STORM
Charley. Are you okay?

She’s gagged, can’t speak, desperately tries to motion at the control console with her eyes, willing Storm to understand what she is trying to say --

STORM (CONT’D)
The console...?

He goes to the console, searches the control panel, hits every touchpad, one and then the next, until Charley’s steel tethers pop open. She jumps up and shakes herself down.

CHARLEY
When you said you were stopping off in Panama, I didn’t think you’d be staying for a vacation.

STORM
Yes, sorry it took so long. The beaches were so good.

HAWK (EARPIECE VOICE)
Four minutes, Skip. You have four minutes.

STORM
Come on, we’d better get out of here.

INT. LABORATORY COMPLEX CORRIDOR#2 - CONTINUOUS

A beat later the two are back out into the corridor, hand-in- hand, Storm leading the way --


STORM
Which way, Hawk?

INT. ELIZABETH SWANN FORWARD HELM - SAME TIME
Hawk monitoring the CCTV angles, but suddenly --

-- The LED screen blanks out. White noise. Hawk desperately trying to reestablish the connection --

INTERCUT BETWEEN STORM AND HAWK

WITH STORM -- Storm and Charley running to the end of the corridor, Storm yelling at his comms watch --

STORM
Hawk? Speak to me! Which way do we go?

HAWK (EARPIECE VOICE)
I don’t know, Skip. They’ve shut down the system. I’m blind.

WITH HAWK -- Furiously punching commands in the console --
HAWK (CONT’D)
There must be another way in.

WITH STORM -- Storm and Charley reach the end of the corridor. Storm slaps his mobile to the face of the recognition camera -- nothing.

STORM
Damn! Systems lockdown.
Suddenly --

-- WHAM! PANAMA’S FIST SLAMS THROUGH THE DOOR -- DOOR EXPLODES --

-- Storm and Charley recoil as Panama steps through his own destruction into the corridor. Grins.

PANAMA
John Storm.
HAWK (EARPIECE VOICE)
Three minutes and counting.
STORM
We have company.

WITH HAWK -- Still frantically punching commands in the touchpad, then --

-- LED SCREEN BLINKS BACK ON...


HAWK
(sighs with relief) I have visual.
(sees Panama)
Oh my. Back the way you came, Skip.
WITH STORM -- Storm eyeing the gorilla blocking their path --
STORM
I’d say that’s the sensible option.

Storm grabs Charley’s hand and leads her back down the corridor at pace -- Panama watching them run, smirking, playing with his quarry, then --

BLUR! ... Panama’s speed too fast for the eye to record -- Storm and Charley 30 meters along the corridor -- Panama closing on them at impossible speed --

-- BAM! Panama’s hand on the back of Storm’s neck, gripping the collar of his white coat, hoisting him off the ground and launching him --

-- UGGHHH! Storm slammed against the wall, hurled there by Panama, dazed, winded --

-- Panama turning, sighting Charley now -- Charley backing away, her mind whirring --

CHARLEY
Come on, Charley. Think.

There! A steel service trolley with a kidney dish on top containing surgical instruments, a vial of liquid and a SYRINGE -- Charley grabbing the syringe and launching herself at Panama, needle first, as though the syringe were a knife --

-- But Panama is too fast. He blocks Charley’s advance, hoists her up and hurls her through the air so that she slams into Storm, NEEDLE FIRST --

UGGHHH! CHARLEY STABS STORM WITH THE SYRINGE!

-- Storm collapses back against the wall, sees the syringe in his arm, extracts it -- EMPTY!

CHARLEY (CONT’D)
You okay?

STORM
Depends what was in it. Come on.

Storm pockets the emptied syringe and they make their getaway back along the corridor -- Storm holding his arm, starting to feel a little strange -- Panama in pursuit --


STORM (CONT’D)
Could do with some guidance here, Hawk!

WITH HAWK -- Hawk watching the action unfold, still playing the touchpad, frantically searching for an escape route -- LED screen zooms in on a steel security door 20 metres ahead of Storm and Charley -- door marked ‘CYBERCORE TEST BAY’

HAWK
The security door on the left! Twenty metres ahead. I can open and close it from here!

Another command on the touchpad -- sliding steel security door hisses open --

WITH STORM -- Storm and Charley arrive at the open door, about to dive through, but Panama stands suddenly before them, blocking the doorway, madness in his violent-blue eyes.

STORM
Any more bright ideas, Hawk?
Beat. Then --
HAWK (EARPIECE VOICE)
Yes, as it happens.

WITH HAWK -- Fingers working their magic on the touchpad -- looks up at the LED screen, just in time to see --

WITH STORM -- Steel security door slamming shut and trapping Panama in its vice-like hold.

HAWK (EARPIECE VOICE) (CONT’D)
Go Skip! Twenty metres further on. There’s another security door. It’s marked Nanocomm Secure Bay.

Storm and Charley already on their way -- Panama using his inhuman strength to muscle himself free of the steel door --

-- Storm and Charley almost at the open door -- Panama on the chase again: a BLUR! -- his hand about to grab Storm, but --

-- Storm and Charley hurl themselves through the open door -- door slams shut in Panama’s face.

Panama stands at the door, smirks at the door, punches the door, then unleashes a whirlwind combination of lightning fast blows, each leaving its mark...

WITH HAWK -- He can scarcely believe what he’s seeing on the LED screen -- Panama using the security door as a punch bag.


HAWK (CONT’D)
That’s a six inch thick reinforced steel security door.

HAL
Not for much longer by the look of it.

INT. NANOCOMM SECURE BAY - CONTINUOUS

Panama pounding the door -- BOOM-BOOM-BOOM -- Storm and Charley catching their breath -- Storm feeling decidedly strange, starting to sweat -- pounding temporarily ceases --

INT. LABORATORY COMPLEX CORRIDOR#2 - CONTINUOUS

-- Out in the corridor Panama on a timeout, fixing his dislocated finger -- SNAPS it back into its socket -- no pain
-- gathers himself --

INT. NANOCOMM SECURE BAY - CONTINUOUS

Storm struggling to maintain a focus, Charley awed by what confronts them in here...

-- A mainframe, rows of consoles and multiple banks of monitors whirring and beeping in a vast array of complex sci- fi technology.

CHARLEY
My god. All this computing power and more in one nano-chip.

STORM
Nano-chip?

Charley checking out the main console -- starts punching in commands -- Storm still feeling the effects of whatever was in the syringe -- Panama starting to pound the door again, this time in slow, heavy beats --

CHARLEY
It’s what he managed to achieve. William Yates. Founder of Nanocomm, the company that makes CyberCore technology. Neuwelt Rittertum bought him out.

-- What looks like an OLD-SCHOOL DIGITAL WATCH and a HEADSET catch Storm’s eye -- he picks them up, studies them...

STORM
What did they buy -- exactly?


CHARLEY
A computer several million times smaller even than the most advanced military grade network servers, several billion times faster. By comparison, what you see here is Jurassic junk.

STORM POCKETS THE WATCH AND THE HEADSET --
CHARLEY (CONT’D)
(referring to Panama)
It’s the kind of computing power they needed to build that monster --

The security door shuddering with every blow Panama delivers now -- the first crack in the steel starting to appear --

-- Charley still punching in commands...

MAINFRAME SCREEN IMAGE: Streams of code scrolling at hadron speed...

CHARLEY (CONT’D)
-- It’s how they managed to achieve the human cloning process.

STORM
With the help of the Replivator.
Charley stops in her tracks: ‘The Replivator?’--
STORM (CONT’D)
The clue’s in the name. I saw it, just now, in the lab back there. One of the technicians was working on it -- short, bald, wire-rimmed glasses. He called it his greatest invention.

CHARLEY
Franco Francisco. He’s a world- renowned biotechnology expert. The Rittertum funded his work in return for his -- services.

STORM
Yes, well he’s not very happy about it from what he was saying.

CHARLEY
It’s a bit late for regrets.
Charley turns her attention back to the console --


CHARLEY (CONT’D)
He became famous for inventing the Incubus -- an artificial womb that enables the rapid development of an embryo, kind of like a high-speed, mechanical surrogate mother. I assume the Replivator is a next generation version of the Incubus, bigger and more complex, designed to grow adult humans from specially prepared DNA samples.

STORM
Clones.

CHARLEY
Right. But it couldn’t have been achieved without the aid of all this CyberCore technology. The know- how is all here, stored on this mainframe. In this code.

MAINFRAME SCREEN IMAGE: Streams of code continue scrolling at hadron speed...

STORM
Are you watching, Hawk?

INT. ELIZABETH SWANN FORWARD HELM - SAME TIME

Hawk looking on in awe at the blur of code Charley is scrolling through, his fingers running riot on the touchpad --

HAWK
Indeed, Skip. Give me a minute and I’ll have the code uploaded to our mainframe, too.

INTERCUT BETWEEN STORM AND HAWK

WITH STORM -- Panama pounding ever harder -- Storm feeling stranger by the second and growing more and more concerned --

STORM
A minute? Do we even have a minute?
HAWK (EARPIECE VOICE)
Figure of speech.
STORM
Well how long do we have? What’s the plan?

WITH HAWK -- He checks the time --


HAWK
Thirty seconds and counting. Trust me.

Hits ENTER --

HAWK (CONT’D)
Got it!

On a separate monitor a stream of binary code scrolling at tachyon velocity -- fast fast fast --

WITH STORM -- Panama’s fist breaks through -- a beat later he’s in the room, violent-blue eyes blazing a path to Storm --

STORM
Hawk?

HAWK (EARPIECE VOICE)
Ten seconds, Skip. Incoming Ninja. Take cover -- now!

Storm looks at Charley -- Panama almost on them -- they both dive for cover, just as --

BOOM! A non-explosive missile hurtles through the outside wall, destroying that wall and slamming into Panama --

PANAMA
Aarrrgggghhhhh!

Pluming dust -- flying debris -- Panama hurtling backwards -- blown back out into the corridor -- slamming into the wall --

-- Storm and Charley shellshocked in the corner, then --
WHUMP-WHUMP -- helicopter rotor blades...
RAT-TAT-TAT! -- automatic gunfire...
DELTA#1
Go! Go! Go! Now! Move!

TWO DELTA FORCE SOLDIERS swinging into the room from the night outside, SAS-style -- cammos, face paint, assault rifles --

DELTA#2 already in the room fastening Charley to his rope -- Storm being fastened to DELTA#1 --

DELTA#1 (CONT’D)
Hold tight!

All four disappearing out into the night, leaving Panama’s lifeless body crushed beneath so much debris.


EXT. LABORATORY COMPLEX - NIGHT - CONTINUOUS
THE BLADES OF A FUTURISTIC STEALTH HELICOPTER SCYTHE THE
NIGHT, the WHUMP-WHUMP of their rotor motion almost silent -- like a deadly rhythmic whisper --

-- DELTA#3 and DELTA#4 at the open door, blazing rounds at the laboratory guards on the ground below --

-- Storm and Charley being hoisted to safety -- suspended their like rag dolls on the night -- bullets spraying around them and pinging off metal and masonry --

INT. CYBERCORE SECURE BAY - CONTINUOUS

-- Panama lying bloodied and lifeless beneath a mangle of dust and rubble as mayhem explodes all around -- he is to all appearances dead, but then --

-- Finger twitches -- eye opens -- Panama is alive.

EXT. LABORATORY COMPLEX - NIGHT - CONTINUOUS

Outside, Storm and Charley are hoisted aboard the helicopter as it glides away above the rainforest canopy, a deadly, silent beast disappearing into the night sky...

FADE OUT.

EXT. ALEXANDRIA - DAY
PANORAMIC SWEEP OF ALEXANDRIA -- THE CITY -- HONEYMOON BEACH -
- ALEXANDRIA HARBOUR...
SUPER: ‘ALEXANDRIA -- 6 MONTHS LATER’
The Swann glides in to the harbour.

INT. ELIZABETH SWANN FORWARD HELM - CONTINUOUS

LED SCREEN IMAGE: A highly toned man pumps muscle as he works the treadmill, fast, faster, until he’s running at impossible speed -- his feet a blur now -- is he bionic? Is he Panama? --

-- No. As the man comes to a halt, his implausibly honed physique scarcely catching breath, we see that it’s...

...JOHN STORM -- ENHANCED.

Hawk continues to work the console as he speaks. On screen now a montage of security camera images replaying Storm’s run- in with Panama in the laboratory and the moment Charley stabs him with the syringe...


HAWK
The syringe Charley accidentally stabbed you with. It must have contained the CRISPR bacterial virus serum. It’s the gene-editing virus they used to enhance Panama.

He flicks the screen off --
HAWK (CONT’D)
Thanks to Charley you are now officially enhanced yourself, Skip. How does it feel?

Storm feels his arm, squeezes his forearm, his biceps --
STORM
I’ll get used to it.

Another screen flickers to life, the LED comms screen, and the face of George Franks appears --

FRANKS
John. How’s life as a superhuman?
STORM
Not all it’s cracked up to be.
FRANKS
You’ll get used to it.
Storm makes a face ‘Funny you should say that’
FRANKS (CONT’D)
Listen, I’ve just heard from Mason. It’s what we suspected. The CIA have a man on the inside, name of Bomani. Musa Bomani. He was there when the mummy was recovered.

STORM
Cleopatra?

FRANKS
Correct. That’s why we asked you to come to Alexandria.

EXT. NEUWELT RITTERTUM ALEXANDRIA HQ - DAY

AN ISOLATED DESERT FORTRESS the colour of its remote environment, a dried-up wadi serving as its moat --

-- Storm in a hummer driven by Mason, a four-man delta team in a second hummer, both racing across the desert towards the fortress, kicking up a sand tail. Several other vehicles -- a jeep, a hummer, two armoured vehicles -- follow in pursuit.


SUPER: ‘NEUWELT RITTERTUM HQ, NEAR ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT’
George Franks’ video call continues --
FRANKS (V.O.)
After the raid on the laboratories in Manaus the Neuwelt Rittertum moved their operation here, where we assume they have the precise same setup all ready and waiting.

INT. NEUWELT RITTERTUM ALEXANDRIA HQ - SANCTUM - CONTINUOUS

A replica of the sanctum we saw in the Manaus HQ, Richthofen standing before the same altar, except that now he is dressed in a red and white robe with gold braid trim and wearing the Holy Roman Empire’s Imperial Crown.

The sanctum is a cold dark place lit by candles and naked flame torches and decorated with Nazi paraphernalia. The same ungodly chant we heard earlier reverberates now...

And there are others in here with Richthofen -- Kessler, Kolreuter, Fransico, Musa, all dressed in ceremonial robes. Safiya is here too, standing with Panama.

And there, at the pillared entrance, we see --

-- CLEOPATRA, naked beneath fine chiffon robes that reveal the outline of her hourglass figure, her long raven-black hair cascading down over her breasts, concealing them from view. Her eyes seem glazed, as though she’s been drugged.

FRANKS (V.O.)
Which means by now they would have had time to replicate Cleopatra genetically. For what purpose we still don’t know, exactly.

Cleopatra being led to the altar...

EXT. NEUWELT RITTERTUM HQ - ALEXANDRIA - CONTINUOUS

The vehicles pull up in the wadi behind rocky outcrops. Storm and Mason leap out of the first hummer and crouch-run towards the fortress, followed by the delta team. The rest of the squad take up position out of sight.

FRANKS (V.O.)
But whatever they’re up to we have to stop them before this thing goes too far.

MOMENTS LATER --


Storm, Mason and the delta team, low to the ground, approaching the entrance -- a vast wooden door 20 metres ahead, TWO GUARDS --

-- Storm nods ‘Wait here’. Then --

-- WHOOSH! Storm covers the distance before Mason can blink -- the guards looking surprised -- is that a whirlwind hurtling towards them? What happens next is a blur to the onlooking Mason and his team, but as the whirlwind subsides they see that the guards are on their backs, out cold --

-- Storm signals to them. They take a moment to digest what they just witnessed ... then head over to Storm.

MASON
If that’s an example of the enhancement technology you found in Manaus, we’re gonna want to know all about it.

Storm feigns as though he doesn’t understand. Then, peering at the two sparked-out guards --

STORM
Oh, that. Nah. Just my new training regime.

INT. NEUWELT RITTERTUM ALEXANDRIA HQ - CONTINUOUS


Storm, Mason and the deltas enter, spreading out, looking, listening, checking rooms .. Then --

-- STORM’S EAR picks up a sound only he can hear, an ungodly chanting sound coming from --

STORM
This way.

A door at the end of the stone passageway ahead. Storm leads the way -- opens the door and peers inside -- the chanting louder now as they start to descend the stone steps, into --

INT. NEUWELT RITTERTUM ALEXANDRIA HQ - SANCTUM - CONTINUOUS

-- The sanctum. Richthofen in his red robe, chanting some or other incantation, the words reverberating but indistinct -- Storm taking it all in from his vantage point on the steps -- incense, candles, swastikas --

-- And then he sees her, Cleopatra, laid out on the altar, wrists and ankles manacled -- Richthofen standing over her, arms raised like a Messiah, the chanting reaching crescendo -- Richthofen’s words coming clear now, reverberating like baritone banshees in this cold stone place --


RICHTHOFEN
Oh great queen Isis, goddess and giver of life, do you accept me as your chosen one?

CLEOPATRA
(drugged, trance-like)
I am Cleopatra, Isis in human form. You shall be my chosen one.

Richthofen lets his robe fall -- he is naked now -- climbing onto the altar -- preparing to mount her...

RICHTHOFEN
In this sacred act we shall father a union of royal and Aryan blood to found a superior race, a superior nobility, bred to rule the world. I say again, Cleopatra, Isis in human form, giver of life, do you accept me as your chosen one?

CLEOPATRA
I give myself to you.
But --
STORM
Oh, I wouldn’t do that if I were you.

Richthofen leaps up, covers himself, throws his robe back on. Glares across at Storm --

RICHTHOFEN
You!

In a FLASH Panama and Safiya are on Storm, the fighting between them instant, too fast and furious for the eye to make sense of -- A KICK -- A PUNCH -- A DOUBLE KICK -- A SOMERSAULT -- A WHIRLWIND -- A MAELSTROM OF BLOWS --

-- A BLUR...

As Storm and the two replicants continue to fight, viciously, Richthofen and the others try to make a run for it, but Musa pulls a gun from beneath his robe.

MUSA
Nowhere to run, Baron Richthofen. (to the others)
Goes for you too.

Kessler, Kolreuter and Francisco stop in their tracks and shuffle up against the wall, next to Richthofen, hands high. The point of Musa’s gun holds them there.


RICHTHOFEN
Musa. I should have known.
Meanwhile --

-- STORM TAKES A FAST-HAND COMBINATION TO THE FACE FROM PANAMA, BUT RESPONDS WITH SUPERFAST AIR-KICKS TO PANAMA’S HEAD -- BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM -- SO FAST --

-- PANAMA FLIES THROUGH THE AIR AND SLAMS INTO THE STONE WALL, WINDING HIM, MOMENTARILY INCAPACITATING HIM -- TWO DELTAS LEAP ON HIM BUT HE SWATS THEM AWAY AS THOUGH THEY ARE FLIES -- STARTS TO HAUL HIMSELF UP...

-- SAFIYA COMING AT STORM NOW WITH A FLYING SCISSOR KICK, A TRIANGLE CHOKE HOLD, STORM STRUGGLING FOR BREATH, BUT THEN --

-- STORM SNAPS SAFIYA’S LEGS FROM HIS NECK AND TOSSES HER HIGH INTO THE AIR -- SHE SOMERSAULTS, OVER AND OVER, SO FAST, LIKE A CATHERINE WHEEL, THEN CRASHES DOWN ON HER BACK --

-- Winded, dazed, Safiya struggles to her feet, ready to fight again, but Mason’s gun dissuades her --

MASON
Freeze right there!

Safiya thinks about attacking the man with the gun trained on her, but -- CLICK-CLICK -- Mason cocks the gun and Safiya freezes as two deltas jump on her and zip-tie her wrists and ankles together behind her back.

In the background we see Panama on his feet again.

MASON (CONT’D)
Look out!

STORM SPINS, SEES THE WHIRLWIND COMING AT HIM AT BLINDING SPEED, CRUNCHING INTO HIM, A RUGBY TAKE DOWN, THE TWO MEN SPRAWLING ACROSS THE FLOOR IN A BALL OF GRUNTING FLESH AND CRASHING INTO THE FAR WALL --

-- PANAMA FIRST TO HIS FEET, TWO DELTAS TRAINING THEIR GUNS ON HIM BUT PANAMA MOVING SO FAST THEY DARE NOT SHOOT --

-- PANAMA COMING AT STORM AGAIN BUT THIS TIME STORM IS TOO FAST, AN IMPOSSIBLE KIP-UP MANOEUVER THAT SENDS HIM SOMERSAULTING OVER PANAMA’S HEAD, CATCHING HIM BY SURPRISE --

-- PANAMA SPINNING ROUND AND THE TWO MEN EYE TO EYE, TRADING A SERIES OF LIGHTNING FAST BLOWS -- HANDS, FISTS, FEET, HEAD -
- THE DELTAS STILL TRYING TO LOCK THEIR SIGHTS ON PANAMA --

-- FINALLY A VICIOUS BLOW FROM STORM SUCKS THE WIND FROM PANAMA’S LUNGS AND HE FREEZES -- FOR A BEAT -- LONG ENOUGH FOR DELTA#1 TO SQUEEZE OFF SEVERAL QUICKFIRE ROUNDS THAT TAKE PANAMA’S LEGS FROM UNDER HIM --


Panama on his back now, a felled oak, blood spilling from the bullet wounds in his arm and leg --

-- Deltas leaping on him and zip-tieing him -- dragging him over and propping him against the wall, next to Safiya -- all four deltas standing over them, assault rifles trained --

DELTA#1
Prisoners secure, Sir.

Mason nods, wipes his brow, heavy-sighs, holsters his gun, turns to speak to Storm, but --

-- Storm has gone. And so has Cleopatra.

INT. HUMMER - DAY

Sun going down over the desert -- Storm at the wheel of the hummer, speeding along the Desert Freeway, Cleopatra strapped in the passenger seat, still groggy, semi-conscious, wrapped in a blanket --

-- Storm on the radio.
STORM
Hawk? I’m on my way. We have a passenger. Be ready to cast off.

EXT. NEUWELT RITTERTUM ALEXANDRIA HQ - DAY

Jeeps, hummers, armoured vehicles -- 20 or more deltas -- Panama and Safiya, still zip-tied, being loaded into two separate armoured vehicles, Richthofen and his cronies herded together and guarded by deltas.

Mason on his mobile, staring off into the vastness of the surrounding desert --

MASON
He got away. Took the replicant with him. Don’t worry, we’ll find him.

Ends the call. Continues staring off into the distance --
MASON (CONT’D)
(to himself)
Wherever he is we’ll find him.

EXT. ELIZABETH SWANN FORWARD DECK - DAY

Storm deep in thought, lounging on the forward deck, as the Swann cuts a steady pace through the sun-glistened waters...


INT. ELIZABETH SWANN CABIN - CONTINUOUS
Cleopatra stirs from a deep sleep...

INT. ELIZABETH SWANN FORWARD HELM - CONTINUOUS
Hawk manning the helm -- a series of beeps from Hal, then --
HAL
Our guest is awake, Chief Engineer Hawk.

EXT. ELIZABETH SWANN FORWARD DECK - CONTINUOUS
Hawk appears on deck, catches Storm’s eye, nods...

INT. ELIZABETH SWANN CABIN - CONTINUOUS

Storm knocks on the door -- no answer. He opens it and peers inside the cabin. The bed is slept-in, the covers thrown back but no Cleopatra --

EXT. ELIZABETH SWANN AFT DECK - CONTINUOUS

-- Storm steps out on the aft deck. Sees Cleopatra wrapped in a bed sheet, looking out to sea, the gentle breeze ruffling her long dark hair. He watches her for a long moment. She stirs memories in him, but he cannot place them --

-- She turns, catches his eye -- a moment of recognition? She’s uncertain, confused. They share an awkward moment...

CLEOPATRA
Who ... who are you? How did I get here?

STORM
My name is John. John Storm. I’m here to protect you.

CLEOPATRA
From who?

He doesn’t answer her question. Instead he says --
STORM
How are you? Did you sleep well?
CLEOPATRA
I think so. Thank you.
She looks around, at the strange seagoing craft --


CLEOPATRA (CONT’D)
I have not known a ship like this one. There are no sails. No oars. How does it move?

STORM
It has oars. They’re beneath the hull. We call them propellers.

She nods her understanding -- a slightly awkward beat, then --
CLEOPATRA
Where are we?
STORM
Oh, we’re off the coast of Greece.
CLEOPATRA
(gasps)
Greece? My homeland. I was born in Egypt, but my blood is Greek.

STORM
Yes. We thought you might feel comfortable here, at home.

She feels suddenly vulnerable -- ‘How does this man know so much about her?’ -- Storm moves closer but she backs away --

CLEOPATRA
You didn’t answer my question. Who are you protecting me from?

STORM
Look, this is going to be difficult for you to comprehend, but you died, a long time ago. Our science is very advanced now. We are able to bring people back to life. Some very bad people brought you back to life but for the wrong reasons.
They wish you harm...

She backs further away, not wanting to believe what Storm is telling her --

CLEOPATRA
No. No, this can’t be, I...

Thoughts invade her now, memories -- Alexandria, the Royal Palace, Mark Anthony -- she gazes at Storm, the memory of Mark Anthony foremost in her mind --

CLEOPATRA (CONT’D)
My palace, Alexandria, Rome ... Mark Anthony ... Mark...?

She looks at him, a double take --


CLEOPATRA (CONT’D)
...Mark Anthony ... but ... did they bring you back to life too?

She goes to him, nestles against his chest.
CLEOPATRA (CONT’D)
My love, tell me it’s true.

Storm does not reply. What can he say? Is this real? Is it happening? He wraps his arms around her and holds her.

INT. ELIZABETH SWANN FORWARD HELM - LATER

Hawk at the helm, a slightly introverted Storm on video call with Franks --

STORM
She thinks I’m her lover, Mark Anthony. The crazy things is I...

He glances out the window, sees her relaxing on deck. She wears a pair of Storm’s shorts and one of his shirts, too big for her...

FRANKS
They’ll come after you, John. They’ll want to know everything about her. Psychology. Biology. DNA. This is big stakes. They’ll leave no stone unturned. Be very careful. I’ve told Mason you’ll be in touch.

Storm is barely listening, still peering out the window at Cleopatra...

FRANKS (CONT’D)
John...?

STORM
Yes, okay. But not until I’m ready.
He gets up, walks out, and --

EXT. ELIZABETH SWANN FORWARD DECK - CONTINUOUS
-- Joins Cleopatra on deck. His presence makes her jump.
STORM
I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.

CLEOPATRA
Oh, no, it’s okay. I was just thinking. Everything is so strange.


STORM
Of course.
(beat)
We’ll be docking soon. In Thessaloniki. I thought we might...

CLEOPATRA
I would like that. It’s many years since I was last there -- with you.

His gaze locks on hers, and lingers there -- who is she? Why does she stir such feelings in him? A long beat, then --

STORM
And I with you.

INT./EXT. THESSALONIKI - DAY

VARIOUS TIME-LAPSE SHOTS OF STORM SHOWING CLEOPATRA THE MODERN THESSALONIKI, AND THE MODERN WORLD...

-- Storm and Cleopatra walking along main street, Cleopatra still in oversized shorts and shirt, craning her neck, looking up at the strange tall buildings, Storm explaining...

-- Approaching the main shopping mall, Cleopatra eyes and mouth wide, amazed at the shiny new structure -- inside the mall, clinging to Storm like a frightened child -- stepping onto the escalator, so hesitantly...

-- A clothes shop, Storm waiting while Cleopatra tries on a selection of summer dresses, skirts, shorts, tops, hats -- Storm and Cleopatra exiting the shop, Cleopatra wearing a new dress and carrying bags...

-- Crossing the road, dodging the traffic, A LOUD CAR HORN, Cleopatra freezing, terrified, Storm coming to her rescue and escorting her safely across...

--Walking along the seafront, Storm pointing out LARGE CONTAINER SHIPS AND LOADING CRANES -- Cleopatra looking awe- struck at these unfamiliar sights...

-- Storm pointing up at an AEROPLANE FLYING HIGH OVERHEAD, explaining to Cleopatra, who again looks awe-struck.

EXT. TAVERNA - LATER

Sitting outside a taverna now, the waiter bringing a large Greek salad -- Storm thanking him and the waiter departing...

STORM
Efharisto.


CLEOPATRA
Cheese of the goat, oil of the olive.

STORM
Some things haven’t changed.
They chink wine glasses and laugh, like lovers, then -- STORM (CONT’D)
Excuse me. The bathroom calls.
He gets up and heads inside.

INT. TAVERNA BATHROOM - CONTINUOUS

Storm at the urinal -- a call on his mobile -- he looks, sees it’s Mason -- zips himself up and takes the call.

MASON (TELEPHONE VOICE)
John. I’ve been waiting on your call.

STORM
I said I’d call when I’m ready.
MASON (TELEPHONE VOICE)
Some things can’t wait.

INT. MASON’S LANGLEY OFFICE - DAY

 

Mason in his swing chair, feet on the desk, ankles crossed --
MASON
They want to run some tests.

INTERCUT BETWEEN STORM IN THE TAVERNA AND MASON IN HIS LANGLEY OFFICE

WITH STORM -- Washing his hands, phone tucked between shoulder and chin --

STORM
Tests? What do you mean? What kind of tests?

WITH MASON -- He looks at the man in the office there with him, an ANONYMOUS CIA MAN in dark suit and eyes to match --

MASON
The Nazis achieved something that continues to elude even our finest scientists, you know that. They’re hungry for the knowledge.

WITH STORM -- Drying his hands.

 

MASON (TELEPHONE VOICE) (CONT’D)
To you she may be a new plaything. But to them she’s a specimen.

Beat. Then reality dawns. Storm bolts -- out the bathroom -- back through the taverna -- back outside to their table -- TWO EMPTY SEATS.

STORM
Where is she?

 

MASON (TELEPHONE VOICE)
If you come after her you’ll put yourself, and her, in grave danger.

STORM
Are you threatening me, Mason?
WITH MASON -- The anonymous CIA man eyeing Mason hard --

 

MASON
Not me, John. Someone much bigger than me.

WITH STORM -- Simmering now...

 

MASON (TELEPHONE VOICE) (CONT’D)
I’ll be in touch.
Line goes dead. Storm crushes his mobile in his hand.

INT. ELIZABETH SWANN FORWARD HELM - DAY

A needle-free anaesthetic applicator jet-sprays the back of Storm’s neck...

He’s sitting in the command chair, hard-faced, wearing the CyberCore headset, Hawk hovering over him like a dentist over his patient, applicator in hand.

HAWK
The anaesthetic will only take a minute to kick in. You won’t feel a thing, Skip.

STORM
Tell me one more time why we are doing this, Hawk.
Hawk removes the headset from Storm’s head -- HAWK
With the data I downloaded from the Manaus mainframe I’ve been able to back-engineer the CyberCore micro- circuits. They’re housed in this biochip --


Storm watches as Hawk inserts the chip into a surgical microdrill with a bit finer even than a human hair, the chip no bigger than the hair’s follicle --

HAWK (CONT’D)
-- When they’re connected to your occipital lobe, they’ll interact directly with the nano-computer housed in the wristwatch you’re wearing. No need for the headset. You’ll be hard-wired. You’ll also have a wireless connection to Hal, similar to a bluetooth connection, should you need it. So don’t be alarmed if you hear Hal’s dulcet tones invading your thoughts.

Storm makes a face as Hawk starts up the drill, a faint high- pitched whirring sound --

HAWK (CONT’D)
The serum Charley accidentally injected you with enhanced you physically. This will enhance you neurologically as well. Hold still.

He drills into the base of Storm’s skull -- the slightest flinch from Storm ... drilling ... whirring ... finally Hawk carefully extracts the drill and swabs Storm’s neck.

HAWK (CONT’D)
There.

STORM
That’s it?

HAWK
That’s it.

HAL
(in Storm’s head)
Welcome aboard, Captain Storm.
Storm leaps up out of the chair, puts a hand to his head --

STORM
(thinking)
Hal?

HAL
Apologies Captain Storm. I didn’t mean to startle you. Just checking the bluetooth’s working.

STORM
Jeez...

HAWK
Don’t worry, Skip. It’s a reversible procedure. We can have you back to normal in no time. But for now it will give you a direct intra-feed to Hal and the CyberCore system. And that will give you direct visual access to their security cameras.

STORM
Security cameras? Whose security cameras?

Immediately Hawk realises he’s spoken out of turn. He looks a little sheepish, not wanting to answer.

STORM (CONT’D)
Hawk?

HAWK
Well, I...

STORM
Whose security cameras, Hawk? Where is she?

HAWK
(nervously)
George called earlier. He said they’ve taken her to the place where they’re holding the baron.

Almost threatening Hawk now --

 

STORM
And where is that, Hawk? Where is Cleopatra?

A long nervous pause, then --
HAWK
Guantanamo, Skip. She’s being held at Guantanamo.

EXT. CARIBBEAN SEA - DUSK

The Swann anchored off the coast of Cuba, low to the water, in full stealth mode, almost invisible in the dusky light...

SUPER: ‘GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA’

EXT. ELIZABETH SWANN DIVING PLATFORM - NIGHT

Storm suiting up, ready to dive. Notices Hawk packing a micro- breather and mask into a dry bag --

STORM
We’re less than a kilometer off shore. I’m sure I can free dive that distance. As everyone keeps telling me, I’m enhanced now.

HAWK
This isn’t for you, Skip. It’s for Cleopatra.

STORM
She won’t be needing it either.
Hawk looks puzzled --

STORM (CONT’D)
Trust me.

HAWK
Okay well Hal will be on hand should you need any assistance. Your connection is firewalled. It will enable you to communicate in radio silence.

STORM
(thinking)
You ready for this, Hal?
HAL
(in Storm’s mind) You bet, Captain Storm.

HAWK
Be careful, Skip.
Storm disappears into the water...

EXT. GUANTANAMO SHORE - NIGHT

...Storm emerges from the water, clambers up the rocks onto the grassy verge, pulls off his wetsuit and buries it in the scrub. Under the wetsuit he wears a Kevlar bulletproof vest.

He scans the perimeter fence in the near distance, sees --

-- THE SIGN THAT SAYS ‘CAMP DELTA’ -- THE HIGH WIRE SECURITY FENCE TOPPED WITH RAZOR WIRE -- LIGHTS, TOWERS, CAMERAS...

Keeping low, Storm starts towards the perimeter fence.

EXT. GUANTANAMO PERIMETER FENCE - NIGHT

 

STEEL WIRE CUTTERS SLICE THROUGH A SECTION OF PERIMETER FENCE
WITH ALARMING SPEED -- Storm’s enhanced strength at work --


-- He slides the cutters back inside his Kevlar vest, separates the fence, crawls through, closes it.

EXT. GUANTANAMO COMPOUND - NIGHT

Storm edging his way along the inside of the fence -- an elusive shadow darting between buildings -- to his left a tower manned by soldiers -- ahead, the CIA ops house.

INT. GUANTANAMO OPS HOUSE - NIGHT

Banks of CCTV screens showing various zones within the compound -- a dozen military wearing headsets, monitoring the screens, working the consoles...

EXT. GUANTANAMO OPS HOUSE - NIGHT

Storm peering in through the window -- making his way round to the door. Beat --

-- And Storm explodes into action.

INT. GUANTANAMO OPS HOUSE - NIGHT

SMASH! A dozen military heads swing round as one -- ‘What the?’ -- shock-horror twisting their faces, every eye on the door that has just been smashed in by --

-- Storm. Crashing through the door. Taking out soldiers three at a time. Impossible speed. Too fast for the soldiers to react -- zip-tying wrists and ankles behind backs. In the blink of an eye all personnel are immobilised and Storm is on the console, Hal in his head --

STORM
(thinking)
Where do I look, Hal?
HAL
(in Storm’s head)
We’re looking for Camp Seven, Captain Storm.

STORM
(thinking)
Camp Seven? I thought that had been closed.

HAL
(in Storm’s head) Officially yes. The heat sensor feeds indicate otherwise. Human activity detected.


Storm working the console, frantically punching buttons, talking himself through the process --

STORM
Camp Seven, Camp Seven ... come on, come on ... are you sure, Hal?

HAL
(in Storm’s head -- Hal clears his throat)
I would remind the captain that I possess a super-intelligence level equivalent to...

STORM
Yes, yes, all right, Hal, I was just ... got it!

MONITOR SCREEN IMAGE: Map zooms in on an isolated building some distance from Camp Delta.

Storm locks onto the image, memorising the building’s location. Beat. Then he’s out the door --

EXT. GUANTANAMO COMPOUND - CONTINUOUS

-- Running at blinding speed, taking out any and all military he encounters, catching them unawares, zip-tying and gagging them -- one -- another -- another -- a stream of immobilised military in his wake --

-- Storm pushing forward at incredible speed -- soldiers helpless -- Storm too fast for them to react, a supersonic shadow zigzagging along walkways, building to building, zone to zone, until finally he sees, there, ahead --

-- CAMP SEVEN.

Armed soldiers guarding the entrance -- a high reinforced steel gate -- rolls of razor wire.

The CAMP SEVEN SOLDIERS don’t see Storm coming -- the whirlwind is too fast -- in the blink of an eye he hurdles the gate and the razor wire, and we see -- A MAELSTROM...

-- WHACK! BAM! THUD! ARRGGGHHHH! -- SOLDIERS WINDED, DAZED, BEING KNOCKED UNCONSCIOUS -- WRISTS AND ANKLES BEING ZIP- TIED, MOUTHS GAGGED -- SOLDIERS DEFEATED, IMMOBILISED -- STORM STANDING OVER THEM, IMPERIOUS...

...Storm brushes himself down, enters Camp Seven.


INT. GUANTANAMO CAMP SEVEN - CONTINUOUS

Storm inside Camp Seven now, moving stealthily, instincts honed -- crossing a cold steel communal area -- steel floors, steel seats, steel doors -- looking up at the wire mesh floor of a second level landing, then --

CAMP SEVEN SOLDIER#1
Hey!

-- He spins, sees the rifle pinning him, the soldier aiming it, straight at him -- the soldier about to fire, but --

-- Storm is on him faster than he can squeeze the trigger. The brief whirlwind of activity that follow sees the soldier zip-tied and gagged, his RIFLE BENT INTO A USELESS U-SHAPE and Storm kneeling over him.

STORM
Careful where you point that thing. It might come back to bite you.

Storm moving again, edging his way along an iron and steel corridor -- steel-mesh gates at the end of the corridor -- Storm slicing through the mesh with his wire cutters -- stepping through the gate into --

INT. GUANTANAMO CAMP SEVEN CELLBLOCK - CONTINUOUS
-- THE CELLBLOCK.

Rows of cells to left and right, each numbered ‘7-101’ and ‘7- 102’ and ‘7-103’ and so on. Glaring back at him from the end of the block a standalone isolation cell marked ‘7-001’. Is Cleopatra being held in that cell?

-- ENHANCED EYES ZOOMING IN ON THE CELL DOOR -- ENHANCED EARS LISTENING FOR SOUNDS -- WAS THAT A WHIMPER, A WOMAN SOBBING?

Storm edges closer to the isolation cell, but then --
-- FOOTSTEPS ... a CELLBLOCK SOLDIER approaching the cells
... a routine patrol ... peering in the cells ... the jangle of heavy keys ... the soldier opening a cell door, then --

-- CELLBLOCK SOLDIER HURTLING THROUGH THE AIR AND SLAMMING
INTO THE CELL WALL -- the result of an enhanced carotid chop from Storm. The PRISONER in the cell leaps up from his bed in shock as Storm blazes in and rips a bed sheet to shreds then uses the strips to tie and gag the barely conscious soldier --

STORM
(to the prisoner)
Keep an eye on him for me, would you?


-- Storm takes the soldier’s keys and locks the cell door on his way out.

Storm at the isolation cell now, desperately trying every key
-- wrong key -- wrong key -- wrong key -- but finally --
-- CLUNK! Cell door opens to reveal --

-- Cleopatra, so relieved, dressed in orange coveralls, throwing herself at Storm, moulding herself to him --

CLEOPATRA
John! I knew you would come for me. I was so worried they would keep me here forever in this horrible place and I just kept thinking of you...

STORM
It’s okay. It’s okay now. I’m taking you out of here.

He pushes her up from his chest, takes her eye --
STORM (CONT’D)
We don’t have much time. You must trust me. Okay? Whatever happens you have to trust me.

CLEOPATRA
(full sincerity) With my life.

A lingering look between them, a lovers’ look, then --

STORM
Come on.

He takes her hand and starts back out the way he came in, but Cleopatra cannot keep up with him.

STORM (CONT’D)
Here.

He lifts her off her feet and carries her, with ease, as though she were a feather-light child -- to the end of the cellblock -- along the steel corridor -- across the steel-on- steel communal area and out through the door into the night --

EXT. GUANTANAMO COMPOUND - CONTINUOUS

-- Storm scanning the night, looking back at the way he came in -- zip-tied and gagged soldiers as far as he can see...

STORM
Are you there Hal?


HAL
(in Storms head)
Approaching the rendezvous point as we speak, Captain Storm.

INT. ELIZABETH SWANN FORWARD HELM - SAME TIME

The neural light show on the console tells a worried looking Hawk that Hal is in comms with Storm. Hawk snaps at him --

HAWK
Speaker mode, Hal, if you don’t mind.

HAL
Oh, yes, of course Chief Engineer Hawk. Speaker mode activated.

HAWK
Skip? Everything okay?

EXT. GUANTANAMO COMPOUND - SAME TIME

 

Storm still cradling Cleopatra --
STORM
All good so far. What’s your ETA?
HAWK
(in Storm’s head)
Two minutes, Skip. Five hundred metres offshore as arranged.

STORM
See you there.

Storm heads off in the opposite direction to the way he came in.

INT. ELIZABETH SWANN FORWARD HELM - NIGHT

 

Hawk berating Hal --
HAWK
No more private conversations, Hal. When the Captain calls in I want ears, okay?

Hal blushes, glows red, suitably chastised.
HAWK (CONT’D)
Good. Proceed in stealth mode.
HAL
Stealth mode, check.


Hal notices Hawk’s unease --
HAL (CONT’D)
Don’t worry, Chief Engineer Hawk. The captain’s enhanced status can cope with a five hundred metre free dive with consummate ease.

HAWK
On his own, yes. But he has a passenger. And it’s pitch black out there.
(beat)
Prepare to overrule the captain’s orders, Hal. We’re going in closer.

EXT. CARIBBEAN SEA - CONTINUOUS

Elizabeth Swann glides silently through the dark night, low to the water, the lights of Guantanamo drawing ever closer...

EXT. GUANTANAMO COMPOUND - NIGHT

Storm on his toes now, hurtling through the night, Cleopatra in his arms, her arms tight around his neck --

-- A soldier -- Storm leaps -- a high kick -- soldier knocked cold -- Storm lands and continues running, all one seamless action. He does not break his stride.

EXT. GUANTANAMO PERIMETER FENCE - CONTINUOUS

Storm slicing through the steel fence with his wire cutters -- climbing through the gap with Cleopatra --

EXT. GUANTANAMO SHORE - CONTINUOUS

Storm hurtling towards the shore, across craggy ground -- rocks, weeds, cacti -- Cleopatra in his arms -- halts at the edge of a high cliff, peers down on the inky black Caribbean Sea 200ft below.

STORM
Okay. This is where you need to trust me.

Cleopatra looks down at the black sea crashing against rocks so far below -- looks back at Storm, nods --

STORM (CONT’D)
Hold on.

Storm steps to the edge ... beat ... then he leaps, still clutching Cleopatra -- down ... down ...


into the unknown -- the dark night enveloping them, the dark ocean rushing up to swallow them --

-- An intake of breath --

-- And they are under, swallowed by the inky wet black -- momentum forcing them down ... down ... until finally Storm’s enhanced strength reverses the descent and he swims for the surface, one arm still clutching Cleopatra tightly, until --

-- GASP! They break surface, suck in a huge lungful of air, then another, another, then, ‘What the?’ --

-- BAM! SUDDENLY THEY ARE BLINDED BY THE BEAM OF AN INTENSELY BRIGHT SEARCHLIGHT THAT ENCIRCLES THEM -- is it military?

The answer comes from Hawk --
HAWK
Skip! Over here!

Storm turns, scans -- through the intensity of the searchlight’s beam he is just able to make out Hawk’s silhouette yelling at them from the Swann’s diving platform --

STORM
I thought I told you to wait half a kilometer offshore.

HAWK
Err ... we miscalculated, Skip. Accidentally on purpose. I take full responsibility.

-- Storm swims over, lifts Cleopatra up onto the diving platform then follows her out of the water --

EXT. ELIZABETH SWANN DIVING PLATFORM - CONTINUOUS

-- Hawk hands Cleopatra a towel and she starts towelling her hair.

STORM
It was a good call, Hawk.
CLEOPATRA
Hawk? Like the bird?
HAWK
Yes. Dan Hawk, first mate, chief engineer and general right hand.

CLEOPATRA
General Right Hand?
HAWK
Figure of speech.


STORM
It means he’s indispensable.
CLEOPATRA
Oh. General Right Hand ... you would make a fine general, Hawk.

Hawk blushes, then JUMPS AS THE SWANN’S ALARM SUDDENLY STARTLES HIM -- SCREAMING SIRENS AND URGENTLY FLASHING LIGHTS ACCOMPANIED BY AN ANNOUNCEMENT FROM HAL --

HAL
Incoming missile! Current position -
- one hundred kilometers due south of Miami, Florida. Trajectory -- well, it’s headed straight for us!

Storm is on his feet and in the forward helm inside a heartbeat, Hawk and Cleopatra in his wake.

INT. ELIZABETH SWANN FORWARD HELM - CONTINUOUS

Alarm blaring, lights flashing as Storm blazes through the door and takes command --

STORM
Update, Hal!
HAL
Still on course to strike us, Captain Storm. Direct hit. Impact sixty seconds.

STORM
Can we redirect it?
Hawk and Cleopatra rush in the door --
HAWK
I can, Skip.

Storm moves aside. Hawk takes the console, sparks instantly flying from his fingers --

HAWK (CONT’D)
Right. Now let me see...

Out the window Storm can see a pinprick of light in the distance, growing steadily brighter in the predawn sky -- the missile heading towards them -- he pulls Cleopatra close.

HAL
Thirty seconds and counting...


HAWK
Fortunately we have enough computing power with the CyberCore system to override anything the US military has. Or any military come to that. Just need to...

HAL
Twenty seconds...
HAWK
Yes all right, Hal. I have it covered. I have the world’s most powerful computer at my disposal. I also have the cheat code.

HAL
I knew you were cheating.
HAWK
Not cheating, Hal. Just improvising.

HAL
Ten seconds to impact...
STORM
Cheat code?
HAWK
It’s a gaming term.
STORM
This is not a game Hawk.
HAWK
It means I can exploit the glaringly evident vulnerabilities in the US air defence system.

HAL
Five seconds...
A final dazzling flurry of fingerwork from Hawk --
HAWK
Just need to...
HAL
Four, three, two...

Storm and Cleopatra rooted to the spot, bracing for impact, eyes fixed on the blazing fireball coming right at them -- about to strike them, but at the last minute --

HAWK
There. That should do it.


-- VROOM! MISSILE VEERS OFF -- MISSES THE SWANN BY A DRAGON’S BREATH AND HEADS OFF IN THE DIRECTION OF GUANTANAMO...

Beat. Then --

EXT. GUANTANAMO COMPOUND - CONTINUOUS

-- BOOM! Missile detonates, lighting up the predawn sky like the strike of a lightning bolt.

INT. ELIZABETH SWANN FORWARD HELM - CONTINUOUS

Storm, Hawk and Cleopatra motionless, eyes wide and fixed on the ballistic light show just a few hundred metres away --

-- Hal deactivates the alarm.
HAL
Phew! Close call. Well done, Chief Engineer Hawk. Not bad for a cheat.

HAWK
Yes, thank you, Hal. This time I’ll take that as a compliment.

Smiles and sighs of relief all round ... but celebrations are short-lived, because just then an INCOMING CALL TONE disturbs them. Hal processes the call --

HAL
Ah, you might want to take this, Captain Storm. It’s coming from CIA headquarters in Langley.

Storm nods. Hal feeds the call through and Jack Mason crackles up on screen. While Storm and Mason converse, Hawk gets back to work, running up codes on the main console...

MASON
John, what the hell do you think you’re doing?

STORM
Staying alive. What the hell do you think you’re doing? You tried to killed us.

MASON
What do expect? You just broke into our most secure military facility and made off with our most prized acquisition.

STORM
Right. And she’s not coming back.

MASON
We’ll see about that.
Storm throws Hawk a glance --

STORM
Hawk?

Hawk signs off his latest work with a stab of the ENTER PAD.
HAWK
All done, Skip.
STORM
Good man. Perhaps you’d like to explain to our friend here what you’ve just done.

HAWK
(a little nervous)
Oh, ah, yes, yes of course. So, the thing is Mr Mason, we ahh ... that is, me ... that is, I ... I ahh ... I managed to back-engineer the CyberCore technology we acquired in Manaus. That is to say we ... us, here, on the Elizabeth Swann ... we are now in possession of by far the most powerful computing technology in the world. Which is why your missile missed its intended target.

Mason scowls...

 

STORM
You should also know that any further acts of aggression against us will be met with a similar response. As a preventative measure Hawk just disabled the nerve centre of all NORAD’s computer systems. As of now the entire United States air defences are immobilised -- kaput.

MASON
You can’t do this, Storm.

 

STORM
I think you’ll find we just did. (beat)
One more thing before you go, Mason. Who authorised the strike?

No reply. A short standoff, then --
STORM (CONT’D)
I thought as much. Patch me through to the president.

MASON
What?

STORM
I think you heard me.
MASON
Yes but ... I can’t just ... it’s
... it’s five AM.
STORM
I’ve heard he’s an early riser. If you want your air defence systems back up and running I suggest you do as we say. The president, Mason -
- now.
(sarcasm)
Don’t worry, I’ll put in a good word for you.

Mason’s furious, but he knows he’s defeated. He disconnects the call -- his face dissolves to white noise -- a few tense moments ... then --

-- THE FACE OF PRESIDENT LINC TRUMAN emerges from the white noise -- middle age, mixed race, greying hair and intelligent eyes. He seems surprisingly calm.

STORM (CONT’D)
Mr President. I apologise for the early call but...

TRUMAN
(interrupting)
If I may, John, it’s me who needs to apologise. May I call you John?

STORM
Please.

PRESIDENT TRUMAN
I’m afraid I knew nothing of the air strike until it was too late. It’s a miracle you weren’t all killed. Please rest assured that those responsible will be held to account. Now let’s get down to business.

INT. TOP SECURITY PRISON BLOCK - DAY - CONTINUOUS RICHTHOFEN LED TO HIS CELL BY ARMED GUARDS --

PRESIDENT TRUMAN (V.O.)
I know all about the neo-Nazi extremists and their human cloning exploits. Fact is we’d been monitoring them for some while...

INT. ELIZABETH SWANN FORWARD HELM - CONTINUOUS

 

THE PRESIDENT ON THE LED SCREEN -- Storm listening intently.

 

PRESIDENT TRUMAN
...But then you came along and managed to achieve what our people failed to achieve for far too long. For that I thank you.

EXT. ELIZABETH SWANN DECK - CONTINUOUS

CLEOPATRA IN STORM’S ARMS -- the two gazing at the glorious Caribbean sunrise --

PRESIDENT TRUMAN (V.O.)
I know about Cleopatra too, although I must say I knew nothing of her incarceration at Guantanamo. Frankly I think she’s in far safer hands where she is now, with you.

INT. ELIZABETH SWANN FORWARD HELM - CONTINUOUS

 

HAWK STUDYING THE CYBERCORE CODE ON THE CONSOLE SCREEN --

 

PRESIDENT TRUMAN (V.O.)
One thing I must request is that you share the new technology in your possession. If used correctly it could be a real force for good.

INT. MASON’S LANGLEY OFFICE - CONTINUOUS

A DEFEATED MASON -- hair dishevelled, tie undone -- mopes at his desk and fiddles with a pencil in his hand --

PRESIDENT TRUMAN (V.O.)
The caveat, though, is that you share the technology with me and my personal team only. We’ll leave the goons at Langley out of the frame.

-- Mason snaps the pencil.


EXT. ELIZABETH SWANN DECK - CONTINUOUS STORM AND CLEOPATRA GAZING AT THE SUNRISE --

 

PRESIDENT TRUMAN (V.O.)
If you agree I would be most grateful. It would be fitting, after all, seeing as I will soon be your new commander in chief -- should you accept my hand. I’ve spoken to George Franks and he is in complete agreement. Our working relationship would of course be off the record.

INT. ELIZABETH SWANN FORWARD HELM - CONTINUOUS

 

HAWK RUNNING CODES INSIDE THE ‘TOP SECRET’ NORAD SYSTEM --

PRESIDENT TRUMAN (V.O.)
Goes for your chief engineer, too. We could sure use a techie with Hawk’s extraordinary ability.
Speaking of which, I’d be obliged if we could have our air defences back. You have my word that no further acts of aggression will occur without my authorisation.

-- Hawk hits ‘REVERSE ACTION’ then shuts down the console.

EXT. ELIZABETH SWANN DECK - CONTINUOUS HAWK JOINS STORM AND CLEOPATRA ON DECK --
PRESIDENT TRUMAN
Well that only leaves me to say I look forward to working with you in the near future. Something tells me we’ll make a formidable team.

EXT. CARIBBEAN SEA - CONTINUOUS

 

THE SWANN SAILS OFF INTO THE GLORIOUS GOLDEN SUNRISE --
PRESIDENT TRUMAN
In the meantime, John, enjoy your downtime. You deserve it.

-- JOHN STORM AND THE ELIZABETH SWANN SAIL ON TO THE DISTANT HORIZON.

THE END.

 

 

 

 

An original story, part of the John Storm Franchise, or ocean and climate awareness adventures.

 

 

 

 

 

Graphic novel - Issue 2 cover art, Charley Temple is kidnapped. Elizabeth Swann cruises up the jungle river, to rescue the intrepid reporter

 

 

Near complete artwork for the cover of Issue 2, of the 'Cleopatra' graphic novel, depicting the kidnap of Charley Temple at a secret laboratory near Manaus, while she is following up on a Youtube of an unnaturally fast runner nicknamed the Panamanian Running Man. She was supposed to wait for John Storm, seen cruising up the Amazon river, to meet her, in the Elizabeth Swann, solar and hydrogen powered trimaran.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rough sketch for the cover of Issue 1, of the Cleopatra graphic novel, depicting the suicide of the Queen of Egypt, and subsequent submerging of the Pharaoh's mausoleum in 365 AD, following a well documented earthquake and tsunami in the Mediterranean Sea.

 

 

     

 

 

John Storm finds Cleopatra's underwater tomb, but he is too late, Safiya Sabuka has already recovered the Eqyptian queen

The Baron Richthofen and his team of brilliant sceintists reincarnate Cleopatra

 

 

POSTER - Advertising for 'Cleopatra The Mummy' graphic novel, showing the discovery of Cleopatra's underwater tomb, and the ritual reincarnation of the Pharaoh Queen of Egypt. The technology to make this possible is real, and exists today. But human cloning is not legal in many countries.

 

 

 

     

               

 

 

..

 

..

 

 

 

This screenplay is Copyright © 17th February 2023 Cleaner Ocean Foundation. Protected by the Berne Convention. All rights reserved.

The views, reviews and opinions of the Trust are protected by Articles 18 and 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

 

 

 

 

CLEOPATRA'S MUMMY - COPYRIGHT SCREENPLAY, CLEANER OCEAN FOUNDATION LTD. FEBRUARY 17TH 2023 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED - INDEX TO SCRIPT CHAPTERS AND SCENES A TO Z INDEX: CLEOPATRA THE MUMMY