Panel 1: Barron Jr. has zoomed in on something (possibly make it clearer with a little “ZOOM” in one corner of the panel). It is one of Phoebe’s ankles. The tip of a tentacle has wrapped itself around the ankle.
Panel 2: Phoebe in the middle of being yanked off her feet and dragged under the rail by the pull of the tentacle. Her hands are splayed out forward as she is falling, her sunglasses gone askew.
Phoebe (jagged, panicked balloon) (1): WHOOP!
Translation (1): Ооо!
Panel 3: View over the rail. Phoebe has been pulled into the sea, her fall throwing up a column of water.
SFX – Phoebe hitting the water (2): SPLASH!
Translation (2): БУЛТЫХ!
Panel 4: Phoebe’s head resurfacing briefly as she pulls herself back up above water.
Click to load or right-click to download full-size image.
INT. HIGH TECH CONFERENCE ROOM – DAY
Harry sits on one side of the table, facing Rosalie, Joe, and Ernie. Harry is leafing through a dossier and looking generally displeased.
HARRY
And so over the last month this creature has downloaded terabytes worth of information off the Internet…
ERNIE
There’s some evidence that it is “listening in” on terrestrial radio as well.
HARRY
Any independent evidence of intelligence?
ROSALIE
Certainly…
JOE
Of a sort.
HARRY
Such as?
ERNIE
It’s been uploading material into our virtual space. For example, it seems to have somehow produced a sound file that resembles a radio show.
HARRY
Really?
Rosalie clicks something. On a video screen at the end of the table appears an oscilloscope-like graphic that moves as the voice below plays.
RADIO SHOW VOICE
…all these immigrants pouring into the country, taking jobs away from real Americans, spreading their diseases, and the libtards in Washington don’t want to do anything to protect your rights. Now, I’m not advocating any violence here, but the Founding Fathers in their wisdom gave us the Second Amendment for a reason…
Harry makes a throat-cutting gesture. Rosalie promptly clicks the radio show off.
HARRY
So we’ve spent how much money to create a new right-wing radio host?
ERNIE
The creature has also uploaded a text into virtual space.
Harry raises an eyebrow.
ERNIE
It’s a four hundred and fifty thousand word defense of the thesis that William Shakespeare wrote the New Testament.
ROSALIE
And there’s the graphic novel it sent us.
HARRY
(looking down at his dossier)
I don’t see anything about that here.
ROSALIE
We thought you might find it distasteful.
JOE
“Vore University.” The touching story of a group of coeds who enroll in a program in which they are socialized into wanting to be meat.
Harry sighs and closes his dossier.
HARRY
Lady and gentlemen, we’re a drug company. We don’t do animal psychology research here.
ROSALIE
If this is about the government…
HARRY
I realize the government wants this creature, but it was found on company property and our lawyers can tie them up for years if we need to. No, the issue is our investors, who are getting increasingly anxious about how much this project costs. So we have to shut down. The creature goes to the government, who are interested in it.
ROSALIE
(alarmed)
Who will do what with him?
HARRY
Military weapons research, most likely. It won’t be our problem any more.
ROSALIE
But Harry…
HARRY
(firmly)
The decision has been made, Dr. Quisp.
(looking up toward Ernie and Joe)
Gentlemen.
Ernie, Joe, and Rosalie rise and begin to file out of the conference room.
HARRY
Dr. Quisp, a word with you please.
Rosalie turns to face Harry.
HARRY
Rosalie, I want you to know that you weren’t wrong to advocate for this project. It’s just that sometimes things don’t work out. Everything here costs money, and we need to respect the wishes of those whose money it is. Otherwise, there is no OIKOS GALENOU L-L-C.
ROSALIE
I understand.
HARRY
I want you to know that even if it didn’t work out, my trust in you is unimpaired.
ROSALIE
Thank you.
HARRY
Take the weekend off. Do some self-care, and we’ll see you back in the lab on Monday, okay?
ROSALIE
Yes, Dr. Lal.
Please do not reproduce this storyboard or its associated screenplay text without permission from Faustus, who may be contacted here.
Panel 1: Barron Sr. and a WEALTHY FRIEND (another corpulent middle-aged man), both wearing sunglasses, tacky Hawaiian shirts and Bermuda shorts, sitting on deck chairs sipping drinks.
Wealthy Friend (1): President Reagan sure did a number on those air traffic control thugs and their union, eh?
Translation (1): Неплохо президент Рейган обвел вокруг пальца этих авиадиспетчеров и их профсоюз, а?
Barron Sr. (2): Here’s hoping he takes on the coons and the spics next.
Translation (2): Надеюсь, теперь он возьмется за черных и латиносов.
Panel 2: Wealthy friend is sitting up peering over his sunglasses, while Barron Sr. is waving Barron Jr. and his camera away with a gesture of his hand (indicate with motion lines).
Barron Sr (3): Move along, son. This is grown-up talk.
Translation (3): Проходи, сынок. Это разговор для взрослых.
Panel 3: Phoebe is in her bikini, leaning slightly backwards with her hands on the rail, looking forward, enjoying the sun and sea. She is also wearing sunglasses and her body glistens a bit from her having put on sunscreen.
Panel 4: Same as before, but now Phoebe is looking into Barron Jr.’s camera with an admonitory expression.
Note: There should be some sort of framing around the panels on this and some succeeding pages to indicate that they’re “footage” taken with Barron Jr.’s Super 8 camera.
Panel 1: Barron Jr.’s hand pushing open a cabin door somewhere below decks on the Yellow Rose.
SUBTITLE (1): Camera footage taken by Barron Jr., son of Barron Sr.
Translation (1): Материал, отснятый Барроном-младшим, сыном Баррона-старшего.
Panel 2: We see past the door into the interior of a cabin. Phoebe, evidently surprised while changing into a bikini, is holding her as-yet-unfastened bikini top over her breasts with one arm, while charging forward and reaching for the door with her other. She wears an appropriately angry expression.
Panel 3: View of a gangway, leading up to the deck.
Panel 4>: View off the deck of the Yellow Rose. We can see the rail on the side of the deck, beyond that the ocean, and beyond that in the distance the trees and hills of the Island of Motofupo.
Panel 1: A family picture of the Petrobuxs, Texas oil billionaires, taken around 1980. At the center are BARRON PETROBUX SR. (“Barron Sr.”), and his wife PEONY. Barron Sr. is a corpulent man in a cowboy hat, cowboy boots, string tie with a diamond slider. Peony is a woman dressed in overly expensive clothes for the period, clearly once very beautiful and now someone who spends time fighting oncoming middle age and it shows. Flanking them are the Petrobux daughter Phoebe, a beautiful and well-developed girl of about 16 in this photograph, smiling brilliantly, and BARRON JR., a somewhat sullen-looking boy about ten years old in this picture who is holding his most-prized possession, a high-end Super 8 movie camera (camcorders not being commercially available before 1984). Barron Jr. should have a Distinctive Feature that will enable us to identify him as the same person at later ages than he is in this photograph. What it is can be up to the artist, but should be reasonably recognizable: a scar, a cowlick that won’t go away, a droopy eyelid, something like that. There should be labels indicating the names of the four people in the photograph.
CAPTION – PSUEDO-NARRATION (1): In 1981, Barron Petrobux Sr. was a Texas oil and real-estate billionaire and an important figure in state and national Republican party politics. He had a famously beautiful wife, Peony and daughter, Phoebe, and a young son passionately interested in making movies, Barron Jr.
Translation (1): В 1981 году Баррон Петробакс-старший был техасским нефтяным миллиардером и важной фигурой в Республиканской партии. У него была замечательно красивая жена, Пиони, и дочь Фиби, а также сын Баррон-младший, увлекавшийся киносъемкой.
Panel 2: A view of the Yellow Rose, the Petrobux family yacht, a big, expensive, tastelessly well-appointed vessel, traveling through the sea.
CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (2): Petrobux was also the proud owner of one of the largest private yachts in the world at the time.
Translation (2): Петробакс также являлся счастливым обладателем одной из самых крупных на то время частных яхт.
CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (3): The beautiful waters and beaches around Motofupo had been declared a restricted zone by the U.S. Navy, but exceptions to the restrictions would be made for a man of Petrobux’s political influence.
Translation (3): Прекрасные воды и пляжи Мотофупо ВМФ США объявил закрытой зоной, однако такие влиятельные лица, как Петробакс, могли рассчитывать на исключение.
Click to load or right-click to download full-size image.
INT. CONTROL ROOM – DAY
Rosalie, Ernie, and Joe are in the control room, a room located above the main warehouse space. On one wall are windows looking down at the space, on the other three control panels and high-definition monitors.
Wheeled office chairs allow people to move around the room.
ERNIE
Okay, so let’s review. We have a number of safety features here. One is that while the creature can look at the actual Internet, anything it tries to upload will be stored in a virtual net disconnected from the net. That should keep it from uploading viruses, hacking into the Strategic Air Command, or whatever.
JOE
You can hack into the Strategic Air Command?
ERNIE
How badly do you want to find out?
(raises an eyebrow)
The second takes advantage of the fact that we live in the physical world. The junction between the Creature and the rest of the world is this.
Ernie holds up two ends of ethernet cable. One ends in a simple connector, the other in a junction box.
ERNIE
If the creature ever starts doing something we don’t like, we just pull the plug. A simple, elegant solution to a big, complex problem.
ROSALIE
Certainly one that everyone can understand.
ERNIE
So are we ready?
JOE
Yes.
ROSALIE
Yes.
ERNIE
Then here we go.
There is a moment of silence.
JOE
Is something supposed to happen?
ERNIE
Maybe it’s taking a nap.
More silence. Rosalie bites her lip.
JOE
Or maybe our creature friend isn’t as bright as some think.
More seconds tick by.
JOE
What a waste of effort.
ERNIE
I need to check the software. Let’s disconnect first…
Ernie reaches for the joined ethernet cables.
Rosalie looks through the windows at the creature.
ROSALIE
(under her breath)
C’mon, don’t disappoint us.
Ernie is about to break the connection when there is a PING!
Please do not reproduce this storyboard or its associated screenplay text without permission from Faustus, who may be contacted here.
Panel 1: Hazel in interview pose, now slumped backwards.
Hazel (1): And she wasn’t the only one. Two more of us also disappeared in almost exactly the same way.
Translation (1): И она была не единственной. Еще двое из нас исчезли почти таким же образом.
Panel 2: A fat folder containing official reports, sealed and with a large stenciled word CLASSIFIED stamped across it.
CAPTION – HAZEL NARRATING (2): The Navy ordered us not to talk about it. They said it would be bad for morale.
Translation (2): Руководство ВМФ запретило нам говорить об этом. Нам сказали, что это может подорвать боевой дух.
CAPTION – HAZEL NARRATING (3): People asked fewer questions about orders back then, you know.
Translation (3): Как вы знаете, в те времена люди были менее склонны обсуждать приказы.
Panel 3: A panel showing the Bride’s dive in the water, as if taken from the Scelleratini film of 1905, a split second after the scene on Page 5, Panel 4 above, such that the Bride has broken the surface of the water, and has submerged down to her waist.
CAPTION – HAZEL NARRATING (4): I tried not to think of it much myself, but in the late 1970s, I think, I saw a film clip of film made by some Italian people of the same place from long, long ago. I think it was on PBS late at night.
Translation (4): Я сама старалась не думать об этом слишком много, однако в конце 70-х я случайно увидела отрывок из фильма, снятого какими-то итальянцами в этом месте давно-давно назад. Кажется, это показывали по PBS поздно ночью.
Panel 4: A panel showing a front page of the Dallas Morning News for Tuesday, October 6, 1981. A large part of the front page would be a posed formal picture of PHOEBE PETROBUX (a very pretty and probably blond teenager, who we’ll see more of below) under the headline TEXAS TEEN STILL MISSING IN SOUTH PACIFIC. (Possible filler headlines, taken from real world history for that day that could be included for verisimilitude, could be RAOUL WALLERBERG MADE HONORARY U.S. CITIZEN and REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON INDICTED FOR TAX EVASION).
CAPTION – HAZEL NARRATING (5): And then we all read that terrible story about the poor girl from Texas.
Translation (5): А затем мы все узнали эту ужасную историю о несчастной девушке из Техаса.
Click to load or right-click to download full-size image.
INT. THE MAIN WAREHOUSE SPACE – NIGHT
Rosalie approaches the Gynophage. Its tentacles stir as she approaches. Eye mouth and grabber tentacles approach but do not come closer to her than about eighteen inches. Rosalie addresses the Gynophage.
ROSALIE
I imagine you’ve been bored.
The tentacles stir and approach slightly. The eye tentacles blink.
ROSALIE
But we’re going to try something today that I think you’re going to enjoy.
Please do not reproduce this storyboard or its associated screenplay text without permission from Faustus, who may be contacted here.