SICK OF WAITING FOR WONDERWOMAN
by
Alan J. Rosenthal
711 W
Winneconne Ave.
Neenah, WI
54956
920-720-2911
arosenthal1@sbcglobal.net
© 2013 Alan J. Rosenthal - PAu 3-675-805
WGAe
Registered 2012 - #R29701
#R29729
#I255400
FADE IN:
EXT./INT.
CRAGGY MYCENAEAN SHORELINE - CLIFF CAVE – DAY (985
BC)
Clothed in
ragged layers, Granny MAIA gently prods a meek, TWELVE YEAR OLD DIANA, down a
sheer cliff path.
The subtle girl
cowers as dozens of enemy soldiers spill lifelessly down the cliff face from a
donkey cart above. Brusque waves below then sweep the dead away.
MAIA
(in Ancient Greek)
Look
at it child. You cannot know
where you are going if you do not
know from where it is that you came.
At the mouth
of the cave, TWO GUARDS stand like statues holding long torches. Unseen drums
strike an occasional, uneven beat.
A BLACK RIDER,
armored in gold, watches, from a distant ridge.
Shuffled into
the winding cavern, Diana eyes the battle weary soldiers lined up against its
walls. First blush does not suggest they are women, although they are. None return
her gaze.
Maia ushers
Diana to a short stone altar, iron wings hinged at its sides; the girl kneels there,
within a heavenly beam of light. As an ancient forge huffs in the shadows, she begins
to shake; Maia's leathered fingers then gently close her eyes.
MAIA
(in Ancient Greek to Diana’s
ear)
Breathe.
QUEEN
HIPPOLYTA, 40, strides confidently in with her LIEUTENANTS in tow. She lifts
her silver helmet and long curls of black hair release down her back.
The Queen
kneels before Diana as molten bracelet tubes are laid in the altar’s round
channels. The stone's side leaves are then flipped on top, capturing the red cherry
cylinders. As Maia pulls away SISTER AMAZONS, clutching hammers, stand ready on
each side.
Diana thrusts
her hands into the pillory holes; Hippolyta snares them on the other side.
Hammer whacks shout out, compressing the tubes agonizingly onto Diana's
wrists. She is then released.
Diana lets
out a CURDLING SHRIEK and falls back, unconscious.
Ancient
symbols adorning the pillory's flat top smolder; its black marble sheen appears to come alive...
morphing to:
EXT.
STRATOSPHERE (EASTERN HEMISPHERE)– NIGHT (3000 YEARS LATER)
A serene
panorama of black space and stars... slowly gives way to a blue curve of earth
and clouds.
INSERT - DISTANT/HAUNTING
SOUNDS: WORLD WAR TWO - BOMBER
These are ghost-like
manifestations of a plane, under attack and falling from the sky, which begin
softly droning in background.
EXT. PARADISE
ISLAND - PRISTINE OCEAN BEACH - PRE DAWN
PRINCESS
DIANA, now 30, lies on the sand in the midst of a nightmare. Her dusky figure, save
GLINTING silver bracelets at her sides, tosses and turns.
INSERT CONTINUES
- HAUNTING SOUNDS: WORLD WAR TWO -
BOMBER
ECHOES (FROM
NIGHTMARE) of plane and crew as they meet their end.
WWII
VOICE 1 (VO FROM DREAM)
...How
did those Nazi bastards find us?
WWII
VOICE 2 (VO FROM DREAM)
We
lost number four, I can’t keep her
together--
CUT TO:
EXT. STRATOSPHERE
– FIFTY MILES ABOVE MEDITERRANEAN - PRE DAWN
A hypersonic
plane, just within earth’s atmosphere, WHOOSHES BY. Its trail of smoke and
debris hangs in the high altitude.
PRISTINE OCEAN
BEACH - SAME
Diana suddenly
sits up, awake; curls of black hair release down her back. She hears only gentle
breeze and washing waves.
INT.
STRATOSPHERE - WOUNDED HYPERSONIC SPY PLANE – CONTINUOUS
Alarms beep.
Flashing panels jitter and blur. MAJOR STEVE TREVOR, 30s, full atmospheric
suit, clear-faced helmet, fights control stick while desperately pushing
buttons.
STEVE
Come
on baby, be a good girl. Don’t
do
this to daddy, just one more burn.
Show me that big beautiful candle...
(THUMP triggers more alarms)
...oh,
that couldn’t have been good.
A
cross pendant, tied haphazard to the displays, rattles loose to float free and
still in the zero G air. Steve loops it within his glove. He then looks out; the
plane’s wings GLOW RED.
STEVE
Mother...
I don’t know how much of
this you’re taken in, but baby here’s
have'n a fit.
Tried numerous restarts.
Controls are unresponsive. Skin temp's
in
the red, literally. I‘m bleeding
fuel almost as fast as coolant--
A
radar panel blinks: "LAND MASS DETECTED". Suddenly, the plane breaks
through a strange AURORA-LIKE BARRIER.
STEVE
What the! Are you guys seeing this?
I’ve got land showing up out here
on the Topogra--
A
loud BANG induces violent shaking. Steve pulls hard on the control stick. A
dark coast drops into frame.
PRISTINE
OCEAN BEACH - SAME
As
Diana stands a plane appears clipping the tree tops. The beach erupts into a
blizzard of sand and debris. The craft skims into the bay and digs in, flipping
again and again. Its canopy escape capsule breaks from the plane and cartwheels
into the open ocean.
The brown
blizzard ebbs and Diana is now gone, though footprints in the sand run out and
disappear under the ocean’s surf.
INT.
COCKPIT - DAWN
The
sea pours into the capsule. Steve pounds on the canopy bubble futilely. Water
races over the sphere and he begins to black out.
The
pod sinks; Steve briefly glimpses the silhouette of a woman, angelically floating.
Her dress unfurls around her, like a sun, lit by the light of the surface. The
Major’s focus again grows dark. Mysteriously,
the pod then propels back towards shore.
PRISTINE
OCEAN BEACH - NOW DAY
The capsule
pushes up through the surf and flops onto its side. Something then slithers
from the water beneath; close in, legs of a woman (Diana) stroll past. She
stands before a mesmerized Steve. They both reach out; their hands bond through
the glass.
STEVE
(gasping, hand drops away)
Oxygen. Hard to breathe.
Diana RIPS
the bubble loose and effortlessly flips it behind her. Steve gasps elatedly as
she removes his helmet; he tensely then spots the canopy bubble bouncing faraway
down the beach.
Steve tries
to pull his suit's umbilical loose, but his arm is in pain. Diana briefly touches
him to help-- he WINCES IN AGONY.
After
Steve desperately tries again, Diana casually WRENCHES THE UMBILICAL FREE. She
then impatiently RIPS OUT HIS HARNESS BELTS, hugs him up, and slings him over
her shoulder - his cross pendant hanging tenaciously from within its limp and bloody
glove.
STEVE
YeaaAAH Jesus
Christ!
Diana carries
Steve to the beach's edge and sits with him in the breaking waves. He anxiously
signals her to open his leg pocket.
STEVE
Morphine.
Steve fumbles
open the kit of syringes. He injects one into his neck, the tension falls from
his face and body.
STEVE
Where
am I? Are we near Cyprus?...
Crete?
What
island, is this?
DIANA
The
one that’s been forsaken... by all.
STEVE
Am I dead?... Is this, heaven?
DIANA
You are no more in heaven than I am--
STEVE
(touching Diana's cheek)
--an angel.
Diana pulls
his hand down as BEAUTIFUL AMAZONS, 20s, begin to appear in the palms like
silken fairytale creatures.
Down shore, horseback
riders in tight head-to-toe uniform break through the tree line. Each flaunts a
long, regimented ponytail of straight hair. ARTEMIS, 30, in black, glares at
the crowd. She leads IONIA and BETHANIA, who are in white, in a slow GALLOP.
STEVE
(groggy, feels horses nearing)
I can feel something.
DIANA
That is death, coming for you.
STEVE
...Will you help me?
He passes out
as Artemis arrives and dismounts. Elegant gold adorns her sinuous curves, gauntlets
wrap her arms in a snake motif. The women gathered on the beach cower and pull
away to open up a path before her.
ARTEMIS
What have we fished out of the sea
Diana? You know you left the best part
out there.
(eyeing
plane protruding in bay)
Leave it to Diana to go fishing...
(to riders on horseback)
...and only come back with the head.
The
three riders laugh as Diana discreetly notes Steve's pendant fall from his hand
into the surf; she looks up unassumingly.
ARTEMIS
Ionia, Bethania, would you be dears
and retrieve the rest of the carcass
out of the bay for us please?
As they
dismount a chariot-style spindly pad appears over the tree line, it descends on
a WHITE BLUE GLOW. One of the nurses it carries steps off before it fully
touches down.
NURSE 1
grasps Steve. Instantly his clothes, skin, and tissue all turn CLEAR, RENDERING
HIS INNARDS COMPLETELY VISIBLE.
Ionia and
Bethania pull magnetic grappling pads from the horse's packs. Artemis gives
them a final nod. A WHITE BLUE GLOW emerges from the back of their suits AND LIFTS
THEM OUT OVER THE WATER.
NURSE
2 lays stretcher poles on each side of Steve. Alternating bands weave rigidly
underneath him. They then mount the stretcher to their craft and float back up
over the tree line with Steve.
DIANA
(stands eyeing her bloody gown)
...He’s American.
ARTEMIS
That’s a shame, they’re so easy to train.
Give me a challenge any day. Remember
how that Spaniard refused to beg...
(giddily
recites in Spanish)
Rot
in hell you evil whore.
(back to English)
Of course, then there was that Italian,
who
wouldn’t stop.
(condescendingly
in Italian)
I don’t deserve this! Please, I swear
on
my mother’s grave I will not tell
anyone
about you. Please, please!
(English,
mocking, chuckling)
“Please, please!”...how, human.
Diana’s
fist, still dripping with Steve's blood, clenches.
ARTEMIS
Relax! I’m just joking. It’s not like
you’re going to be able to keep him.
Definitely
not like the last time.
DIANA
...The world was at war--
ARTEMIS
You
left. You chose one of them over
the
embrace of your many sisters;
only
to come running back, bringing
their
kind right to our door step.
Diana
disgustedly looks away.
ARTEMIS
Had
you been anybody else but the
Queen’s
daughter, the fate suffered
would
have been far greater than just a
mere
clipping of thy wings. Thankfully
the
Gods saw fit to relieve you of your
error
just in time.... Pity the humans
didn’t take to the water as you; course,
had you not been immortal, you wouldn’t
have survived the crash either.
Artemis
slithers back to mount her horse, gloating; she pulls it around as Diana sneers
angrily.
ARTEMIS
Be careful with him; they break so
easily.
As
Artemis gallops off, Steve's pendant glints up at Diana.
INT.
BRILLIANT WHITE FUTURISTIC ICU – GLASS CUBICLE - DAY
Steve lays unconscious
on a sleek slender platform. A shiny mechanical lattice ensnares his wounded arm.
Hovering alongside him is a pulsing, silver device with cords loomed into the
lattice along its entire length.
Outside the
cubicle, ICU Nurses go about their business. Diana, still disheveled and bloody
from the beach, leans into the cubicle's corner staring off into nowhere....
FLASHBACK – WWII
B-17 BOMBER UNDER ATTACK – DIANA’S POV - DUSK
Diana watches
the backs of the B-17 PILOT, 35, and COPILOT, 25, from behind their seats, as
they fight to keep the plane aloft.
WWII
B-17 CREWMAN 1 (OS)
How did those Nazi bastards find us?
WWII
B-17 PILOT
(looking
out side window)
It has to be down there somewhere. We
have to find it.
WWII
B-17 COPILOT
We
lost number four, I can’t keep her
together--
CUT TO:
INT.
ANCIENT PALACE CATACOMBS - SAME TIME AS ICU
Hippolyta,
now 45, creaks open a hulking arched door and descends into a great vaulted hall.
Her jewels glint amid the labyrinth’s dreary upper galleries and vast cellar chambers.
She struts the raised central aisle and passes: GREASY AMAZONS working on a jet
engine hanging mysteriously in midair, a dark laser lab pulsing with light,
CHEMIST AMAZONS working on experiments, and AMAZONS IN ARMORY, maintaining vast
rows of futuristic weapons.
All look up,
linger, while she passes by, just to catch a peek of their radiant
Queen - as if
she were a god.
ICU GLASS
CUBICLE – SAME
Steve
awakens, but Diana still appears adrift in another world--
RETURN TO
FLASHBACK – WWII B-17 BOMBER UNDER ATTACK – DIANA’S POV
The frenzy in
the cockpit intensifies as he plane is rocked by the attack. Suddenly, the
Pilot looks behind at Diana, completely calm, surreal. He takes her hand.
WWII
B-17 PILOT
My
beautiful angel. You needn’t worry,
I
will always watch over you.
The front of
the bomber RIPS OPEN. The Pilot, torn from Diana’s grasp, is sucked out of the
plane--
RETURN TO - ICU
GLASS CUBICLE
Diana leers
at her hands inadvertently reaching. Her gaze shifts to Steve, now awake, also struggling
to reach out - for her.
INTERCUT -
ICU GLASS CUBICLE / PALACE CATACOMBS, ICU ENTRY
The Queen
ascends the ICU glass airlock’s stoop at the end of the hall. She stops inches
from touching the security scanner pad. Through a spaceship world of medical
technology, she fixates on Diana - swooning over Steve - in the ICU's center
back cubicle.
STEVE
(losing consciousness)
An-gel....
Diana’s eyes
well up. Hippolyta pulls from the glass, and leaves.
INT.
ANCIENT PALACE CATACOMBS - LATER
Diana, in a short
gown and freshly done hair, enters and makes her way down the hall carrying a
bundle of clothes as if a gift. She ascends the ICU's stoop, and drops the
garments surprisingly; the ward is now mostly dim. Steve's cubicle is vacant.
INT. PALACE
GUARD'S WING - BATH HOUSE - SAME
At the base
of a palatial set of steps, Steve relaxes in a round bath surrounded by garish
opulence and half-naked women. The beautiful nymphs, KASSANDRA and MELINA, 30s,
hang attentively on each side of the coy, yet comfortable man.
STEVE
Ooh, my arm.
KASSANDRA
Let me make it better.
As Steve
half-heartedly fends off Kassandra's wandering hands, Melina fixates on his
USAF Master Astronaut tattoo.
STEVE
Haven't you ever seen a tattoo before?
MELINA
I've had many. All fade after a few
hundred years.
She pulls up
the hair from the back of her neck to reveal an extremely faded, ornate emblem
hidden beneath.
STEVE
I've seen that before. Somewhere?
Melina looks
to the doors in front of them (opposite the steps); a crucifix-like effigy of a
warrior woman, flying in a medallion sun, is carved into the stone above.
MELINA
It is of the Emissary, to the Gods.
Sheathed
in the armor of the Gods,
she
was the only one of us that could
leave
Themyscira as immortal. Unbound
by
your world's limitations.
KASSANDRA
(in
Steve’s ear playfully)
In-vinc-ible.
MELINA
When the male tribes of antiquity rose
up,
and all but extinguished our race...
she
was the one that saved us.
KASSANDRA
A-venged-us.
STEVE
(skeptically
plays along)
Invincible uh. If she was so, “immortal,”
then
where is she now?
KASSANDRA
All
of us on Themyscira are immortal
silly.
Save for you.
LOUNGING
AMAZON ONE
Why
women who set foot upon these shores
become
eternal and strong...
LOUNGING
AMAZON TWO
While
men still grow impotent, and weak.
Steve’s
expression sobers as he stiffens and begins to sit up.
LOUNGING
AMAZON ONE
...the
Gods have yet to reveal?
LOUNGING
AMAZON TWO
Ooh
Kassandra, I think it wants to play!
MELINA
(easing/pulling
Steve back)
The armor of the Emissary was a heavy
burden to bear; bequeathed to us only in
our
most dire hour, to the strongest
among
us.
LOUNGING
AMAZON ONE
Once our enemies had been defeated and
Themyscira
was safe, there was never
any
need to wear it again.
KASSANDRA
(dismissive,
easing Steve back)
Most
of us were too young to remember,
so
it is now only legend. A story, from
a bygone era.
LOUNGING
AMAZON TWO
Some, believe it to be merely lost.
Taken
back by the goddess Hera herself.
Only
to be returned when the final
battle
with Man nears its end.
As Steve notes
the warrior woman effigy reflecting in the pool, an AMAZON WITH A DAGGER,
lounging near, unsheathes her blade--
PALACE
CATACOMBS - SAME
Diana hastens
back to the hulking arched door. A figure (ALEXA), sitting against the banister
of a dark and musty upper gallery library, snaps an old book shut with a LOUD POP;
Diana halts.
(Note: though
Alexa and Diana are over a hundred feet apart, their extraordinary hearing lets
them speak as if close together)
ALEXA
You’ve been forbade contact with the
outside world Princess. Whether you go
to it, or it comes to you, makes no
difference in the eyes of the Queen.
DIANA
That sentence has long since been
served. This, imaginary, collar she’s
convinced all of you hung around my
neck has fallen from memory.
ALEXA
Than the Nymphs that came and dragged
the
pilot off must also been lapses
of
the memory. Ghosts perhaps? As I
remember
it Diana, no sentence was ever
attached,
banished is banished. Why go
looking for a fight you cannot win?
DIANA
He put his trust in me. Is that some
small thing?
ALEXA
You owe the humans nothing. When will
you realize you never have? They cannot
be saved from themselves.
DIANA
You don’t believe that any more than I.
Diana CLANKS open
the door and leaves. Alexa MOANS and slumps down the banister, her head thumps
onto the floor. A CHILD-LIKE AMAZON, 20s, then runs and scoops up the clothes Diana
dropped.
BATH HOUSE –
SAME
The nymphs
aggressively cuddle; Steve fends them off with talk.
STEVE
The male tribes of antiquity huh!
KASSANDRA
(gnaws his ear, playful growl)
YYYes.
MELINA
Centuries before what is in your history
books these lands were ruled by warlords.
The
shores ran red with their ambition.
Only the black ink of posterity...
LOUNGING
AMAZON TWO
One written by Men.
MELINA
...made them legend.
KASSANDRA
While jealously exiling us to mere myth.
But that has served well; it has kept us
hidden from the prying eyes of humanity.
STEVE
And this, Themyscira?
MELINA
She is all around, flowing up from the
very ground beneath you.
STEVE
(gesturing the room)
The island?!
Kasandra
laughs, pointing her toes up through the bath water like an island.
KASSANDRA
Yes!
She is our home. But far more
than just a mere patch of rock rising up
from the ocean; she is the very strength
that courses through our veins.
She pulls her
foot back under; Steve is again drawn to the effigy’s reflection within the
rippling bath water--
QUICK
FLASHBACK - INT. SPY PLAN - ESCAPE POD COCKPIT – DAWN
Steve
remembers how Diana angelically rescued him from the bay.
END FLASHBACK
STEVE
I remember where I’ve seen it now; when
I was rescued, floating, like an angel.
AMAZON
WITH A DAGGER
(closing in behind Steve)
The Princess!
INT. PALACE
GUARD'S WING - MAIN HALL - SAME
Diana marches
a macabre hall lined with: Greek, Roman, Templar, Conquistador, Napoleonic, and
World War skeletons; chromed in silver, dressed in battle gear, and elegantly
displayed in clear columns. The vanquished, entombed in crystal, as trophies.
An AMIABLE
PALACE GUARD waits by the doors at hall's end. Diana contemptuously pushes past
these doors and moves down yet another hall toward a second set of doors. The
Guard nervously follows.
AMIABLE GUARD
Diana, I can't let you go in.
DIANA
(as
opening doors to Bath)
If you witches harmed one hair on his,
head--
BATH HOUSE –
SAME
LOUNGING
AMAZON ONE
Diana, the Emissary! Oh by the Gods, no.
Diana,
unnoticed, leers from the balcony (which is above and behind the bathers)
as Amazon With A Dagger slices a mango on a tray in back of Steve’s head.
AMAZON
WITH A DAGGER
(to
Steve)
You would be wise to avoid that one.
LOUNGING
AMAZON TWO
She’s
crazy.
MELINA
She’s cursed.
LOUNGING
AMAZON ONE
She’s cursed alright. By a bleeding
heart.
LOUNGING
AMAZON TWO
Yeah, Miss high and mighty flower child.
“Oh, peace and love, peace and love.”
How
pathetic.
The women all
laugh. Suddenly, Child-like Amazon arrives with Diana's bundle.
CHILD-LIKE AMAZON
Diana you dropped this--
Diana shushes
her franticly out of site. Amazon With A Dagger, and Lounging Amazon One, turn
to look up at the open doors of the balcony; they smirk as Diana hides just
beyond them.
STEVE
She’s cursed?
KASSANDRA
Let’s just say... all the men she’s
taken,
haven’t had the best of luck.
MELINA
They’re all dead--
KASSANDRA
Melina!
MELINA
Well. It is the truth! The craft they
flew plunged through the edge of the
barrier, like a great fireball, for all
of
Themyscira to see.
AMAZON
WITH A DAGGER
I’m sure our guest doesn’t want to
hear
us
cackle. Besides,
(half turns toward Diana hiding)
the
Princess is forbidden to you or any
man.
Since that day she nearly exposed
us
all to the humans and their maniacal
disease.
Perhaps, had she not ran off to
fight
Nazi perversion all on her own, the
Gods would’ve been more understanding.
She runs one
hand up Steve’s neck, lustfully massaging him, while she twirls the tip of the
dagger on her tongue with the other.
AMAZON
WITH A DAGGER
But that is all in the past, surely men
like that no longer exist. They have
learned
from their mistakes. Tempered
their
lustful desires of control.
Manipulation....
Greed.
MELINA
I thought what she did was brave.
LOUNGING
AMAZON TWO
You’re as daft as she is.
LOUNGING
AMAZON ONE
Tell us Melina, will you be next to run
away into the forest and live under a
rock?
MELINA
Stop it. I’m not a total loon.
LOUNGING
AMAZON TWO
They’ll be like two frogs, waiting for a
kiss from their prince to set them free.
CONNECTING
HALL - CONTINUOUS
The bathers
laugh; Diana, still hiding, eyes her
green gown shamefully. Amiable Guard and Child-like Amazon leave, smirking.
LOUNGING
AMAZON ONE (OS)
At least the next time Diana decides to
leave Themyscira and save the world.
She’ll have a friend.
Diana closes
the doors. As she leans back uneasily, her hand clutches a statue’s foot; SHE SNAPS IT OFF inadvertently.
Then, HECTARE,
a tan rubber android resembling a half-naked Ken doll, shuffles down the hall with
a tray of wine. A look of inspiration comes over the Princess as she watches
him approach.
BATH HOUSE - CONTINUOUS
STEVE
So why doesn’t anybody else leave?
The mood around
the pool instantly sobers, looks are exchanged.
STEVE
What, I--
KASSANDRA
Our bodies begin to mark time. We grow
weak.
MELINA
Once past the barrier, the strength of
Themyscira
ceases to flow through us.
We
no longer have the blessing of the
Gods, and we become mortal. Human.
As they again
look up at the Emissary, Hectare enters through doors beneath, carrying Diana's
precious bundle of clothes.
STEVE
What, is, that?
KASSANDRA
Hectare is our manservant. He’s
programmed to carry out our every need
and desire. Alexa made him to be
anatomically
correct in every way.
Hectare,
don’t be rude, show our guest
why
we call you Hectare.
Hectare
begins reaching to remove his waist wrap--
STEVE
No! That’s okay, I’m good.
HECTARE
...I have brought you something to wear
to
the ceremony tonight sir...
STEVE
Ceremony?
MELINA
You’ll be the guest of honor.
Hectare bends
so Steve can see the statue’s foot atop the bundle.
HECTARE
...and a gift.
STEVE
A rock?
(lifts rock to see his cross pendant)
Angel!
Steve
blatantly stands in the barely waist deep pool, searching the room.
AMAZON
WITH A DAGGER
...That will be all, Hectare.
INT. PALACE
GUARD'S WING - MAIN HALL - CONTINUOUS
Diana emerges
into the hall and closes the doors quietly. PERSEPHONE, 30, the slinky and
punk-hip Captain of the Guards, slithers from between columns of Nazis that
chillingly dominate this entire end of the hall.
PERSEPHONE
Really Diana, witches! Do you think us
that uncivilized?
BATH HOUSE –
SAME
As Steve scans
the bath and balcony for Diana, Kassandra stands and slides provocatively in
front of him, completely naked.
KASSANDRA
I’m sure what you’re looking for is not
nearly as sweet as that which is right
in front of you. But if it pleases, I
can take you to her. After.
STEVE
After what?
KASSANDRA
Why me, of course.
MELINA
(reaching
around Steve from behind)
And me.
MAIN HALL –
CONTINUOUS
PERSEPHONE
(to
the back of Diana)
Why would we harm such a fine catch, I
mean...
at least until all other needs
have
been, properly satisfied.
DIANA
I
intend on holding you to that.
PERSEPHONE
I
suppose we should thank you; it's not
often one of this quality makes it this
far alive.
DIANA
(turning
from the doors to leave)
Please Persephone I just washed. The last
thing I wish is to get down in the dirt...
(as
approaching Persephone)
...with you.
PERSEPHONE
You have feelings for it, don't you?
(leering as Diana passes her)
...Oh my Gods, you do! I just have one
question. Why? Why save a human?
DIANA
(stopping momentarily)
Because it was the right thing to do.
Persephone
raises her arms to the Nazis on either side, laughing.
PERSEPHONE
Save
a human. The right thing to do.
Really! By the Gods, the rumors must be
true; you really haven’t been with a man
since,
when was the last time? The war?
(waits after Diana stops...)
A shame none of them survived; at least
they died protecting a Princess of the
Gods. What higher purpose could a human
wish for than in service of its master.
DIANA
I'm warning you sister. End this while
you still can--
PERSEPHONE
Or you'll what? Leave?
(more cackles of laughter)
Because you think you're enlightened!
Better than us? Maybe you're afraid deep
down you know you really aren't above us;
you’re
just like us. So-you-run-away.
DIANA
You’re wrong sister, I’m not better than
you. But I do pity you. Just because I
don’t revel in it as some doesn’t mean
I know not what I am. Or, what my place
is; so
when I now show you yours...
Diana grabs a
lone staff from the wall with a baton-like twirl.
DIANA
...by
handing you your ass. Know that I
do
so only out of love.
She descends
the steps out of the hall, straight into the arena.
INT.
PALACE SPARRING ARENA/PIT - CONTINUOUS
The arena's
round pit rivals Rome's greatest in size, mosaic floors and domed ceiling make
it unequaled in beauty. Bethania, Ionia, and OTHER PALACE GUARDS conversing
around its periphery openly gawk as Diana walks towards center floor.
The zealous,
NARA, is first to rush at her; Diana's effortless, lightning fast kick sends the
guard twisting through the air. She lands hard, fifty feet away, and slides
next to her staff.
Diana fixates
on Nara worriedly as Ionia and Bethania converge. Persephone then leaps from
the hall straight to a weapons rack.
PERSEPHONE
(yelled in Ancient Greek)
Kittens, I've brought you a mouse. Catch.
She flings
bundled weapons to Ionia and Bethania who unfurl the three segment, bladed
nunchakus; a BUZZ fills the air. WORRIED AMAZONS carry Nara off pit floor just
as Ionia CHOPS a few feet off Diana’s staff. Diana turns, only to have Bethania
lop a few feet off the other end.
The fight
lasts only seconds: Diana, using only bracelets against their many blades,
drops Ionia with a flash quick jab; Bethania, is pulled off her feet and then flung
at the charging Persephone.
Piled on the
floor, they uneasily watch Diana walk towards them. She drops Bethania's weapon
at their feet, then grabs up staff pieces and tosses them disgustedly amongst
the racks.
Slick BLACK
LEGS glide down the pit steps behind Diana. Swords slide from gold scabbards adorning
their sides. The fallen Guards, now picking themselves up, are riveted by them.
ARTEMIS
Can anybody join this little party?
I’d hate to intrude.
Diana’s eyes
grow wide. She warily reaches for the darkest spear at the end of the rack, brilliant
red and blue silks adorn it.
DIANA
Of course not. We would be honored if
the great Artemis would join our--
Artemis bolts
at Diana, forcing her to dodge and backpedal towards Throne Hall (a straight section
of wall that borders and subtly flattens the pit's otherwise perfectly circular
shape).
As Diana's
pole wedges at the edge of the floor, she is chased (running backwards) up the
wall and into the air. She lands in a furious roll on the other side of the
pit, standing just in time to stop Artemis cold at the end of her spear.
ARTEMIS
Thank you for the invitation. I accept.
Diana
attacks. Planting the spear between Artemis' legs she again vaults away,
curtsying arrogantly as she lands behind her.
ARTEMIS
Congratulations. Bravo. Diana has shown
us that she can fly away.
(turns to face Diana)
But when is she going to show us she can
stand and fight?
Diana WHIPS
the pole around herself and gestures Artemis to come.
Every moment the
Princes has her feet in air, Artemis spends two firmly planted. Different yet
equal, neither lands an upper hand. Be that as it may, Artemis’ zig-zagging
ponytail is no match for the taunting silks which flail on the end of Diana's
spear!
INT.
NEGLECTED ANCIENT THRONE HALL - SAME
As the fight
echoes behind the throne's walls, a leathered hand feels its way along a
massive stone throne.
Maia's
cataract eyes trudge from behind the huge chair. She eases onto its miniscule
side perch. A white moss agate, atop her derby cane, peers like a third eye
into the throne's barren cathedral.
PALACE
SPARRING ARENA - CONTINUOUS
ARTEMIS
Remember when you were a little girl.
You used to follow me around like a lost
cub. I called you my little puppy.
DIANA
That was eons ago.
ARTEMIS
Huh, how time flies.
Diana slashes
her spear angrily. Artemis amusingly deflects her.
ARTEMIS
My such passion, for such a lost cause.
You realize, had one of your sisters
plucked the man-pilot from the bay, he'd
have had half a chance; but because it
was you! How in the name of Hera is a
Queen
to look the other way, while her
Princess
fawns over a hu-man worm--
Artemis
catches Diana’s spear in her sword hilts. The two vie for supremacy as the spear
shaft CREAKS and MOANS between them.
DIANA
So her thoughts now come from your lips.
Should I presume to call you Mother? Or
maybe, Quee--
ARTEMIS
Don't, let your tongue escape you. I
fought by her Grace's side when you were
nothing but musky sweat between her legs.
(giggles!)
You could smell the mortals dying stench
for decades. The very ground you stand
on was covered with them.
DIANA
We were once human too. Had we not
thrown off the chains of man, had this
place
and the strength of the Gods been
bestowed
onto others instead of us.
Would
we not have suffered a same fate?
ARTEMIS
We are nothing like them. Why do you
think
the Gods chose us over Men in the
first place. We are the superior race,
born
lions, the world ours to conquer.
They've
never been anything but sheep,
pitifully
yearning for someone to
shepherd them.
DIANA
(shakes
head in astonishment)
You
so yearn to be her own personal
puppet! Whatever twisted notions of our
past
"Her Grace," has convinced you as
truth,
I pray the day never comes she
tangles
in your strings--
Diana thrusts
the spear through Artemis' lock and clips some of her pony tail. Artemis in
turn spreads her swords apart along the shaft and twists, hard; the pole
SNAPS DIANA INTO THE ARENA’S THICK STONE WALL (and almost through it).
BATH HOUSE -
SAME
As the nymphs
erotically smother Steve in the middle of the bath, he notices Diana's impact
TREMOR the Bath House; dust and small rubble falls.
STEVE
Did you feel that?
KASSANDRA
AND MELINA
Yes.
Amazons
around the pool trade excited glances. They begin to leave. Steve spies the
exodus out the corner of his eye.
STEVE
Where’s
everybody going?
He
flinches as a piece of rubble falls. Kassandra pulls him back by the chin.
KASSANDRA
Who cares.
She
locks Steve in a long kiss. Her lips then move down his body and he’s defenselessly
pulled down by the nymphs....
SPARRING
ARENA - CONTINUOUS
Diana
franticly twists between Artemis' slashing blades. She then KICKS HER RIVAL
ACROSS THE ARENA, into the far opposite wall.
PALACE
CATACOMBS - SAME
The hulking arched
door slams open. Child-like Amazon leaps mid-way down the hall and barges into
a commissary.
CHILD-LIKE
AMAZON
Diana's fighting Artemis!
The news
vacates commissary and spreads to other rooms. Amazons flow out of the hall and
up into the main palace thoroughfares.
SPARRING
ARENA - CONTINUOUS
As Diana apprehensively
eyes the swelling crowd, Artemis explodes off the edge of the pit (crushing the
step). She passes Diana, runs up the wall, and leaps down onto the Princess.
Diana heaves her off and tries to vault away, but Artemis' black legs sweep
under and clip her staff before she can.
Artemis now springs
her death blow; Diana SNAPS her knees to her chest and somersaults from under
it (like a wind-up toy). A crack then runs between Diana's feet to the pit's
edge. Artemis kneels, with her swords submerged in the floor, drooling. Diana
tears up.
DIANA
You missed. If you want me that bad...
(points to chest)
...I’m right here.
She swings
the spear around herself and SCRAWLS a wide arc in the floor; as the frenzy
resumes Diana refuses to leave this circle.
Artemis again
catches the Princess’ spear. This time Diana spins and whacks it loose; women
dodge as the kick also sends Artemis’ sword whistling out a window.
DIANA
It was rather careless of you to lose a
sword like that.
ARTEMIS
That’s okay, I only need the one to take
your head.
The fight
resumes, and Artemis is now able to grab Diana's foot. She flings her out of
the arena (like a projectile). The Princess SMASHES COMPLETELY THROUGH Throne
Hall, and into the:
INT. REFLECTING
ARENA - CONTINUOUS
Second arena
is a mirror of first, but statues fill its arches and alcoves. At its center, a
towering stone effigy of Zeus stops Diana. The nude god disintegrates upon
IMPACT with the floor.
BATH HOUSE –
SAME
The impact RUMBLES
the bath. Steve smiles up at the waving chandelier as he snuggles between the
Nymph’s wet cleavage....
REFLECTING
ARENA - CONTINUOUS
Diana
struggles amid the arms, legs, and penis of a god. Artemis glides down Throne
Hall's steps, then CHOPS Diana’s spear in two.
ARTEMIS
Do you need a little time to, pick up
your sticks?
DIANA
No thanks. I’d rather throw stones.
Diana's leg
WHIPS through Zeus's debris, hurling it at Artemis. She then bounds out of the dust
cloud to get her spear, but stops half way there with Artemis’ blade lodging
between her bracelets.
ARTEMIS
I really wasn’t going to let you get
them anyway.
DIANA
I know.
Artemis
ravenously corrals Diana into Zeus' laying head. Diana uses it to loop up and
over and tumble away. She rocks the spear tip up off the ground with her last
STOMP. A daring pivot back into Artemis scoops up the other half; soon after,
the second gold sword is sent looping through the air.
DIANA
Do you need a little time to--
Artemis bolts
for her sword. Diana takes a detour up Zeus’s base and into the air. She
descends and pins Artemis to the pit steps. Her foot sends the sword
skittering. Diana then tosses her sticks and walks away, fighting to hide a
proud smile.
Artemis
angrily turns away; she hides a slithering black metallic whip that oozes
quietly from her snake pattern gauntlet.
The whip
cracks, coiling Diana's neck. She's yanked back and bounces off the floor as
Artemis' legs wrap around her. Her futile kicking and SMASHING only tightens
the choke.
ARTEMIS
Oh dear. Poor little thing. Poor little
puppy. You know we’re going to kill him
Diana.
I’m going to kill him, after I
play with him for awhile.
The world isn't
ready for us yet. But it will be. Soon.
(chuckles)
We
can't let him go and spoil all the fun.
DIANA
That is, your dream, not, hers.
ARTEMIS
Oh no Princess, the Queen and I grow
closer
in thought with each passing
breath. I will make sure thee, opportune
arrival,
of your little man pet sees to
that.
After all...
(closer and quieter, gloating)
...you should know better than any.
Planes don’t just fall from the sky all
on
their own.
THRONE HALL -
SAME
Maia stands
up from her perch and walks out behind the throne.
REFLECTING
ARENA - CONTINUOUS
Diana
convulses; women in the crowd look away, grimace, cry. Maia enters and toddles
to a statue holding a massive six foot hammer.
ARTEMIS
Shhh, that’s it,
let it go. I’m going to
crush your tender little neck. Then I’ll
do the same to your luscious pilot.
The
old woman strolls behind Artemis and raises the hammer.
MAIA
This lesson is...
(HAMMERS FLOOR by Artemis’ nose)
...over.
Artemis'
scowling, powdered face snaps around. Maia scowls back. The whip’s coils then retract
and Diana slides to the floor with a numb stare. The room begins to dejectedly empty;
Maia returns towards Throne Hall, and Artemis stomps off across the pit.
Hippolyta's
jeweled hands slide off the rail of a small cupola high up within the roof dome.
She leaves, back down her catwalk.
Persephone
waits for Artemis in the shadows of the arena’s edge.
PERSEPHONE
She’s like the itch deep inside your ear.
Always there to remind you you’re not
the Queen’s real daughter. Not really.
ARTEMIS
And you are like the cough in the bottom
of the throat. Careful I don't rip out
your tongue trying to get at it.
Artemis exits
as Persephone laughs past the lump in her throat. Diana then at last sits up in
the - now vacant - arena.
THRONE HALL -
MOMENTS LATER
Diana
creeps humbly to Maia's perch. Neither looks at the other.
MAIA
To see what cannot be seen, you must
open more than just your eyes child.
There has always been a fire with in
you
that confuses this sight--
Diana
reaches over the top of Maia's hand to take the hammer. Maia shudders as they
touch.
MAIA
...Channel it wisely, and you will wield
power beyond what you can comprehend,
far
greater than any before.
(pulls hand back over Diana's)
Use it unwisely, and it will consume you.
It will be the death of you.
Diana returns
the hammer to its perch, but peers back: Maia gazes motionlessly at the elaborate
effigy above the throne’s entry....
EXT./INT.
QUEENS PALACE RESIDENCE - GRAND FOYER ROTUNDA - DUSK
Women in silk
and gold crowd to enter majestic, terraced entries.
Flanked by the
sweeping staircases within, Hippolyta, in an opulent gown, pulls three coils of
INTENSELY SHIMMERING gold rope from a royal sack. TASHA and RHEA, 30s, stand
restlessly on each side of her as she binds their wrists with each end of the
lasso.
Steve, in his
ceremonial garb, stands by Rhea, but scans the crowd expectantly.
Hippolyta
grasps the rope hung between the couple; its slack suddenly snaps taut and it
MIRACULOUSLY BEGINS TO DRAW INTO HER FIST, pulling Tasha and Rhea together!
Hippolyta then jubilantly raises up their arms - which are now FULLY ENTWINED
TOGETHER.
HIPPOLYTA
I now pronounce you. One.
The Queen
impishly smiles as the crowd blows out their candles. Raising her hand, the
lasso UNWINDS FROM THE COUPLE’S BINDS AND EXPONENTIALLY GROWS IN LENGTH, GYRATING
UP into the dome, then RACING AROUND THE ROTUNDA like a caged rocket.
Hippolyta drops
her hand. 300 feet of lasso obeys and DARTS back into a mere three coils of 10
feet by her waist. CHEERS abound. The
new couple embrace while the party commences.
Steve
haplessly searches the crowd. He meanders toward a patio entrance while
Artemis, breathtaking in white, tugs a vivacious Hippolyta's ear.
ARTEMIS
My Queen, the preliminary analysis on
the human’s craft is complete.
HIPPOLYTA
(condescending)
And...? I trust you’ve had better luck
this night. Or should I say, better aim?
ARTEMIS
(briefly
scowling to herself)
It’s, of an unexpectedly advanced design.
HIPPOLYTA
How advanced?
ARTEMIS
Its radar may have been able to peer
under the island’s umbrella.
HIPPOLYTA
How close?
ARTEMIS
He was well within the barrier. There’s
no way any revelations he may’ve had of
us
escaped.
Hippolyta's
eyes harden on Steve. She finally turns to Artemis.
HIPPOLYTA
Really....
Artemis’
puzzled frown becomes a beaming smile.
She strides out.
Steve
stiffens when Kassandra, now beautifully clothed, steps in his path. She grabs
his chin, kisses his ear, and turns his head to look out through the patio archway
(and parting crowd): Diana, in a bland gown and loose antique barrette (wispy
scarf hiding her neck), leans off the corner of the patio's stone rail, alone.
Kassandra
pulls away alluringly; Steve finally acknowledges her.
STEVE
Thank you!
KASSANDRA
(turning
back, amused)
I did not do you a favor.
EXT.
GRAND FOYER WEST ELEVATED PATIO/TERRACE - DUSK/NIGHT
Steve enters
coyly. Diana, her back to him, takes in the setting pink sky - mixed with a
MYSTERIOUS AURORA - as it fades above the distant, washing surf.
STEVE
Was beginning to think you were a dream.
DIANA
(only half looks back)
Does that line usually work on mortal
woman?
STEVE
(pulls up alongside Diana)
I don't know, never tried it on one.
(looks out to sea)
Wow. It's beautiful, I've never seen
colors
like that? Like the night we met.
DIANA
(a chuckle slips)
...They are Themyscira's veil. She is
always watching over us. Between dark of
night and light of day is the only hint
of her presence.... How's your arm?
STEVE
Sore. Feels like junior year; Andy
Kieliszewski greased me at the ten yard
line
- love to see him try and stop you!
Put
me in a cast rest of the season....
Can't
believe didn't break it this time?
DIANA
You did.
STEVE
Oh-kay.
DIANA
(rhetorical)
Yes, I was told your therapy was quite,
excruciating; a miracle you survived it!
STEVE
I've been in a few perilous situations
before.
That wasn't one of'm.
DIANA
You've no idea the game they play. You
are not the rook or the pawn, you’re the
magpie who’s fallen from its branch, and
now flops helplessly on the ground.
GRAND
FOYER ROTUNDA - SAME
Hippolyta casually
socializes her way toward the patio entrance.
WEST
ELEVATED PATIO/TERRACE - CONTINUOUS
DIANA
This... Kill-a-shoe, ski? What if he did
stop me? Grease me! And I was as weak
and
vulnerable as you. Human.
Steve gets
closer. Diana stiffens, subtly crowding the banister’s corner.
STEVE
I have a few more bones I can break;
it's a heart that I'm worried about.
Weak and vulnerable huh. You should give
us a chance, we might surprise you.
DIANA
Oh-you wish to be my hero. My Perseus,
or
maybe the great Achilles. I guess
that makes me the fair damsel, gushing
with adoration and chastity.
STEVE
My Homer's a little rusty but. I'm
Steve by the way... and, you’re?
DIANA
I'm the fairy Princess-is that not what
they
told you?
STEVE
I deserve that. I think?
DIANA
(fixating on his scarred arm)
I suppose it is the truth, if that is
but the one purpose I have on this
island. Forever destined to watch,
luxuriously,
from afar. While billions
of
others, spiral to their end.
STEVE
You don't have a lot of faith, do you?
DIANA
In your world? A never ending cycle of
selfish greed, and then decay. You can
“wish” for a better day all you like,
(traces his scars with finger)
but nothing in this life ever changes. I
only
need look at your history for proof
of
that.
STEVE
Funny thing, history. Everything ends up
there; all you have to do is let it pass
you
buy.
He cups her hand
onto his arm. Diana avoids his eye nervously.
DIANA
Homer... was a man. He told stories of
heroes,
as a man would. My ancestors
lived
hundreds of years before him. They
told
stories of giants and gods, and,
maybe
a few heroes! But mostly, I
remember
the tales told of Themyscira.
The
place that existed behind a veil. A
mystery,
they could not see... only feel.
(looks
into his eyes shyly)
Their
culture, their law, their entire
existence was only for her. To sacrifice
yourself
for her, for what you cherished
above all else, was called a rite of veil.
GRAND
FOYER ROTUNDA - SAME
The Queen slyly
eavesdrops on Diana from well within the foyer.
WEST
ELEVATED PATIO/TERRACE - CONTINUOUS
DIANA
...I fear that culture, this existence,
has
been sheltered from the world for
far too long. One day, Themyscira will
no longer be able to hide us; this scab
of arrogance and invulnerability will be
ripped
clean. When that day comes:
Congreve
said it best, hell hath no fury.
STEVE
If you're unhappy, why don’t you leave?
DIANA
I have my place. Only together have we
survived
the millennia. Besides. I'm not
unhappy,
I'm just... numb.
STEVE
Seems like a lot to endure, for love.
Steve
sandwiches Diana’s hand within his two. As he zeroes in on her lips, she
squeezes back into the stone balustrade coyly.
DIANA
...Love?
STEVE
What, haven’t you ever loved?
DIANA
(looks
away uncomfortably)
Love is fleeting, all too soon replaced
by sorrow.... Better to avoid it.
STEVE
Whoa! Now that’s got some history behind
it.... I’m, sorry I--
DIANA
No, it’s fine. Tell me about your world,
as if I were seeing it the first time.
STEVE
...It's, really.... Big!
DIANA
Big?
STEVE
Lots of people. Lots of ideas, dreams.
DIANA
Do any of these dreams come true?
STEVE
Maybe, if you own a bank! I guess that's
up to you. What’s a Princess dream of?
DIANA
(closes eyes...)
...Not being Princess.
STEVE
Wow. No big palace?
DIANA
(giggles)
Nope.
STEVE
No secret paradise? No magic rope tricks?
DIANA
It's not a trick.
STEVE
Oh no-no don't get me wrong, I just
remember seeing something like it when I
was a kid. Guy with a top hat; lady in a
hot costume helping him out.... I don't
know
why I remember that?
DIANA
It is of another time. When Mother was
Emissary.
STEVE
To the Gods! Hippolyta?
DIANA
She does not speak of it, but, yes! The
lasso
is all that remains. Had mother
not the will to surrender their power
back to them, the Gods very nearly would
have
claimed her for their own. To this
day,
most still believe it was the one
time
our true voice was heard.
STEVE
I take it you’re not so convinced.
DIANA
As I said, it was of another time.
Steve slumps
and sighs. Diana inadvertently reaches for him.
DIANA
What?
STEVE
(closer till they almost kiss)
I don't know why-if it's this place;
maybe I'm going crazy! But if you told
me Zeus himself brought that crazy
little piece of rope down off the
mountain,
gave it to her as a gift...
I'd
believe you--
HIPPOLYTA
(OS)
No. But I did hang him with it from
that temple arch over there.
Steve
whips around flabbergasted; Diana shuns the interruption.
HIPPOLYTA
I mean, hey, if you're going to build
yourself a temple that’s supposed to
last
forever, I figure you may as well
use
it.... Not to worry, the Greeks
never
knew what they were missing...
The
Nymphs flow out from behind Hippolyta, converging on Steve.
HIPPOLYTA
...they
wasted their last breaths in
prayer
to him! As the legions of
Lucius
Mummius beat down the gates....
(to
Steve patronizingly)
It
was before your time.
MELINA
There you are!
Melina and
Kassandra pull Steve from Diana and triumphantly carry him back to the waiting throng
of women inside.
HIPPOLYTA
(tepidly approaching Diana)
Could smell you blushing all the way in
there.
DIANA
...Funny, in all my childhood, I don't
remember the tale quite like that?
HIPPOLYTA
It's my history, I can recall it as I
please.
He wouldn't know the truth from
five
minutes ago; it's their nature.
They
are stimulating though...
(mocking)
...a
“mystery!”
DIANA
He’s only a mystery because that’s the
way you wish it.
HIPPOLYTA
He's a creature beneath you. That tingle
you feel is only his venom--
Hippolyta grimaces
as Diana sighs and strolls from the porch.
EXT. GRAND
FOYER PERIMETER MEZZANINE - CONTINUOUS
Diana wanders
along the balustrade, the Queen close behind.
HIPPOLYTA
If your sisters are ever to respect you--
DIANA
That's your job - you should be commended
in
that by the way.
HIPPOLYTA
(briefly
smirking to self)
...What is yours than? If it is not to
be
my daughter.
DIANA
...Some,
hate me more now than they ever
did
before. Was that also to be part of
my
penance?
HIPPOLYTA
Wasn’t
it you who wanted to be treated
without
deference or title? An equal!
EXT.
GRAND FOYER EAST ELEVATED PATIO/TERRACE - CONTINUOUS
Diana
steps up onto the patio. Two SOCIALIZING AMAZONS ignore her until Hippolyta
appears; they pause at attention, then
leave.
HIPPOLYTA
I
merely saw to it your desire fully met.
Diana again
settles into a corner, taking in the moonlit east bay.
HIPPOLYTA
(arriving
behind Diana)
What
do you want from me Diana?
DIANA
Trust.
HIPPOLYTA
Trust! I trust you. I also know you. Is
that what you think you get from him?
DIANA
For Hera's sake, he means nothing...! Is
that not what you came out here for, to
hear
me say it?
HIPPOLYTA
(eyeing
Diana suspiciously)
...Obviously....
HIPPOLYTA
You
realize he’s only interested in you
because
he fears you--
DIANA
When was the last time I left the island?
HIPPOLYTA
What do you mean? You go sailing all the
time!
DIANA
(disgusted)
You're right. Why do I even bring it up?
HIPPOLYTA
(cheerful,
goading)
Okay. Didn’t you go with Alexa to return
those physicists to the mainland? I can
never remember their names.
DIANA
You know I didn’t. The last one was over
twelve years ago. For some reason it was
unsafe for me to go. Yet it was perfectly
fine for Nerina to
go in my place.
HIPPOLYTA
(gloating)
It must’ve been, seeing as you’ve not
brought it back up till now. What about
the expedition to the Arctic? I’m sure--
DIANA
(angrily)
No! I didn’t. That was Deidra Mother,
and it was almost sixty years ago.
HIPPOLYTA
Huh, how time flies.
Adorning the
corners of the stone rail are creepy, ancient Greek head sculptures mounted as
newel caps; Diana angrily WHACKS one off. It sails across the island and kerplunks in the bay.
HIPPOLYTA
Hey. I just had Hestia fix the last
one
you knocked off!...
GRAND
FOYER ROTUNDA - SAME
Partygoers
are becoming openly distracted by Hippolyta and Diana.
EAST
ELEVATED PATIO/TERRACE - CONTINUOUS
HIPPOLYTA
(anger
sympathetically fades)
...Year of the humans. March the seventh,
nineteen hundred and forty four. That, is
the
last time you ever left the island.
Diana’s head
droops solemnly.
HIPPOLYTA
Months later, when you washed up on the
beach, you were lucky chains had not yet
been devised that would hold you. None
the less, I could see from the look in
your
eyes. You had learned your lesson....
I prayed for your safe return you know!
DIANA
You! Prayed!
HIPPOLYTA
A momentary lapse, I can assure you. One
only
a daughter could bring about.
Hippolyta
clears a lock of hair away from Diana’s face lovingly. Diana closes her eyes
and lets her, at first.
HIPPOLYTA
You know they are not our equals?
DIANA
(turns
away)
Is that not what you’ve told us? I only
wonder, when will the time come for us
to
make up our own minds...? Choose our
own
beach, on which to wash ashore.
HIPPOLYTA
Is this paradise we've made such a prison?
DIANA
It is not the sand and stone, nor even
the flesh, that has become like so many
bars
of a cell. It’s the days and years
which
blur, into centuries. They, have
become
the shackles.
HIPPOLYTA
That sand and that stone is what has
given you those many centuries you now
complain
of.
DIANA
Maybe that's the problem.
HIPPOLYTA
Away
from these shores. Weak. Mortal. Do
you
honestly believe he will look at you
as
his equal then? Your fascination with
them
is understandable, but Hera as my
witness,
I will never grasp why you ever
wanted
to be one of them.
DIANA
The joy. The sorrow. Even the terror of
it
all coming to an end. It is that which
makes
them strive to live, not stagnate
in
dissolution like relics of the past.
HIPPOLYTA
Stagnate!
No, they don’t stagnate. They
devour each other, like sharks in the
womb.
Exploiting each other till there
is
nothing left. Not even the ground
they
stand on is safe; it too is sucked
dry,
and poisoned. You want dissolution;
I
can give you no better example.
DIANA
(finally
turns to Hippolyta)
You
cannot accuse this-one-man, for the
misguided
passions of the mob!
HIPPOLYTA
Can’t I. Since when is complicity a
virtue and free will a vice? These
Americans you so secretly admire have
become masters at entangling the two,
till
one cannot be distinguished from
the
other. All they require, is your
trust.
DIANA
(turning
away again, disgusted)
Cannot anyone get close enough without
pricking on your thorns?
HIPPOLYTA
(angrily)
Is there any fool you won’t let in, and
let prick you with theirs?!
Hippolyta
gets closer. Diana shuns her encroachment.
HIPPOLYTA
I don't need to remind you what happens
when one of us trusts one of them. And
these,
so called, capitalists! How do
you
think they’ve risen to such heights,
except
on the backs of others. I won’t
see
you become just another one of their
dogs; forever indebted; auctioned to the
highest
bidder. Your life, in exchange
for
a paper promise.
(Hippolyta begins her escape)
You should wonder about that. You have
the luxury, you're not queen.
DIANA
...At least the Americans let their
dogs
from the leash once in a while, Mother.
Hippolyta
spins and reaches angrily for Diana's pony tail; her hand clenches just shy.
Her LEG THEN SWEEPS TWENTY FEET OF STONE BANISTER AT THE WALL. She turns around
only to SEND A FULL THIRTY FEET OF OPPOSITE BANISTER FLYING; carried to the
edge, she nearly goes over. The second
newel head explodes on the ground below.
The Queen covers
her shaking hand. Diana, shrinking into the last corner of banister still
standing, witnesses her hide it.
GRAND
FOYER ROTUNDA - SAME
Steve moves
to go outside; slender ALEXA, 30s, stops him easily.
ALEXA
Don’t. For the sake of both of you.
The
Nymphs coil Steve’s arms; he gives in apprehensively.
EAST
ELEVATED PATIO/TERRACE - CONTINUOUS
HIPPOLYTA
(contentiously,
near Diana)
Entire armies have trembled at my feet.
Do you really want to see who can throw
the bigger tantrum?... PHEW!
(turns to the crowd inside)
Haven’t had this many pheromones in the
air
since the conquistadors landed! Come
ladies, I need a drink. Where’s Hestia,
I
have the greatest idea for a new porch.
Hippolyta
walks the others back in. Rhea sympathetically lingers.
DIANA
(mouthed to Rhea, inaudible)
I'm sorry.
INT./EXT.
PALACE GUEST QUARTERS - SPRAWLING BED PIT - NIGHT/DAWN
Steve
gazes longingly from within arms, and a leg, uncomfortably resting atop him. More
SLEEPING AMAZONS lay all about the huge chamber. The AURORA LIGHTS (he saw with
Diana at dusk) begin reflecting off the walls. He sneaks onto the porch to enjoy
them.
Sleeping
Amazons awaken as the CLACKING of heels echoes from down the hallway. Most slip
warily from the room before TWO PALACE GUARDS clack in and march up behind Steve.
Artemis then saunters in surveying clothes and drink strewn throughout.
STEVE
I get the feeling you girls like things
a bit more, rough.
Artemis
finally looks at him. She puts her thumb and finger up.
ARTEMIS
Just a little bit.
INT.
THEMYSCIRA HIGH CLIFFS - DIANA'S HIDEAWAY - NIGHT/DAWN
Diana
lays in a deep crevasse staring up at the AURORA LIGHTS. She holds her bracelet,
twisting her wrist within it dejectedly.
FLASHBACK – EXT./INT.
WWII - B-17 BOMBER UNDER ATTACK - DUSK
German
fighter planes converge on a lone B-17 bomber somewhere over the ocean.
WWII B-17 COPILOT
Here-they-come.
WWII
B-17 PILOT
(loudly
down at the bombardier)
Smityyy. Give me
some good news.
WWII
B-17 GUNNER 1
How
did those Nazi bastards find us?--
The Gunner’s MACHINE
GUNS RING through the cabin.
WWII
B-17 BOMBARDIER
(sneering
into his bomb site)
Sorry cap’em. Not
there. Nut’n but ocean.
WWII
B-17 PILOT
(looking
out side window)
It has to be there. We have to find it.
German
fighter planes STRAFE the B-17; the frenzy in the bomber intensifies. The sun begins to set - and the Bombardier
spots a FLICKER OF THEMYSCIRA’S AURORA in his bomb site.
WWII
B-17 COPILOT
Lost number four, can’t keep’r
together--
WWII
B-17 BOMBARDIER
Cap’em
target spotted, directly below.
The Pilot
looks behind at Diana and takes her hand. Suddenly, bullet holes open up -
peppering the cockpit and Pilot.
WWII
B-17 PILOT
Angel--
The front of
the bomber RIPS OPEN. The Pilot, torn from Diana’s grasp, is sucked out of the
plane. Diana and the rest of the crew are also wrenched from the disintegrating
B-17. They plummet lifelessly through
the clouds, PIERCE THE AURORA BARRIER, then slam into the sea alongside flaming
B-17 wreckage.
An enemy
fighter pilot looks out their cockpit; it is Artemis--
RETURN TO - DIANA’S
HIDEAWAY
Diana
POUNDS THE GROUND at her sides in exasperation. Rubble unnervingly begins to fall
all around her.
EXT.
THEMYSCIRA HIGH CLIFFS - ROCK FACE GOAT TRAIL - DAWN
The
ridge QUAKES as Alexa navigates a path hundreds of feet below Diana. SIDES OF
CLIFF SLIDE DOWN, forcing her to dodge and jump.
DIANA'S
HIDEAWAY - CONTINUOUS
As
the rumbling subsides, two World War II G.I. helmets roll past Diana’s feet
surprisingly. She pulls a scruffy doll,
wrapped in a tie-dye, from one of them, then reaches for the helmet itself....
Diana
notes the dingy footlocker uncovered in the quake. Within it is an old
newspaper: "VICTORY OVER GERMANY;" under this is a small pile of
World War II dog-tags... and a cross pendant.
The
Princess somberly pulls old G.I. uniforms from the locker until arriving at the
same style ceremonial clothes she gave Steve; she chuckles. She then holds up a
bomber jacket, light shines through two bullet holes. She hugs the jacket
tenderly....
Diana
notices something at the bottom of the chest; she removes a Major's uniform - RED,
WHITE, AND BLUE REFLECT UP OUT OF THE BOX. She reaches in to pull up the stars
and stripes of an American flag--
INTERCUT
- ROCK FACE GOAT TRAIL / DIANA’S HIDEAWAY
Alexa jumps
and clumsily slips. She loses her book and moans.
ALEXA
Diana.
Diana
lets go of the flag and slams the footlocker.
ALEXA
Diana, you need to come, it’s about Steve!
Diana bolts
from the crack and free falls, just missing Alexa. A BOOM then rumbles the
canyon. Shortly after, Alexa sees Diana looping over the distant treetops; she
moans, then jumps herself.
EXT.
PALACE MAIN ASSEMBLY HALL - ENTRY TERRACE - DAY
A crowd
jostles to enter tall, imposing main doors. Diana clears the tree tops and
lands with a THUD in the middle of the terrace. The crowd then sheepishly
parts, allowing her hurried access in.
Alexa doesn't
quite clear the trees and awkwardly lands on the bordering steps. As she runs
up onto the terrace the once parted crowd closes again, leaving her stranded
outside.
INT.
PALACE MAIN ASSEMBLY HALL - ROTUNDA - CONTINUOUS
Guards throw
Steve at the foot of Throne Hall's steps. Pain mars his face as he slides along
the smooth mosaic in only his pants.
The COURT
HERALD descends from Throne Hall's imperious entry; before her is the
Assembly's arena sized pit, flanking this are huge round columns bordering
large mezzanines, each side. The Herald is accompanied by a small, hovering,
mechanized recorder.
COURT
HERALD
This trial, on the 278th day of
the 3013th
year of our Mycenaean Queen Hippolyta's
glorious rule, will now commence. How
do you plead, human?
STEVE
What's the charge?
Many
acquiesce and allow Diana half way around the pit, she emerges as Artemis’ heel
pins Steve's head to the floor.
ARTEMIS
Never, raise your voice to the court.
Hippolyta
HOVERS from Throne Hall in a sleek silver chair (like a jet fighter nose
pointing skyward). She nods Artemis to continue.
ARTEMIS
Play the transmission of the hu-man just
before
his spy craft fell from the sky.
STEVE
(recorded, filtered, echoing)
I‘m bleeding fuel almost as fast as.
coolant
I’m-- What the. Are you guys
seeing
this? I got land showing up out
here
on the Topogra--
FLIGHT
CONTROLER
(recorded, filtered, echoing)
Affirmative, we’ll definitely want to
take a look at that when you get back.
A
buzz rolls through the assembly. Hippolyta leans toward Steve.
HIPPOLYTA
Well.
STEVE
It’s a lie, and you know--
Artemis
dangles Steve by his hair. She tosses the mortal man behind, then skulks around
him and glares.
ARTEMIS
There is only one law that is above all
others:
protect Themyscira, and never
allow her secret to escape us. As you
can
see, it isn't one of us. And despite
treating
it kindly and with respect, it
has had only one goal since it arrived,
to betray us. To betray Themyscira. We've
survived thousands of years, protected
from this, plague. Hidden from their
kind. And yet all it takes is one to
infect
us, reveal us to the world. We
must
cut it from us like the cancer it
is.
The spy must die.
Hippolyta's
throne HOVERS DOWN THE STEPS close to Steve.
HIPPOLYTA
We’re waiting.
STEVE
Does it matter.
HIPPOLYTA
Well, considering you're pleading for
your life. What’s it gonna hurt.
STEVE
Fuck you--
Artemis’
backhand lays Steve near Diana. As she moves to help, Alexa arrives and lunges through
the crowd to grab her wrist.
ALEXA
Diana, no.
HIPPOLYTA
Honey, you ain’t
got what it takes. If
you
were made of steel and shot nails
you’d still come up short.
Steve
chuckles a bloody grin. He struggles to push himself up.
STEVE
...Everything neat and tidy. Nothing
out of place. Picture perfect! Your
big palace, your
crazy costumes....
Just don’t look behind the curtain.
Artemis moves
to hit Steve; Hippolyta tries subtly gesturing her to stop-- but to no avail!
STEVE
(to
Artemis)
...What’s
the matter, I don’t fit
your,
perfect, story book society?...
(to
Hippolyta)
...History
lesson over? Or you just
pick and choose what suits you;
forget the rest? I may not have lived
a thousand years... but I know a few
things too. Like rule of law. Everyone
gets their say.... Democracy.
HIPPOLYTA
Democracy!... Boy, I was there at the
beginning. Of both of them! They were
scheming of ways to read between the
lines before the ink was even dry.
Hippolyta, in
silver heels, steps off the throne; her revealing chain mail dress glistens. The
chair levitates back up the steps.
HIPPOLYTA
You see, you can call it whatever you
want. Socialism. Capitalism. Communism.
(strides past his nose)
In the end the story’s always the same.
You have the few that make the rules.
And then you have everyone else that
has to follow them...
She closes
her hands like a book as Artemis gloats behind Steve.
ARTEMIS
Which one do you think you are, little
man.
HIPPOLYTA
...of course that is, until they don't.
Then, well, your little two hundred year
experiment’s already drawing to its close.
(raises voice to crowd)
We've seen it before. They've already
begun to feed on themselves. Soon, there
will be nothing left...
(raises hands)
...except us.
The crowd
cheers. Diana fearfully observes their exuberance.
STEVE
(whispering
prayer)
When you pass through waters, I will be
with you; and...
Hippolyta
stops half way up the steps and turns an ear. She raises a finger; the crowd
hushes on her command.
STEVE
...when you pass through rivers...
HIPPOLYTA
...they shall not sweep over you! When
you walk through fire, you will not be
burned; the flames will not set you
ablaze. For I am the Lord your God...
(finishes in Latin)
...tuus Sanctus Israhel salvator tuus
dedi propitiationem tuam Aegyptum
Aethiopiam et Sabra
pro te.
(sits back on throne)
Ah the Romans. They saw something,
they’d reach out and take it. Or send
somebody to die trying.
As
if a sign flashed above her, LAUGHTER rolls through crowd.
HIPPOLYTA
I will admit they are, comforting. The
words. Your, Christ. But are they real...?
(leers
at dumbfounded Steve)
Well don't look at me, I never met him.
But I’ve met plenty claiming to speak
for
him.
STEVE
You’ve got all the answers don’t you.
HIPPOLYTA
...Is that it? Is that all you got?
STEVE
(struggling to feet)
I do have one thing, I’d like to say--
Steve tries
to punch Artemis; she pops a backhand into his chest and he flies across the
arena into a column. As Hippolyta lowers her head disgustedly, the black metal
whip pours from Artemis' arm; its loud CRACK slices a wedge of column from above
Steve.
ARTEMIS
Now it’s my turn to vote, insect.
Hippolyta
snaps up anxiously into a powerful stance as--
DIANA
(OS)
No!
The Queen faces
Artemis, but her eyes wander to her daughter submissively making her way to the
throne. Artemis, shaking her head, skulks away from both.
DIANA
Mother please. This isn't what we are.
HIPPOLYTA
...Sentence will be carried out... at
next day’s dawn.
As Hippolyta
leaves, the assembly erupts in CHATTER. Alexa rushes to Steve; a wary Nurse 2, idling nearby, finally kneels
to help her. Meanwhile, Diana, standing alone, stymies in
shock....
INT. PALACE
DUNGEON - CELL - DAY
Steve sits
within a deep, medieval cell; his hands are shackled above him. A GUARD opens
the door; a dark, hooded figure (Diana) enters. She pulls her hood rushing down,
in tears, to caress him.
STEVE
I knew you'd come.
DIANA
Tell me it isn’t true. Tell me they
didn’t
send you.
STEVE
Diana, there’s nothing to tell. One
minute
I’m over the Pakistani border
region,
the next, all hell’s breaking
loose! That’s it. No secret plans. No
big
bombs. All I do, all it does, is
look.
Fly really really fast, and look.
Hell,
it doesn’t even have a radio; I
can't
talk directly to them and they
won't
talk to me. Can’t you see? It’s
all
a lie! I couldn't have told them
about
you. Even if I had wanted to!
GUARD
Diana, they'll be coming back soon.
Diana blots
Steve's wounds and body aimlessly....
STEVE
Does that usually work on immortal men?
DIANA
I don't know... I've never met any.
Steve watches
every expression on Diana’s weeping face and tries to smile. She finally looks up
into his eyes, and they kiss....
STEVE
Wow. That’s quite a kiss for someone
who’s
never loved.
DIANA
About
that--
STEVE
Diana,
it’s okay--
DIANA
No,
I owe you that much.... What you’ve
been told, is only the side of things my
sisters wish to believe. I was naive to
think love and war could exist in the
same
moment; that much is true. And by
the
time we realized it. A thousand
miles
of ocean lay between me, and the
only home I had ever known.... I should
have
died that night in the clouds, when
he
tried to return me. I lay awake some
nights,
wishing it were so....
(regroups,
looks back at Steve)
The part of the tale they did not tell
you is... it was not Themyscira that
saved me that night. But the nine human
souls aboard that plane, who gave their
last
strength and courage to return me
into
her embrace... so that I would
survive. You asked me if I had ever
loved,
the truth is, I’ve never stopped!
GUARD
Diana.
Diana gives
Steve a final peck on the cheek, and leaves.
INT.
PALACE CONSUL - DAY
Steve's plane
LEVITATES within a futuristic pit. All its parts HANG MOTIONLESS AROUND IT. Hovering
recorders scan every inch.
Diana hides,
waiting on women to finish up. She then sneaks onto the sleek deck, and warily
pulls up to its monolithic hand rail: A BEAM OF BLUE LIGHT MATERIALIZES, floor
to ceiling; the A.I. ARIEL's feminine smooth electric voice then vibrates
through it.
ARIEL
Good evening Princess Diana. Pleased to
see you again. I’ve missed your presence
here in the palace, these many years.
DIANA
You know me and mother!
ARIEL
Yes.
DIANA
How’s it coming?
ARIEL
Preliminary analysis is complete.
Detailed analysis is approximately 22.8
percent complete.
DIANA
Display primary systems.
Light traces the
lines of the plane; this lifts/rotates into the dome space above. Details of
the internal components and systems fill in giving an x-ray view, including
data, of the craft.
DIANA
Highlight radio communication system.
The
light frame detailing vanishes. As the word "SPECIFY" blinks, Diana
notes Steve's morphine kit floating in the wreckage.
ARIEL
I’m sorry Diana. My analysis did not
discover any such system in the craft.
Diana
glances at the four corner entries, then talks softer.
DIANA
What do you mean, specify? Why would it
not have a system for communication?
ARIEL
Radio waves emanate in all directions
making them extremely susceptible to
detection, and even corruption.
Elimination of such a system would also
eliminate its problem. There is a laser
based
data retrieval system. Though not
intended, this could be used for
limited communication, provided the
necessary
satellite alignment.
The light
frame plane shrinks; wire frame globe turns beneath it and a satellite hovers
above, a beam then bounces between them.
ARIEL
However my scans of this system did not
reveal any such analog communications.
DIANA
Could any have been erased?
ARIEL
Doubtful. I would have detected some
form of digital shadow, or space, where
the data had been. Because the plane had
already completed its designated target
run, the more likely scenario is there
was never any perceived need. Therefore,
no satellite would have been in range.
DIANA
(frustrated, talking to herself)
Then where did Artemis get Steve’s
transmission from?
ARIEL
Princess Diana, if I may.
DIANA
Of course.
ARIEL
There is over an hour of cockpit voice
recording on file. This includes a poem,
several songs--
DIANA
Okay, stop!
(catches/lowers her voice)
Play section of file containing message
used to incriminate pilot Steve Trevor.
ARIEL
The message you are requesting is not
located in one section, but two. The
first is pre-flight, under hard line
connect, before taxi.
DIANA
Play first section.
STEVE
(OS)
(recording, filtered)
I’m getting kind of a fluctuation in the
coolant pressure. Probably nothing, but.
FLIGHT
CONTROLER (OS)
(recording, filtered)
Affirmative, we’ll definitely want to
take a look at that when you get back.
ARIEL
Would you like me to play the second half?
DIANA
No. I’ve heard enough.
Diana’s drawn
to the underside of plane. She walks down to rotate the craft (with hardly a
touch). Rainbow burn patterns flow from gashes in its belly; she rubs her
fingers across and sniffs them.
DIANA
Weapons fire.... Ariel, Is there
something you’re not telling me?
While Ariel's
BLUE LINE GROWS DIFFUSE, Artemis's shadowy face looms, hiding outside, just
beyond the Consul's deck.
INT.
QUEENS PALACE RESIDENCE - GRAND FOYER - DUSK
Diana enters
and hurries up the curved stairs, then slows. Though lavishly lit, the balcony
above is dim, save light flowing from:
QUEEN'S
BED CHAMBER
Opulent yet
feminine, the room is cozy for a Queen. Silks abound. Ancient books, scrolls,
and a feather quill, lay about. Hippolyta takes in the horizon view from her
balcony.
HIPPOLYTA
It’s been a long time since you’ve come
to visit me here.
Diana emerges
into the chamber sheepishly. As they meet mid room, Hippolyta's hand, silver
bracelet glinting, cups her daughter's cheek. Diana stiffens, then slowly
relaxes to the Queen's touch.
HIPPOLYTA
You remind me so much of him--
DIANA
Don’t.
Diana
reaches up to try and cup her mother's hand. Hippolyta pulls it free before she
can, then sits on the chaise lounge.
HIPPOLYTA
What is it that brings an only daughter
up to my chambers after these many years?
Diana
kneels down on a polar bear rug in front of Hippolyta. She again reaches for
her mother's hand.
DIANA
I need to speak with you about the pilot.
HIPPOLYTA
Oh the man-pilot. What a surprise. No.
I
take that back. The real surprise
would have been you wanting to speak to
me about anything else.
DIANA
I come to you, lay my heart bare, yet you
still talk to me as if I were a child.
HIPPOLYTA
Am I wrong?
DIANA
We're making a grave mistake. Artemis’
transmission is not what it appears.
HIPPOLYTA
I know.
DIANA
...And the damage to the plane?
HIPPOLYTA
What do you want me to say Diana? I had
it shot down? Okay. I had the plane shot
down. Is that adult enough for you?
Hippolyta
stands evasively. She goes over to a wine tray atop a short, stone column and
pours a drink.
DIANA
Surely,
there could have been another
way--
HIPPOLYTA
What’s
done is done. Had the craft
overflown, and we merely prayed it not
be a threat.... A decision was made.
DIANA
Was
it? I swear, I can hear the echo
of
this, decision, still within these
walls.
And it is as black and cold as
that,
demon, who lives in your shadow.
HIPPOLYTA
Do
not presume to lecture me on the
counsel
I keep, girl.
(half
turns to Diana, gloating)
She
bested you, didn’t she.... Artemis
is
many things, a loving sister, were
you
to admit it.
(turns
back to her wine)
Her
loyalty to Themyscira will not be
questioned.
DIANA
(mumbled
under breath)
Hera forbid we should go without your
trusted whip to keep us in line.
HIPPOLYTA
(sighing,
to Diana forgivingly)
This one, he is not like the others. He
is their eyes and ears; they will not
discard what he has to say, instead they
will send more like him. No one is above
our
law; he has to die. Their world must
remain oblivious of ours if there is to
be any harmony.... Or is their early
demise more favorable to you?
Diana tears
up and looks into Hippolyta’s eyes.
DIANA
You wouldn’t?
HIPPOLYTA
(proudly)
Wouldn’t I.
DIANA
So, in the doing of this deed, you make
him a martyr.
HIPPOLYTA
(turning
away to pontificate)
Oh no, not this time.... Priests,
profits, this god and that. The need to
believe! In the end, after all of men's
failed promises... the only thing we've
ever had left to pick up the pieces, was
each other. We, are the only real truth.
DIANA
They were once our allies.
HIPPOLYTA
No.
A marriage of convenience, nothing
more. The enemy of my enemy. To think
otherwise is the wish of a fool... a
dreamer.
DIANA
It doesn't have to be a dream.
HIPPOLYTA
Oh, so the world is what we make it. Is
that the adult talking now? You forget
one thing daughter. This world, the
real world, is ruled by children.
DIANA
So you preach this truth. But what truth
is there in killing him to cover a lie?
HIPPOLYTA
A lie! That thing sitting in my consul
right now, that’s the lie. A lie that
puts at risk every one of those who
would lay their life down, for you.
DIANA
As I would for them.
HIPPOLYTA
(slams
on column, cracking it)
Then why don't you act like it? I-can’t
do-this-again Diana. Just go, leave me.
Diana
numbly sulks, and leaves. Hippolyta has a swig of wine.
HIPPOLYTA
He's not your equal.
GRAND FOYER
BALCONY - DIM DECK OUTSIDE QUEEN’S CHAMBER - SAME
Diana,
tears welling, looks back contritely from the banister.
QUEENS’S
BED CHAMBER - CONTINUOUS
Hippolyta,
sobbing, sneers at her wine goblet as if bracing for:
QUICK
FLASHBACK - ANCIENT BARBARIAN BATTLE (998
BC)
Flashes
of women being cut down by men. Chaos, blood, screams.
END FLASHBACK
Hippolyta’s hand
shakes. She FLINGS her goblet out the balcony, it IMPALES A TREE WITH SUCH
FORCE ITS BASE COLLAPSES UNDER ITS BOWL. Further down are other goblets in
various stages of decay.
EXT.
THEMYSCIRA COMMONER'S VILLAGE - HOUSE/WORKSHOP - NIGHT
An eclectic
techno-hobbit cottage is lit by a quaint entry lamp. Alexa opens the door to
Diana in tears. Tiny, mechanical SOCRATES slips out to rub Diana’s legs. His
every nuance is natural house cat, but no skin or hair vaunts the feline’s robotic
precision.
DIANA
You
were right.... Hera help me; will I
ever be forgiven for what I must do?
Diana tepidly
allows Alexa to pull her into her bosom.
ALEXA
You
will be forgiven... for it is you
who
will show us how; you... who will
be
our awakening into the world.
DIANA
(pushing
from hug to hold)
Please
don’t. If I imagine it any
further
than my next step, I fear I
will
not take another.
ALEXA
Diana
you must... if you are to
succeed.
Saving Steve’s life is but
only
the effect! It is you who must be
the
cause, the path by which we all
can
follow, but you can not waiver. By
choosing
to live the rest of your life
human,
you will need to protect him
from
the very sisters for which you
now
mourn. And do so, as a mere mortal.
Diana
peeks up at a small ancient Emissary carving staring down at her from above
Alexa’s door.
DIANA
...What
do you remember of your past,
before
you were of the age to recall it?
QUICK
FLASHBACK - AMAZON SHRINE CAVERN - GATEWAY SPAR (997
BC)
An
infant’s foot being pricked; a drop of its blood in a chalice!
END FLASHBACK
ALEXA
Diana...? I don't know, what--
DIANA
There
is something about Mother and I.
A secret, I have never dared tell anyone.
Not even her.
(again eyes Emissary above door)
A
curse I have always prayed untrue,
until now.... Meet me in Throne Hall...
INT.
THRONE HALL - SHORT WHILE LATER
A
hooded figure (Diana) enters the dim hall with its huge throne.
DIANA
(VO)
...after
the palace retires.
Diana heaves
on the massive chair and it slides forward. She waits in expectation, then
tries one hop; the floor RUMBLES and hidden stairs roll open under the throne...
she descends down in.
INT.
AMAZON SHRINE CAVERN – PRE-ENTRANCE PASSAGES - CONTINUOUS
Diana steps
off the stairs and they roll closed. In the dark she SCRAPES a short staff against
the rocks causing it to LUMINESCE, then follows crude steps that wind down into
the earth and end at a deep, swimming pool-sized pit. Pulling a dagger, she
lops off some of the light stick; it falls out of site! Diana removes her robe
(revealing a red gown beneath) then jumps into the abyss.
INT.
PALACE CONSUL - SAME
A
hooded figure (Alexa) cases the exterior halls, then enters. She touches the
edgy looking rail and FULLY SOLID WORK STATIONS GROW/MORPH UP FROM IT. She
begins typing and more stations pop up further down the rail, glowing
holographic computer code grows and swirls in front of them. Ariel's BLUE BEAM
then MATERIALIZES.
ARIEL
Good evening sister Alexa. How may I
help you.
ALEXA
Ariel, I need you to pull up military
activity within a thousand mile radius.
Specifically American, naval.
The room
lights up with holographic course plots and schematics.
Alexa pulls a
small bright red heart from a locket. She tosses it on a panel and it
spins to a blur. Code from around the room then flows into Ariel and her BLUE
HUE HARDENS INTO PINK.
ARIEL
(more
childlike)
Hi mommy, can I come home now?
ALEXA
No honey, not yet. I need you to do
Something for me. The Princess is going
away, we can't let them find her.
Ariel...
I need you to lie.
Alexa watches
course lines split, redirect, and begin redrawing the truth. She reaches over
the rail and Ariel's beam grows diffuse, fringes of it reach out and envelop
her hand. She then pulls the SMOLDERING heart, promptly changing the beam back
blue.
ARIEL
(more adult, then turns off)
Thank you sister Alexa... goodbye.
Alexa stares
sorrowfully at her closed hand above the now clear rail. It opens, and a dull
maroon heart falls towards the floor--
INT.
AMAZON SHRINE CAVERN – UPPER/GATEWAY CAVE - SAME
Diana finally
THUDS to the bottom of the pit. She walks towards an eerie dim glow which
exposes the cave’s outlet. Before her sprawls a great cavern, as deep as it is
high. A thin, straight jetty, carved of stone, extends from the cave and juts
out to the cavern’s center (like half a bridge). At her feet, a glistening
liquid puddles around her as it flows out to the jetty’s end.
Diana cuts
her palm, then drops the dagger. Droplets of her blood spill onto the liquid
and are carried off down the jetty. She follows these down the spar, advancing towards
center chamber.
INT.
AMAZON SHRINE CAVERN – CEILING GATEWAY - CONTINUOUS
A motionless
(barely discernable) figure on the end of the jetty captures the Princess’ attention.
OMINOUS CRACKING SOUNDS then shift her gaze over the edge and onto a
mirror-like pool, ninety feet below, which floods the chamber.
Diana’s blood
now reaches the spar’s end, overflowing artfully around it, and falling to the
pool below with scarcely a ripple.
INT.
AMAZON SHRINE CAVERN – SUBMERGED IN MIRROR POOL – CONTINUOUS
Blood
droplets pierce the surface and quickly fall, like pebbles, through the strange
fluid – never dissolving into it. At bottom, they form a puddle and begin to
GLOW BLUE.
INT.
AMAZON SHRINE CAVERN – CEILING GATEWAY – SAME
Diana
arrives at the figure on the end of the jetty and looks it over; it is the rudimentary
statue of a woman poised to take flight off the spar’s end, chest out, arms
flowing way back....
DIANA
There’s
nothing here... it is supposed
to be here! What am I doing wrong?
(feels inside statue's hands)
...It has to be here--
The statue
fingers snap off, the effigy then breaks apart. Next, insidious CRACKS ERUPT
down the jetty, sectioning it like giant vertebrae and plunging it, with Diana,
into the mirror pool.
INT.
AMAZON SHRINE CAVERN – SUBMERGED IN MIRROR POOL – CONTINUOUS
The Princess
breaks the surface, her light stick illuminating the abyss, as well as a thirty
foot face staring at her from below; she drops helplessly past huge arms, and
down the back of a two hundred foot sister statue (identical) to the one on
jetty’s end.
Diana falls
through the mysterious liquid (as if she was made of stone) and soon lands on a
walkway between the statues great feet. She quickly notes the PUDDLING BLUE GLOW.
She discovers this same GLOW OOZING FROM HER CUT HAND, and pushes it down over
the puddle: A PERFECT CIRCLE CRUMBLES (FORMS) ACROSS THE WALKWAY.
A PRISTINE
STONE DOME RISES THROUGH THE CIRCLE OF RUBBLE to the height of a man. It begins
to roll open; inside are four more half spheres also opening. From above, this Matryoshka doll of spheres in motion looks like a flower
blooming.
INTERCUT –
SUBMERGED IN MIRROR POOL / UNFLOODING AMAZON SHRINE
An INTENSE
BEAM SHOOTS from the bloom's growing hole. It passes between the statue's hands
and SLAMS into the fluid’s surface; a great fountain shoots up into the shrine,
but the liquid does not let the beam escape. The pool then churns and begins to
drop.
The dome’s five
concentric shells fully open to form a stepped pit, a BRIGHTNESS EMANATES from
within it. Diana removes her gown and descends inside; she kneels to wrap the
LIGHT in her clothes.
The pool
races down the shrine as it drains, passing obliviously by Diana sitting naked
and fetal; she shivers, clutching her gown in the middle of the (now again flat
and dim) walkway.
The Princess
snatches her stick off the walk; its light exposes a hand print where the pit once
was! Her FOOTSTEPS fade, to quiet.
INT.
THRONE HALL - NIGHT
Alexa's hand
- suspended in mid-air - fondles her locket; HER BODY STAYS CLOAKED in the wood
of Throne Hall's huge main doors.
The massive
throne chair SLIDES and Alexa moves from the door; as her ROBE RUSTLES IT LOSES
ITS CLOAK, MAGICALLY BECOMING VISIBLE. A haggard Diana (again back in her robe)
then emerges from below.
ALEXA
Where have you been; why did it take so
long?
DIANA
The
elevator only went one way.
Diana leans
on the wall in exhaustion. Alexa studies the throne resetting itself, but her
attention returns back to Diana.
ALEXA
Are
you okay-- Is that sweat?!
DIANA
(gestures
her robe pocket)
I'll be fine. I just have to get used
to being in its presence. How did it go?
Alexa shrugs
evasively; she watches Diana uneasily push the last bit of red gown (worn in
shrine) deep into her robe pocket.
DIANA
(gloomy,
fatigued)
They will never let you near Ariel
again; she will be reprogramed.
ALEXA
(pushes
up Diana's chin, jokes)
Hey, she understands what’s at stake.
Besides, you wouldn't make it past the
beach
if somebody wasn't pointing out
which
direction was the sea!
(serious)
Hera help us if they left to go looking
for you without her. They'd annihilate
everything in sight. It was the only way.
DIANA
(reflective,
haggard, self-pity)
How many more must pay, for my betrayal?
I can literally feel the warmth of it
taking me over. And yet I still yearn
for the cool hand of reason to save me.
ALEXA
(rolling
eyes, stern)
We
are past the point of reason...
(yanking
Diana)
...come
on, we've got to go.
INT.
PALACE MAIN ASSEMBLY HALL - SIDE MEZZANINE DECK - NIGHT
Alexa
traipses the length of hall dragging Diana toward the exit.
DIANA
I
can't help but think there has to be
another way?
ALEXA
What
is wrong with you! If this were the
arena you wouldn't have to think, you
would know what to do in a nanosecond.
DIANA
That is not the same.
Alexa's eyes
bulge as Diana yanks her back inside the doorway. She angrily glares while
Diana lets go and sickly slumps over.
ALEXA
(angry)
There is another way. He dies, like all
those of his kind that have come before.
How many are to follow? To what possible
good end? But I guess you're right.
Because in the arena, the Diana I know
is courageous and invincible. But in here...
(puts hand along Diana's face)
...she's just forever their fool.
Alexa checks
Diana's forehead worriedly? Her other cheek? She whiffs Diana's sweat in her
hand. It briefly intoxicates her.
DIANA
(hurt)
And I suppose the Alexa I know is
right inside there with them, flipping
my switches and pulling my levers.
ALEXA
(cups Diana's face in her hands)
Only as much as you’re in mine.
Their
foreheads lovingly touch. A BRIGHT BLUE ENERGY CRACKLES through the sweat;
Alexa is SHOCKED/ZAPPED and desperately pushes away. Overcome and breathless, she
leers fascinatingly at Diana holding on by a column, then helps her up.
DIANA
I've never felt such vulnerability
before. If this is what it is like to be
human
again, I am not sure I'm ready.
ALEXA
(captivated,
breathless)
No Diana, not human. Something much more.
The armor’s light draws from within in
you. To find that which you and your
chosen, together, hold most dear. Only
then
can it take its true form. You must
win
back control. Until you are with him.
DIANA
I am so afraid. By embracing this, I
fear I’m embracing everything that was
the darkness of our past.
ALEXA
Then use it. To bring us into-the-light--
Alexa sucker
punches her in the gut. Diana's lifted into the air, but Alexa holds on and
pulls her back down to earth. She then anxiously backs away from the groaning,
crawling Emissary To Be!
ALEXA
Race ya!
Alexa SHOOTS
out the door. Her laughter trails into the tree line beyond. Diana's angry
irises briefly GLOW SAPHIRE BLUE. She hobbles up, then BOLTS after Alexa,
gaining speed with each step.
EXT.
THEMYSCIRA WOODS - NIGHT - CONTINUOUS
A dark robed
figure (Alexa) WHIPS PAST so fast no face or feet can be seen. An even faster
one (Diana) follows close behind.
EXT.
PALACE DUNGEON - COURTYARD - 50' HIGH OUTER WALL - NIGHT
A dark robed
figure (Diana) darts up the fortress wall and lands atop it. A second figure
(Alexa) jumps short. Diana grabs and swings her up; they leer at each other
lovingly. Alexa then playfully drops to the courtyard below.
The Princess
leaps ahead and beats Alexa to an old iron clad door. Alexa lunges to stop her,
pushing Diana up against the vine covered wall. She then pulls old growth searching
for something.
DIANA
...You didn't have to hit me you know.
ALEXA
Oh yes I did! I'm not just a shoulder to
cry on, and now "it" knows I have
teeth.
(working
as she hypothesizes)
I pray it bought us some time. It's as if
all emotion gets dragged to the surface:
the fear of not doing the right thing,
the solitude of humiliation, the guilt
of leaving; like it's churning the mind,
looking for the right button to push.
All we need do is keep it from doing so.
As Diana sickens
listening to the litany of bad prospects - and again begins to sweat - Alexa
finds a hidden electric scanning box. She dawns dorky reading glasses and looks
into the scanner.
DIANA
Well, you didn't have to enjoy it.
INSERT -
BEAMS SCANNING Alexa's eyes. The door CLINKS open.
ALEXA
You feel better now don't you--
(turning
smugly, then concerned)
...We gotta go.
Alexa
pushes Diana through the entry and follows. Socrates runs out of the shadows
and slips past the door before it slams.
INT.
PALACE DUNGEON - EXIT HALL - CONTINUOUS
Alexa chases
Diana and once more yanks her back before she rounds the corner; she swaps
places and peers cautiously around it.
DIANA
(irritated,
eyes glasses)
You look ridiculous in those things.
Alexa puts
the glasses on Diana and again forcefully switches places. Diana peers around
the corner; the hall is now seen as a WEB OF RED LASER BEAMS, too thick for a
person to fit through.
DIANA
Ohhhhh!
Alexa gives
Socrates a nod; he struts into the web of red, jumping and tumbling his way toward
the vault door at hall's end. Diana kneels by Alexa as they watch. Alexa's
fingers then reminiscently wander through the Princess’ thick black hair.
ALEXA
Hippolyta is right to fear them Diana.
Despite their noble aspirations, the
humans exist for themselves. So fragile,
even to the lightest of touch, yet they
wield deceit better than any blade...
DIANA
I
have to believe they are better than
that.
ALEXA
(briefly
smiles to self)
...It
is said the Emissary can see into
men's
souls, right through to their
darkest
feelings. I pray this is true.
For
I fear even with this sight, you
will still not deflect every cut. You
may become more powerful than any of us
have
ever imagined. But that will not
stop
me worrying about you little one.
INT. PALACE
DUNGEON – CELL BLOCK - SAME
SCRATCHING
sounds echo through a hall of ancient cell doors. LEDA, 30s, a muscular palace
guard, looks out at the vacant exit hall through the vault's peep-window. More
SCRATCHING? She turns off the red beams via her scanning box and opens the
vault door.
SOCRATES
Mew.
The cat
rockets through Leda’s legs, diving for him, she pummels the floor. Socrates shoots
down the hall, rounds the corner, passing Hectare ambling down the steps.
EXIT
HALL - SAME
DIANA
AND ALEXA
(catty,
to each other)
Leda.
CELL BLOCK -
CONTINUOUS
Leda rounds
the corner horizontally (running on the wall) and decimates Hectare at a
right angle. He does not slow her down.
Diana stops
the vault door within inches of shutting, she pushes it back open and Alexa
smugly walks past.
DIANA
Do
you think she’ll ever catch him?
ALEXA
Even you would never catch him.
Alexa opens
Steve’s cell with her key: a limp body covered in a hooded cowl, hangs by its
arms. The Princess vehemently runs and SNAPS THE TWO INCH THICK ROPE, then takes
the body down, sobbing.
Diana removes
the hood; Steve's unconscious, bruised face emerges above an iron neck collar; she
angrily sends this, and its chain, SPARKING INTO SEPARATE CORNERS OF THE CELL. Diana,
crying, pulls Steve's morphine syringes from her robe; Alexa now enters warily.
ALEXA
Diana,
that isn’t going to help--
DIANA
Don't
you think I know that. I have to
do something.
(she injects the needle)
It’s not like we have time to sneak him
in to an infirmary bed for a few days,
and
save his life.... I don’t know what
else
to do.
Diana stares
at the syringe as Alexa kneels beside her. She then tears Steve's cowl and ties
off her arm; Alexa stands nervously.
ALEXA
What
are you doing! We’ve been told never
give
our blood to a man.
DIANA
We’ve
been told a lot of things, and look
what
we’ve become.
Alexa again
kneels and reaches over Diana's hand.
DIANA
No,
this is my responsibility. I won’t
have
you involved in it.
ALEXA
Diana he’s B negative. You’re A positive.
Alexa takes
the needle and clothe. She capably draws her own blood. Deliberately avoiding
Diana's eye, she preps Steve.
ALEXA
You're
not the only one that’s lost love
in
this place. Go, I’ll clean up in here.
Diana picks
up the bundled man, but hesitates. She puts the bundle down and it thunks against the wall; Steve moans. Diana giggles with
Alexa, then, hugs her delicately.
DIANA
I
love you so much. Come with me.
ALEXA
(pushes
from hug to hold)
No.
It’s your destiny that lies outside
these
shores.... Ariel will be able to
hide
you for only so long, after that,
she
can only misdirect. You must do the
same;
hide him in plain sight.
(pressing on Diana's pocket)
If
they want this back as much as I fear,
you will be the only fresh meat any of
those palace vultures will prize. Use
that
to Steve's advantage; lead them
away
from him, like a bird from its nest.
Diana
anxiously scoops up Steve and steps out the cell door--
ALEXA
Diana... the Emissary is all of us, and
yet only to you, has it been bequeathed.
At
the edge of the barrier you will lose
the
last of your strength; do not lose
your
nerve as well. For it is there that
the
Gods have been saving its power,
waiting...
for your answer. And now, for
the
sake of us all... you must have one!
Diana gazes
in thought at Alexa, then runs out.
INTERCUT – ASSEMBLEY
TERRACE / DUNGEON COURTYARD 50' OUTER WALL
Socrates
purrs in Maia’s arms as they exit the Assembly’s huge main doors. The cat perks
up, as if he hears something across the way. He leaps from the old woman’s arms
to QUICKLY scamper off.
Diana runs to
the end of the fortress wall with a bundled Steve over her shoulder. A breeze
overtakes her and she hesitates to look back somberly, her eyes well up. Maia, steading herself on the terrace
banister, also takes in the breeze... a goodbye tear runs down the old woman’s
cheek.
Diana jumps
as Socrates appears and runs to the end of the wall.
SOCRATES
Mew.
PALACE
DUNGEON - CELL BLOCK HALL - SHORT WHILE LATER
Leda skulks
down the hall. She looks out the vault's peep window. She then looks in the
peep slot of Steve’s cell: a man, in a long hooded cowl, hangs by his arms. She skulks back out.
INT.
PALACE MAIN ASSEMBLY HALL - EXECUTION ASSEMBLY - NEXT DAY
TWO GUARDS
drag a stumbling man, wrapped in a long hooded cowl, across Assembly Hall pit.
A ring of Palace Guards keeps crowd back. Hippolyta sits atop her throne. Leda,
in executioner's garb and hood, waits with her axe by a center floor chopping
block.
Leda then tugs
open the hood of the quivering man knelt before her; Hectare's terrified face bobbles up. Alexa coyly smiles.
HIPPOLYTA
(thunders
through hall)
Diana.
EXT. WHITE
TRIMARAN SAILING/RACING YACHT - DAY
Distant
thunder off yacht's stern captures Diana's attention. Two large WAKES fast
approach like speeding boats, though no boats exist, just two walls of water
clawing through the ocean!
Diana leaps
from the bow and lands stumbling, barely making the cabin roof! She slides off and
frantically tries covering herself and Steve, who lays half-unconscious at the
stern, but her robe is too small (Steve’s feet remain comically UN-INVISIBLE!).
PALACE CONSUL
– SAME
Amidst a
flurry of women busy around the room, Ariel’s BLUE BEAM GROWS DIFFUSE; a HINT
OF PINK burns within it, for only a second.
INT./EXT.
UNKNOWN (INVISIBLE) CRAFT, RACING TOWARDS YACHT - SAME
An aerial
view, from a completely clear cabin, GLITCHES (as a TV would) for only a second:
The Wakes rocket past open blue water; NO WHITE SAILING YACHT IS VISIBLE TO
THEM!
WHITE SAILING
YACHT - CONTINUOUS
The Wakes move
on - JET WHINE thundering behind - while the two fugitives, one breathless, one
dazed, cozy up under the robe.
DIANA
Ariel...
thank you!
STEVE
Are
we home yet?
DIANA
Almost;
think I'm beginning to feel it.
STEVE
We
going back to save the world?!
DIANA
(leering...
taken aback)
...Let’s,
worry about saving you first....
The
yacht soon pierces the MYSTERIOUS AURORA BARRIER. Brilliant sun pokes from the
clouds; the sails gloriously fill with wind.
Diana (in her
robe) happily inspects along the boat's edge. She drops down to retie a line, the
cord unexpectedly yanks her into the cabin and slips painfully through her hand.
She reaches for the rail and finally grabs it to tie off. The Princess then tries
snapping the smallish rope between her trembling fists, but can’t!! She then looks up from her seared hands, out
to sea....
ALEXA
(VO)
(Diana
recalling, in her mind)
At
the edge of the barrier you will lose
the
last of your strength; do not lose
your
nerve as well. For it is there that
the
Gods have been saving its power,
(Diana
presses her robe pocket)
waiting...
for your answer--
MAIA
(VO)
(Diana
recalling, in her mind)
You
will wield power beyond what you can
comprehend,
far greater than any before.
Use
it unwisely, and it will consume you.
It
will be the death of you--
STEVE
(VO)
(Diana recalling, in her mind)
We
going back to save the world?!
Diana gazes
at "Old Glory" fluttering at the stern. The flag, topped by a gold
eagle pouncing, ripples over a frail Steve; he lays entranced by it. Diana
pulls out the gown she wore in the shrine, clutching it as she sheds her robe. She
kneels by Steve.
DIANA
Hey. I need you to do something. I need
you to look at me. See me, with all your
heart. No matter what just keep looking.
Diana unfolds
the gown and puts her forehead into the ARMOR’S LIGHT: GOLD TENTACLES WEAVE
THROUGH HER HAIR. She looks up at Steve: BRIGHT BLUE ENERGY CONNECTS HIS GAZE
TO THE PRINCESS.
The LIGHT
BRIGHTENS TO A TINY SUN that engulfs Diana, her red gown flutters within it. A
BLUE LUMINESCENCE swells up from under the ocean and surges from the water
around the yacht.
Diana stands
locked in Steve's gaze. She looks to the sky and RISES, SURROUNDED BY THE
ARMOR’S LIGHT, then, vanishes in the actual sun's morning glare.
All is then quiet.
Old Glory flutters in the midmorning sun. Steve falls helplessly back down onto
the deck. Diana is gone.
In
the distance, a U.S. destroyer lurches over the waves; as it closes in on the
adrift yacht, a red, white, and blue figure (obscured by the yacht's mast) dives
unnoticeably into the sea.
Landing craft
make their way to the yacht, one circles; MEN AT ARMS warily board while Steve fixates on
the flag.
A BANG
startles the men as they secure Steve in their boat. After a second and third
BANG, water fountains up inside the yacht. It then sinks FAST, APPEARING TO BE
PULLED UNDER by something!
Steve’s transfixed
by the ruffling flag succumbing to the sea....
Soon after, Diana's
curly hair (despite water), and gold laden shoulders emerge from the ocean’s
swells. The destroyer, a half mile off, has landing craft pulling alongside it.
Seeing this, the Princess silently drops back under the waves.
EXT. UNDER
THE OCEAN'S SURFACE - NIGHT
The distorted
night sky and moon ripple in a view from below the
water's
surface. THUNDERING marks the return of the fast moving WATER WAKES. No boat's
hull is seen as they cross overhead.
After they
pass, the CHURNING props and lumbering hull of a ship slowly closes in. Rushing
toward it, the surface breaks--
EXT.
U.S.NAVY FLYTE 1 ARLEIGH BURKE CLASS DESTROYER - CONTINUOUS
A murky
figure (Diana, now as EMISSARY) FLIES out of the sea and lands on the
ship's port side deck; her dark profile shimmers with gold. She looks warily
past the ship's aft stack to see WEIRD DISTORTIONS - in the moonlight - moving away.
INT. UNKNOWN
(INVISIBLE) CRAFT, FLYING PAST SHIP - SAME
As the
destroyer churns across the sea below, an UKNOWN PILOT, in a futuristic armored
suit, transmits a message.
UKNOWN
PILOT
(in
Ancient Greek)
Sector
five is clear, nothing unusual.
NAVY
DESTROYER - CONTINUOUS
A bored
SENTRY, 20s, armed and in combat gear, smokes by the helipad stern railing. The
name on ship's stern: "JOHN S McCAIN".
MONTAGE
- DIANA/EMISSARY ACOUSTICALLY PROBES THE SHIP
--Diana taps
her bracelet (now golden) against the ship. It strikes a TONE that vibrates
through the ship's metal structure.
--The TONE
races among the ship's occupants. Diana lowers her head to concentrate on the
MYRIAD OF VOICES SHE NOW HEARS.
--The TONE
DAMPS as one particular conversation stands out.
DESTROYER
CAPTAIN
(only
talking mouth in focus)
How’s
he doing doc?
MEDICAL
OFFICER
(only
talking mouth in focus)
If
you’d asked me that a few hours ago I
wouldn’t have known where to start. Now
I don’t know what to say except, this guy
has some kinda
angel watching over him.
--The Sentry
turns to relax; he spots something along the ship.
--The
conversation Diana is listening to, inside ship, continues.
MEDICAL
OFFICER
(only
talking mouth in focus)
I’ve
never seen anyone heal that
fast from trauma that severe, ever.
--The Sentry
raises his M4 carbine; a lit cigarette is carelessly in his trigger hand.
--INSERT -
GREEN VIEW OF M4'S NIGHTSCOPE: the back of a glinting figure (Diana/Emissary) crouches
beside the ship’s aft stack:
--The clumsy Sentry
fights with the rifle sling in order to CLICK his shoulder mic.
DESTROYER
SENTRY
Matt.
Matt, are we still under GQ?
--He chambers
a round. Diana’s TONE SQUEALS as her concerned face looks up. Her bracelet
breaks contact with ship, ending the scan.
--The Sentry,
still fixated in his scope, moves toward Diana.
END
MONTAGE
DESTROYER
SENTRY
Petty
officer, have unknown off missile
deck.
Please advise, over.
(re-grabs
barrel as Diana stands)
Heh,
hey, hey hey, who goes there?
He again tries
to click his mic, brushing the lit cigarette which protrudes from his trigger
hand: THREE ROUNDS POP OFF.
SHOTS SPARK
IN THE DARK. Diana travels across the half distance of ship in a blink. She
grabs the carbine from the dumbfounded Sentry and (with Emissary strength) CRUSHES
IT.
DIANA
I’m
not your enemy.
A cigarette
ember bounces off the deck. The dazed Sentry accepts the (now bent) M4 carbine
back. A hatch slams open and TWO SEAMEN run to the rail above. They look down
on the fully lit helideck and a GLIMMERING, star spangled Emissary (Diana)
staring up at them. One Seaman snaps to attention, saluting; the other copies.
Diana turns
back to the Sentry. He looks up from gazing at her body, then also
lethargically salutes.
Raising her
arms off her side she lifts into the air, then waves.
DIANA
Goodbye.
The Seamen
crane to see beyond an American flag fluttering off the end of the deck as Diana
levels out over the sea.
The sentry
examines his M4. It’s bent at a fifteen degree angle; four indents, plus one on
the other side, shows Diana’s grip.
EXT.
WASHINGTON D.C - LINCOLN MEMORIAL - OHIO DR. STEPS - DAY
Dawning
sunrise has ALLY, 15, black, runaway, consumed with her phone, hiding beneath
the corner wall at the top of the stairs.
GLINTS catch the
girl's attention; a figure flies under Arlington Bridge and then banks across
the Potomac toward the steps! Ally is in a trance as the SHIMMERING Emissary
approaches.
Diana floats
up the stairs and swings her boot down to playfully tap the last few risers;
the glory of the Lincoln Memorial (night lighting still on) rises to meet her. She
lands atop the steps, then ascends above the memorial to reveal a postcard
image of DC.
Ally bolts
onto the plaza staring up in awe. Diana veers towards Constitution Ave. and
Ally runs after her. She’s possessed as she rounds Memorial Circle, but the
Emissary still pulls away. Near Constitution Gardens, Ally nearly falls. She
begins to cry. A car HONK at Constitution Ave. stops her breathless and
dejected.
WASHINGTON
D.C - CONSTITUTION AVE DINGY ALLEY – SHORT WHILE LATER
Ally, now
with her bag, plods aimlessly to a "NO ENTRY" alley and ducks through
the fence. She trudges backwards eyeing the sky.
DIANA
(OS)
Are
you following me?
Ally spins
against a dumpster. Diana leans on the wall smugly.
ALLY
No,
I’m, just, walking in the same
direction
you're, flying. There’s a
difference!
Her scared
grin pulls a sympathetic smile from the Princess.
DIANA
Perhaps
you can help me. I’m looking
for,
what I believe is called, an inn?
ALLY
An
inn?
DIANA
Yes,
a place to--
ALLY
Yeah
yeah, I know what an inn is. Pick
a
door. This is Washington, there’s one
around
every corner. Long as you got the
ching.
DIANA
Ching?
ALLY
Yeah
cha-ching, cheddar, coin... money?
DIANA
Oh, money. That is something I left
without.
ALLY
(eyeing
Diana head to toe)
I’d
say you forgot a lil’ more’n
that!
Ally relaxes
into a laugh. She POPS her gum. Diana cranes forward in amazement. Ally,
startled, steps back.
ALLY
Whoa.
Do you want some?
Ally hands
Diana one cube. Diana eyes the gum still in its paper. Ally grabs it back,
unwraps it, and smugly makes an eating motion. Diana then puts it in her mouth
and swallows awkwardly.
DIANA
You
Americans have, interesting tastes.
ALLY
Oh
my god, you swallowed it!
DIANA
How
does one acquire this, cha-ching?
ALLY
Well sister, looking like that I don’t
think you’re gonna
have to wait too
long.
DIANA
(relieved)
Sister.
ALLY
Yeah?
Maybe, we can help each other.
I
mean, if that’s okay with you?
She
smiles and walks past Diana who follows her down the alley.
EXT./INT.
RUNDOWN SLEAZY FORMER HOTEL - DAY
In
a viaduct's gloom, Ally and Diana near a hotel's gutted sign.
ALLY
Remember,
say Nicky told you to get
the
Presidential Suite.
LOBBY
– CONTINUOUS
Diana walks
cautiously up through the open door. An OLD MAN sits and stares blankly.
SCANTILY DRESSED LADIES rest on the stairway and against the wall.
A TV plays
behind the counter of an old, enclosed front desk. Diana rings its bell. LYNDA
C, 62, silver hair, reading glasses, rises from her creaking metal chair and
sets her Enquirer down.
LYNDA
C
You’re
a little early for Halloween,
aren’t
ya honey?
DIANA
Halloween?!
Uh, I need a room.
Lynda
begins to pull a key from the wall rack.
DIANA
Nicky
said get the Presidential Suite.
Lynda reaches
hesitantly for a key further off the side; as Diana eagerly takes it and goes the
elder woman just shakes her head!
HOTEL
OUTSIDE STOOP - CONTINUOUS
ALLY
You
got it? Yesss.
Snatching the
key, Ally freezes as a big 1970’s two door pulls up. She backs fearfully into
Diana who stiffens, appearing caught off guard by the girl’s trust.
NICKY, 30,
tall, lanky wise guy wannabe in tacky pants and stingy brim hat, steps out with
a ka-slam of the huge car door.
NICKY
Allyeee, I know you didn’t come here
without
my money.
ALLY
Your
money!
Nicky waves
to his crew down the street before stepping up on the curb. Ally slides to the
side of Diana as he does.
NICKY
Whoa!
Ladieeees, what do we have here?
Nicky
kisses Diana’s hand. He holds it while looking her over.
ALLY
You
owe me.
NICKY
(eyes
firmly all over Diana)
Listen
kid, you’ve been short all week.
I’ve
been lett’n you slide too long. But
then
you go and bring me this. Oh.
(throws hands out to sides)
I
think I'll let you take the night off.
Hell,
I might just let you take the next
week!
Costume thing’s a bit much, but
we
can work with it.
ALLY
(to
Diana)
Be
careful, he’ll hurt you.
NICKY
Kid’s
always exaggerating, I wouldn’t
hurt
a fly.
Nicky moves
to pinch Ally's chin as Diana's IRISES FLASH SAPHIRE BLUE; this prompts her to put a hand to her temple
in pain!
DIANA
No...
you're lying!
NICKY
(to
Ally)
Don’t
you back away from me.
Nicky feigns
a back hand on Ally. Diana grabs his elbow, lifting him off the ground. He
yells in pain as Ally reaches in for his money clip.
ALLY
Oh
you are so dead.
Diana
scoffs. Ally holds clip behind her and looks up innocently.
ALLY
What?
As Ally
escapes Diana drops Nicky. His legs give out and he tumbles in front of the
car. The MEN DOWN STREET see this and begin to move towards them. Nicky
chuckles as he gets up.
NICKY
Now
I’m all through being nice.
Nicky feigns
with a right, while his left fist freely goes into Diana’s gut. Bones CRUNCH.
He doubles over cradling his hand.
SHORT GANG MEMBER,
20, sneaks atop the stoop behind Diana. He raises a baseball bat; her eyes
roll. She stops the bat in back of her head with a bracelet. The bat cracks, numbing his hands.
Nicky pulls a
switchblade and leaps from the street. His hand CLAMPS inside Diana’s; the blade
protrudes between her fingers.
Diana's ear
catches the sound of a 9MM COCKING.
INSERT -
GUN'S HAMMER COMING DOWN ON CARTRIDGE INSIDE GUN.
BACK TO - 9MM
GANG THUG, rap gangster hoody and baseball cap, rapidly firing his pistol
sideways as he strolls the street.
Nicky
flinches as the rest of the group scatters; amidst the DOZENS OF SPARKS OCCURRING
OFF TO THEIR SIDE, he watches the BLUR OF DIANA'S ARM moving between them. Her
bracelet finally stops by his head to DEFLECT THE LAST ROUND. Nicky stands trembling.
The Emissary sneers
at Nicky through her tiara (which points at her nose and extends down her
temples, as a Greek helmet would).
As Diana
flicks the knife out of Nicky’s hand she snaps off the blade with her thumb.
She then flings the handle. It nails 9mm Thug between the eyes and flips him
backwards.
Now
free, Nicky freezes watching the blade clink to the ground.
Diana sighs
as the Short Gang Member again jumps her from behind. She lowers down and
casually lets him on board. GANG THUG 1 jumps out from beside car. GANG THUG 2
then comes from the other side. They pile on, punching and swinging, mainly
hitting each other.
Diana
reaches up between Nicky's tacky pants and pulls him in. She stands with the
Thugs in her arms. The ball of yelling gangstas then slowly ASCENDS ABOVE THE
STREET, propelled only by the Emissary’s long legs, tight boots, and golden
heels.
INT.
AMAZON SHRINE CAVERN - GROUND FLOOR EPICENTER - DAY
Hippolyta and
Artemis descend subterranean steps toward a dim light. The cave mouth opens and
Hippolyta enters the shrine in awe. Artemis, holding an ornate light staff,
trails suspiciously.
Three
walkways around the chamber intersect at its center to form a Y. The towering
statue straddles them. Steps, submerged in triangular pools formed by the Y,
also converge to its center.
Hippolyta
gets mid-way in and hesitates. Artemis, annoyed, hurries after her. Passing the
Queen, she chucks her staff up into the cavern where it impales and brightens
to a WHITE FLAIR; the shrine’s beauty and grander ILLUMINATES.
The Queen
fights tears as she kneels before Diana's handprint, dead center of the Y. She
tests its fit.... Her hand pulls clear.
ARTEMIS
Why?
She couldn’t have just taken the
Emissary's
power! It would had to have
been
freely given to her. By the one
who
possesses it.
HIPPOLYTA
I...
sh-she was so young, so tiny! So
long
ago....
FLASHBACK
- FLOODED AMAZON SHRINE CAVERN - GATEWAY SPAR (997
BC)
Hippolyta,
on the end of the jetty holding BABY DIANA, catches a droplet of blood off the
child’s foot. She swirls it in an ornate chalice - while blood soaks through
silk wrapping her cut palm.
Looking into
the child's eyes, she lets the cup spill at her side; it flows under extension
and drips. A VORTEX FORMS in the mirror pool. The challis bounces over the
edge, vanishing below.
HIPPOLYTA
(VO)
...there’s
no way she could have known?
END FLASHBACK
ARTEMIS
Why
would you do such a thing?
HIPPOLYTA
Do
you really believe, such power just
wells
up into existence, with no desire
or
designs of its own... that your
prayers,
gone unanswered for an entire
lifetime,
fell harmlessly on benign ears?
(dazed,
to herself, sad)
...And
we had come so far. On our own....
(turns
to Artemis sternly)
Find
her. And find him.
EXT.
U.S.NAVY FLYTE 1 ARLEIGH BURKE CLASS DESTROYER - DAY
A Seahawk
helicopter lurches down in whipping Rain. AGENT X, 50s, high'n
tight, sunglasses, glares out its dripping window.
INT.
NAVY DESTROYER - PASSAGEWAY TO HELIDECK - CONTINUOUS
A hatch
closes, cutting the Seahawk's ROAR. Men in trench coats stride down the dim
passage; X leads, AGENTS Y and Z, 30, follow. DESTROYER CAPTAIN, 40s, chiseled,
waits uneasily in the crossway.
The Captain
unceremoniously stands nose to nose with the solemn X. He then escorts them
submissively into the bowls of the ship.
INTERROGATION
OBSERVATION ROOM
In a large
viewing window, the Two Seamen argue with NAVY OFFICERS. One Seaman gets up and
slams his fists on the table.
SEAMAN
I
told you, she flew!
NAVY
OFFICER
(jumping
up, pointing at table)
Sit
down.
In an
opposing window, the Sentry who had shot at Diana meekly slumps in a chair.
HOVERING OFFICERS coddle him for a response. A smoldering cigarette has him
hypnotized.
A MEDICAL
OFFICER, 30, clean cut, gets up from his AV screens to salute Agent X as he
walks in. X blankly stares; the Captain purposely also ignores his salute. He
lowers his hand, confused.
AGENT
X
Are
you the Medical Officer.
MEDICAL
OFFICER
Yes
I am.
AGENT
X
How's
our patient doing?
They look
through the door's window. Across the hall Steve is serene and asleep with only
minor bandaging and an I.V. drip.
MEDICAL
OFFICER
He
had major contusions over half his
body.
Fractured arm, chest, skull.
Compound
fractures of both the tibia and
fibula
of right leg. There was internal
bleeding,
and-the list went on and on.
AGENT
X
And now.
MEDICAL OFFICER
And
now! Most fractures, with exception
of
the leg, are almost completely healed.
And
that’s off X-rays from over an hour
ago.
Major contusions are barely visible
any
more. For some reason the rate of
regeneration
has slowed now, but, we're
still
looking at a medical miracle here.
X
walks away from the door. The Captain opens it impatiently.
DESTROYER
CAPTAIN
That’ll
be all Lieutenant.
MEDICAL
OFFICER
One
more thing. In my opinion, most of
his
injuries were indicative of torture.
The Captain
nudges him out the door. X casually flips through file photos on the table. He
then pulls back a cloth to expose the bent M4 carbine. The Captain reaches in
to start a video.
DESTROYER
CAPTAIN
This
is flight deck footage. We tried to
clean
it up a bit.
(flusters
when X scowls)
Uh.
It said something, before it flew off.
DIANA (ON MONITOR)
I’m
not your enemy.
(Captain
keeps replaying)
I’m
not your enemy.
With
bare palms, Agent X raises the crushed M4 to eye level.
DIANA
(OS)
I’m
not your enemy.
On
an AV screen, the Sentry sits entranced by his cigarette.
DIANA
(OS)
I’m
not your enemy.
AGENT
X
I’m
taking him with me.
DESTROYER
CAPTAIN
(looks
at Steve across hall)
Doc's
not gonna like that.
AGENT
X
I’m
not asking. I want him prepped and
ready.
Wheels up in twenty minutes.
X sets the M4
down. Agents Y & Z, wearing latex gloves, promptly slam a long case on the
table. Agent Y handcuffs the case to his hand. Agent Z carefully stows the M4
inside and slams the lid.
BLACK SCREEN:
FADE
IN:
INT./EXT.
RUNDOWN SLEAZY HOTEL - PRESIDENTIAL SUITE – DAY
A lock
CHLUNKS over. A door creeks open and a tepid hand flicks the switch. One naked
bulb illuminates a long, golden bracelet.
Ally pushes the
door open and struts in under Diana’s arm. She puts a sack of groceries on the
shabby, kitsch table and tosses her bag on the sunken, stained mattress. She holds
out her arms.
ALLY
Home
sweet home.
With
groceries in one arm, Diana lifts a large suitcase and enters tepidly. She's
framed by peeling walls, worn out floor, and a dilapidated kitchen.
DIANA
This
is the Presidential Suite? I
would
have thought the President stayed
someplace
a bit less... used?
ALLY
Well.
We have our very own table, with
chair.
Double bed. And most importantly...
Ally
flicks on the TV. She pulls a game console from her bag.
Note:
INSERT DESIRED GAME CONSOLE NAME AS ALLY'S DIALOG HERE.
As Diana
scans room, Ally wrestles the suitcase away from her. She pulls at it till
Diana obliviously lets go. It SLAMS onto the floor. Ally giggles as she drags
it into the bathroom.
ALLY
And
over here we have the piece de
resistance. Running water. With
shower.
Diana finds
Ally's big, white smile contagious. Her worried look returns when Ally
disappears into the bathroom. She pulls open drapes to the slum below and
apprehensively sits on the bed. A cockroach races across the floor.
A paw hanging
out of Ally's bag catches the Princess’ eye; she pulls out an old knit teddy
bear as the sound of a shower starts.
DIANA
Ally,
where are your parents?
ALLY
(OS)
Think
my mother's in the Midwest
somewhere.
Haven’t seen my dad since I
was
five. Was living with my grandma,
till
she died.
(shower
shuts off)
Bounced
around foster care for a while.
Then
I met this guy. He brought me here.
That’s
how I met Nicky.
MANDY RIVERA (TV/OS)
This
is Mandy Rivera, live at the scene
of,
quite possibly, one of the most
bizarre
Coast Guard rescues ever.
ALLY
(emerging
from bathroom)
Believe
it or not, he does have a good
side.
You just have to get to... No!
Ally’s amazed
stare draws Diana apprehensively towards the TV.
INSERT
- TV'S NEWS FLASH
Nicky
and other Thug's mug shots, plus 9MM Thug, flash on screen.
MANDY
RIVERA (OS)
The
four men stranded atop the
Washington
Monument, with literally only
the
shirts on their backs, have been
identified.
An aerial
view shows screaming Thugs clinging to each side of the peak, the Coast Guard
hovering above. Nicky, perilously hangs onto
tacky pant-legs, tied to the other men - his butt in plain view...
BACK
TO - ALLY AND DIANA - PRESIDENTIAL SUITE
DIANA
...I
see what you mean!
Ally’s laughter
then warms the gloom outside their dingy window.
INT.
MILITARY INTELLIGENCE - HALLWAY OUTSIDE OFFICE - DAY
MUFFLED
ARGUING grows inside the office. Steve gruffly bangs open the door fighting his
wheelchair. COL. MORTIMER “MO” BRADLEY, 50s, helps him through.
MO
That
could’ve went better.
INSIDE
OFFICE - SAME
Over the
shoulder of TWO ANONYMOUS OFFICERS, one of them opens a folder and hands the
other a photo. In it, a figure, surrounded by a brilliant light, is rising from
a sleek white sailing yacht.
HALLWAY
OUTSIDE OFFICE - CONTINUOUS
Mo
rolls Steve casually towards the bustling main thoroughfare.
STEVE
What’s
with the crack about the hair.
Always
with the hair. I'm in a
wheelchair
for Christ sake!
MO
That’s
the thing. You shouldn’t be in
a
wheelchair. You should be in a coma,
with
tubes coming outa half your body.
STEVE
I’m
a fast healer.
MO
Little
too fast? Navy docs say they
never
seen nothing like it. Then there’s
this
whole abducted by aliens thing.
STEVE
Amazons
Mo. I was delusional not insane.
MO
Oh,
well there you go. No problems here.
STEVE
Jesus.
They grounded me. Can't I get
even
a little consideration?
MO
I’m
just trying to get ya to see their
perspective.
What you lost, they're not
even
sure what it cost. We can’t even
find
the boat they plucked you out of.
STEVE
It’s
a big ocean, how’s that for
perspective.
When am I gonna fly again
Mo?
Ya gotta get me back in the
cockpit.
MO
They
kept you round cause you could land
birds
that should've never left the
ground.
Hell, you'd fly a dog turd if
they
could figure a way to put a seat in
it.
But that cowboy crap is over.
While an ATTACHE'
approaches Mo, Steve glimpses a woman (Diana) with long, curly raven hair. More people pass; she vanishes.
MO
That’s
the thing, don’t need a freak’n
cockpit
anymore. Stuff lands itself,
thinks
for itself. Now, been able to
line
something up for ya over at State.
STEVE
Oh
Jesus!
MO
Once
this blows over we’ll see about
getting
you into a rotation somewhere.
Until
then, you lay low and do whatever
they
tell you, including seeing that
shrink
they set up for ya-gotta do this,
(as
General approaches)
General.
THREE
STAR GEN. LYLE W, 70s, approaches Mo solemnly.
GEN.
LYLE W
Mo,
we gotta talk. They're all over me.
MO
Yes
Sir.
Steve rolls
into the crowd of people. His cane gums up the chair, so he hobbles up on foot
to peer round a column. Meanwhile, Diana avoids him self-consciously, one hall
over, near main elevators. She nakedly stands in her Emissary boots and short,
powder blue coat. Gray suits and uniforms endlessly stream past her.
Diana turns
to shun a GAWKING WOMAM, but the elevator's DING puts the Emissary face to face
with herself in its shiny door; it then opens, and more business suits flood disconcertingly
around her.
INT.
RUNDOWN SLEAZY HOTEL - PRESIDENTIAL SUITE - DAY
Ally sits on
the floor playing a fighter pilot video game. Diana FLOATS IN through their
open, upper story window. She glumly tosses her coat on the bed and stands
sulking at it.
DIANA
Ally.
I need your help.
Ally comes
over and hugs Diana. Diana stiffens, but Ally lovingly nestles in closer; the
Princess cautiously pats her on the back.
INT.
USED CLOTHING STORE BACK ROOM WAREHOUSE - DAY
Ally and
Diana enter an old brick warehouse through the service entrance. Double high
clothes racks create a maze of fashion. Ally walks straight in leaving Diana in
awe amongst the racks.
FRANCINE
DUBIOS, 60s, short round, African American, backs in through a curtain pulling
a rack. Ally comes up behind her. Francine is more annoyed than startled as she
looks past Ally.
FRANCINE
I
thought I locked that back door?
ALLY
Diana,
let me introduce you to the
secret
of my awesome sense of style.
FRANCINE
Honey,
the only secret is when are you
gonna pay for that, so called, style.
(to
Diana finally appearing)
And
who are you supposed to be, Queen
of
the Star People?
DIANA
Actually,
I’m the Prince--
ALLY
Some
asshole into this costume shit,
walked
off with everything she had. All
we
need is to borrow some clothes to get
back
uptown.
FRANCINE
And
all I need is a new pair of Manolos,
a
Gucci, real kind, not that knock off
crap,
and a Lexus. Oh, and a date with...
(walking
Ally to the curtain)
...Denzel.
Now, I’m not gonna get any of
what
I need. And you wanna know why?
Cause
I need mon-ney for three outa four
of’em. And unless you got number four
wrapped
up in that back pocket, you and
the
princess here can go round front and
pretend
you got money like everyone else.
(Ally
pulls out a wad of bills)
Girl,
what have you gone and done?
ALLY
Something
hot, but still stuck up. And
businessy!
Francine
scowls at Diana. She walks into the maze mumbling.
DIANA
People
really seem to be preoccupied
with
this, money.
ALLY
Yeah,
they really want you to be
invisible
if you don’t have any. But the
more
you got, the more invisible
everyone
else is.
DIANA
Seems
kind of lonely.
Francine
arrives. Ally puts a skirt up against a beaming Diana.
ALLY
Hotter.
FRANCINE
Hotter?
I go any hotter, she won’t be
able
to pick up her purse after go’n
through
security.
(Ally
scowls at Francine)
Alright,
alright.
(walking
back past Diana)
You
just better hope they don’t make
you
take your shoes off.
Ally gives
the clothes pile to Diana. She grabs some pumps off a bottom rack, eyes Diana
for size, and plops them on top.
ALLY
Go
ahead. Try this stuff on.
Diana looks
around worriedly as Ally browses. She closes her eyes and concentrates: THE
ARMOR’S LIGHT WISPS around her until FLASH, Diana stands in new clothes! Ally
gasps. She runs to a desk and returns excitedly with a magazine showing a
blonde hairstyle.
ALLY
Can
you do this?
DIANA
I
don’t know, I’ve never--
ALLY
Try.
Oh, wait.
Ally runs to
rifle through her bag. She returns with glasses.
DIANA
Ally,
I can’t take your glasses.
ALLY
These?
They’re not real. They’re for my
schoolgirl
outfit. Guys like that sort
of
thing. Anyway, I’m through with that.
(hurriedly
puts them on Diana)
Try.
Diana studies
the picture, her eyes close: THE WISPY LIGHT swirls and builds as her HAIR STRAIGHTENS,
FORMS A BUN, and BECOMES BLONDE; all of this, just as Francine returns--
FRANCINE
Ahhhhh! You’re gonna
suck my brains out.
Don't
suck my brains. Stay away from me--
She
falls, legs up, on a pile. Diana and Ally rush over to help.
EXT./INT.
BANK - SAME
A small van
pulls in front of a glass facade. Three BANK ROBBERS in black get out. All wear
goggles and carry shoulder sacks.
The van door
slides; TASER MAN, in skin tight black suit, hood, and large goggles, jumps
down holding an edgy looking rifle which is connected to a large mechanical
backpack. He puts his rifle to the glass. The Robbers hunch behind him expectantly,
while inside a CHUNKY SECURITY GUARD notices them huddled at the door.
Taser Man
shoots two wires through the door pane. They impale in a far wall, barely
missing the Guard and a SEATED BANKER. As they crackle with static, anybody
close to them moves away nervously.
Taser Man’s
CHARGING BACK PACK WINDS UP; A THUNDER CRACK and LIGHTNING BOLT EXPLODE THROUGH
THE LOBBY. The bank's glass facade shatters. Everyone inside is knocked down
unconscious.
INSERT
- POWER FAILURES - INT./EXT. LOCATIONS AROUND THE CITY
USED
CLOTHING STORE BACK ROOM WAREHOUSE - SAME
Francine sits
and composes herself. Ally rubs her shoulder and Diana holds her hand. A LOW
BOOM cuts the power. Francine whines as they all look up. Ally then looks back
down; Diana is gone.
ALLY
Diana?
Diana!
BANK
- LOBBY
The Robbers hastily
enter as an imposing vault door automatically starts to close. Taser Man shoots
through the bars of the vault room and into the vault: LIGHTNING CRACKS, and the
massive round door whimpers back open. The crooks then enter the vault.
BANK
- VAULT
Emergency
lights twinkle on as the robbers frenetically fill their bags; the clack of a
woman’s heels is ignored. Robber 1, kneeling, finally glances at the red boots
beside him; Diana smugly leers down. The other robbers then jump up startlingly.
Taser
Man slips into the vault and shoots. Diana spins, snatching the wires from the
air. The villain snickers behind his mask: a BOLT OF WHITE HOT LIGHTNING THEN JOINS
THE TWO OF THEM TOGETHER.
Diana falls
to a knee! Her free hand slaps the floor. Her head drops in pain. The Robbers
scramble out of the vault. Taser Man then ups the amps on the shriveled, ELECTRICLY
GLOWING, Diana.
The Princess,
her EYES FULLY IRIDESCENT BLUE, painfully rises. The TASER’S PACK WHINES HIGHER!
Diana's hand comes off the floor to crosses bracelets with the one holding the wires;
instantly, THE PACK’S WHINE TURNS SHRILL and the gun's "WARNING"
comes on. Taser Man's controls irritatingly jam, his pack begins to smoke.
ARCING
DEFLECTS from Diana's bracelets to the vault walls FORMING A BARRIER IN FRONT
OF HER. Similar ARCING DEFLECTS off the end of the gun. Taser Man lets the rifle
go and it HOVERS AND WRIGGLES WITHIN THE LIGHTNING. He then also abandons the
pack.
INTERCUT
- BANK LOBBY / INSIDE BANK VAULT
Taser
Man locks Diana in the vault and runs to the waiting van.
Intense ENERGY
FORMS BETWEEN THE BRACELETS; Diana strains to break their bond. As her arms
fling apart, ENERGY SHOOTS DOWN THE LIGHTNING BOLT, it collides with gun and
EXPLODES.
The
Robber's notice the explosion as their van screeches away.
The vault’s emergency
lights flicker back on. Diana leers at her simmering bracelets now cooling
down. She grabs hold of the door's inner workings and leans in. The steel
GROANS. The floor CRACKS under her feet. Her gold heels lift off the ground.
Diana looks
skyward with IRIDESCENT BLUE EYES: the lines of gold down the back of her boots
MORPH INTO GOLD HEEL SPIKES; she FORCES THEM INTO THE FLOOR WITH HAMMER LIKE
SPEED to stop her slide. Her arms and
legs then SWELL. The steel begins to
POP.
Bank staff
awaken to the locked vault’s MOANS. Cracks form. The wall EXPLODES and the
massive door SLAMS OPEN onto the ground.
Diana
saunters out of the vault and puts a boot up on the vanquished door. Her
DILATING IRISES catch the Robber's van as it disappears behind a building MILES
AWAY. She growls subtly and launches off
the door, EXPLODING OUT THE UPPER LOBBY WALL.
EXT.
ROBBER’S VAN DRIVING SERENELY DOWN CITY STREET - CONTINUOUS
Laughing
Robbers pull off their suits to count loot. A distant figure banks out of the
sky. The driver squints to see Diana flying straight at him. He nudges Taser
Man out of a laugh.
Diana's legs
lower as Taser Man looks out the windshield. She now flies at them shaped like
a cross - just above the tarmac. As she gracefully drops to the road surface,
her arms flow back and she comes down as if jumping a puddle; with perfect
timing her third step STOMPS ON THE VAN’S BUMPER.
From behind,
the van appears to hit an invisible tree; its back rises into the air revealing
Diana’s legs in front of it. She holds the van over her head as if it was a
cardboard box.
DIANA
One-two,
thought there were four of you?
She
shakes the van. Robber 3's face tumbles down into the glass.
DIANA
There
you are.
EXT./INT.
BANK - ACTIVE POLICE CRIME SCENE - LATER
A black
leather shoe crunches the glass covering the bank stoop, it's connected to
Agent X. He surveys the crime scene. He looks to Agents Y & Z standing by
car; they take the hint and fan out.
Junior Agents
LENNY, 30s, larger, dumpy and unshaven, and EUGENE, 20s, chubby with boyish
face, take Y & Z's place under the disapproving eye of Agent X. They then follow
X into the bank.
X stands
imperiously mid-lobby. POLICE LIEUTENANT, 40s, shorter, NY accent, breaks up
his meeting. He candidly approaches X.
POLICE
LIEUTENANT
Been
expecting you.
BANK
- VAULT
The
Lieutenant leads them into the vault thumbing through his notepad. He stops at
Taser Man's fried charging pack. X walks to the middle of the vault with a
sneer. Two TECHIES dutifully leave, passing Lenny and Eugene slouching at the
entrance.
POLICE
LIEUTENANT
Best we can tell, perps were using some
kinda giant,
capacitor. How they scaled
it down and still got that kinda power
is
anybody's guess at this point. Thing
created a homemade lightning bolt. The
concussion from it was like getting hit
with a baseball bat. They knocked out
everything, an everybody, in one pop.
And
that’s when she walked in on’em.
AGENT
X
She!
You mean it.
POLICE
LIEUTENANT
Ohh no, she. All cameras were knocked
out,'cept for one.
(points
to top of vault entry)
Some kinda high-end
super shielded deal.
Use’em in
reactors, that sort of thing.
(moves
to tech’s A/V stand)
See. Think of it like a giant taser.
Only, if you get zapped by this thing...
(gestures
to fried pack on floor)
...you don’t just go down, you go out.
As in gone, vaporized. Now, watch what
happens
when she gets hit by this thing.
INSERT
- A/V MONITOR'S FISHEYE VIEW OF DIANA ON VAULT FLOOR
POLICE
LIEUTENANT (OS)
It’s almost like those things on her
wrists deflect it at first, surround her.
Then, right there!
(pauses
after bracelets touch)
My
tech guys are telling me that’s over
50,000 degrees. She’s amassing gigawatts
of energy. Until...
(starts
tape, bracelets separate)
...boom! She flings it down its own
stream, right back in on itself.
BACK
TO LIEUTENANT AND AGENTS BY A/V STAND WIRED TO VAULT CAM
POLICE LIEUTENANT
That’s
enough juice to light up half a
Manhattan
for a couple a weeks.
AGENT EUGENE
Or all of it for one week.
Agent X and
Lieutenant turn toward smiling Eugene in disbelief. The Lieutenant moves to
holes in the floor where Diana stood.
POLICE
LIEUTENANT
She
broke outta here like you or I’d
break
out of a closet in a prefab.
They
all look up at the hole in the bank's upper cement wall.
POLICE LIEUTENANT
Looks
like you got quite the predicament
on
your hands. I just hope she likes
baseball,
hotdogs, apple pie, and credit
card
debt as much as the rest of us.
EXT.
SEEDY BACKSTREET - NEAR SLEEZY FORMER HOTEL - DAY
Diana struts in
new heels and fashion jeans. She and Ally proudly approach the hotel toting bags
of trendy American consumption.
1ST STREETWALKER
(to
Ally, then to Diana following)
Hey
Girl!... Diana.
2ND
STREETWALKER ON PHONE
Hi
Diana.
Diana rounds
the back alley corner in discomfort. Her IRISES FLASH SAPHIRE BLUE, but she
keeps walking warily down the alley. Streetwalker On Phone eyes a black car
parked down the street.
2ND
STREETWALKER ON PHONE
That
was her. Now when do I get my m--
(phone
CLICKS, hanging up)
INT.
RUNDOWN SLEAZY HOTEL - PRESIDENTIAL SUITE - CONTINUOUS
DIANA
(leans
back shutting door)
I
never thought it would pain me to
say
this! We need to find a new place.
INT.
ARTEMIS’ PALACE RESIDENCE - PRIVATE BATH - NIGHT
Artemis
sponges a CONCUBINE in an opulent bath draped in linens.
A FROSTED
BALL MORPHS DOWN OUT OF THE CEILING, surrounded by an unfolding ovate loop. The
Uranus modeled globe then PULSES BLUE:
ARIEL
(INSIDE FROSTED BALL)
Please
excuse the interruption, General.
The General
kisses her Concubine's neck and steps from the bath. She dons a sheer robe, and
approaches the portal with a sneer.
ARTEMIS
Speak.
The globe
sections into files like a big rolodex. The pages open to unveil ARIEL'S BLUE
HORIZONTAL LINE across the hoop.
ARIEL
You
asked that the humans be monitored
for
any, unusual, occurrences.
NEWS FLASH -
of the Thugs atop the Washington Monument - plays. Artemis traces on the open page
like a desk. She arranges all the Thugs mug shots with the flip of her finger.
She enlarges 9mm Thug's swollen/bandaged nose and face; she laughs.
ARTEMIS
Diana.
I-found-you....
INT.
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE – OFFICE CAFETERIA – SAME
Steve, dozing
alone at a corner table covered with papers and aerial photos, awakens to
ARTEMIS' LAUGHTER in his head.
The Major spies
toned legs - and long curls of raven hair - by the coffee brewer. He struggles
over with cane and cup to reach for the BLACK HAIRED WOMAN's shoulder, she
turns before he can. Upon seeing her face... Steve fills his cup
disappointedly.
INT.
POSH PSYCHIATRIST'S OFFICE - DAY
Steve’s uniform
rides up as he slouches in a low, uber-modern chair gazing, fixated, through a
large glass sculpture. His haughty PSYCHIATRIST, 30, accent, pencil skirt and
designer specs, sits astutely atop her trendy, metal and leather perch.
PSYCHIATRIST
Steve.
Steve... tell me where you are
right
now.
STEVE
I
know it isn’t real. I mean, come on,
Amazons!
He
laughingly looks for reciprocation. She stares, giving none.
PSYCHIATRIST
Psychological
trauma can manifest itself
in
many different forms.
(makes
notations in notebook)
Tell
me about the relationship you have
with
your mother?
Steve
soberly stares back through the large glass sculpture.
INT.
BUSTLING SPORTS BAR - DAY
A WAITRESS
brings glass mugs of beer to Steve and an OFFICER FRIEND, 30s, as they
commiserate in a wall booth. The woman bats eyes at Steve and leaves while his
friend ogles her shamelessly.
STEVE
I
know it was real. I mean, I know it!
OFFICER
FRIEND
Let me get this straight. You're stranded
on an island, populated by gorgeous women--
STEVE
Amazon,
women.
OFFICER
FRIEND
Okay! Gorgeous, superhuman Amazon
women.
Who
haven’t seen a man in almost 3000
years.
Ready, willing, and oh so able to
repopulate with your seed. Instead, it
takes'em less than
forty eight hours to
get so pissed at you they wanna kill ya?
STEVE
It was longer than forty eight hours!
OFFICER
FRIEND
Man, how does somebody do that! Nobody's
gonna believe it.
Take it from me, your
script; it needs work. That’s all I’m
say’n. Got one question: you're stranded
in
the middle of the ocean, on an island
full
of superhuman beings trying to kill
ya... how'd you make it off alive?
Among the
many football games, Mandy Rivera, on a lone muted TV, reports outside the bank
wall Diana flew through. Zooming in, workers are covering her hole with a
banner: "0% NO MONEY DOWN."
His
Officer Friend takes a swig. Steve stares into his mug.
INT.
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE - STEVE TREVOR'S OFFICE - DAY
Steve,
head on his desk, stares at the PLOP-PLOP-FIZZ in a glass next to him. A manicured
hand lays papers and a pen on the desk.
MYSTERY
BLONDE (OS)
I
need your signature on these.
He absently
signs. The hand plucks the pen and papers. Steve peels his face from the desk
in time to see long legs walk out. He creeps to his doorway; a stairwell down
the hall CLACKS shut.
STAIRWELL
Looking
up through the stair cases, Steve sees the flash of the top floor door open and
then slam shut.
EXT.
HARRY S. TRUMAN BLDG. (STATE DEPT) - ROOF - DAY - CONTINUOUS
Steve pushes
the door open; a vacant roof greets him. He walks to the edge with a subtle
limp. Muted morning DC traffic taunts him. He puts his hands to his head in a
quavering, bewildered breath.
DIANA
(OS)
Hey
sailor.
The door
clacks shut. Blonde Diana leans by it alluringly. She holds her spectacles,
sucking on them with an impish grin.
STEVE
Oh
God! I knew you were real!
Steve rushes
over to her. He lifts her off one foot in a lip lock. Her raised hands and
muffled cry signal surprise, but she quickly closes her eyes and embraces him.
HARRY
S. TRUMAN BUILDING - OUTSIDE STEPS – CONTINUOUS
Steve
hustles to the waiting town car. He pulls out his wallet. Diana trails on the
steps behind him.
STEVE
How
fast can you get me home?
MILLITARY
DRIVER
Don’t
know sir, Uzbekistani Minister due
in about twenty. It'll be tight.
STEVE
Becky
who?-Never mind.
(to Diana on steps)
Might
take a while, some minister from, I
don't
know. Something-a-Stan?
DIANA
Uzbekistan.
He
squints suspiciously. She toys with him over the car's roof.
DIANA
Uzz-bek-i-stan.
STEVE
How,
do you?--
DIANA
This
is the State Department.
(gestures
to sign on building)
You
know. Where you work!
STEVE
Yeah,
well, this is only a temporary
gig.
I’m a pilot.
DIANA
We
could go back in and find it on a
map?
If you want?
STEVE
I
was able to find you in the middle
of
the ocean.
DIANA
Find
me! Is that what you’d call that?
STEVE
Yeah,
that’s what I’d call that.
She smiles
her way into the car. Steve watches through the sun roof. Her legs fill the
view; she crosses them. He hands Driver a hundred dollar bill and rushes to get
in. Town car speeds off.
INT./EXT.
NEIGHBORHOOD STREET - SPEEDY DELIVERY TRUCK – DAY
The town car
drives by a truck parked within a quiet, brownstone back street. WISPS OF HEAT
escape the truck's door seam! Diana’s nostrils flare. She turns her ear toward
the truck; inside cab a box BEEPS behind the seats. From it, dozens of red
wires lead to large barrels filling the truck. A phone is strapped to the box.
INT. UNION
STATION - MALL FOOD COURT – TABLE – SAME TIME
Hairy, stubby
fingers tap away on a laptop; enter key is tapped.
INTERCUT -
SPEEDY DELIVERY TRUCK / TOWN CAR
Box phone
rings; the box CLICKS and a TONE replaces its beeping; the barrels in back of
truck MIX/BUBBLE. Diana peers worriedly out the town car’s back window as it
pulls around the corner and onto Main Street. Police clearing this street force
the car over.
MILLITARY DRIVER
Sorry
sir, we didn’t make it.
DIANA
I
have to go.
(comforts despairing Steve)
Don’t
worry, everything will be alright.
Diana kisses
his cheek and gets out to eagerly scan the area. Steve steps out just in time
to see her disappear into an alley.
EXT. ALLEY -
CONTINUOUS
The ARMOR’S
LIGHT builds to a FLASH around Diana, TRANSFORMING HER INTO THE EMISSARY. She
lifts into the sky. A BUM sees it all.
NEIGHBORHOOD
STREET
Diana
arcs gracefully over the top of the buildings. NEIGHBORHOOD MAN, 40, jogging
suit, watches intently as she quietly sets down. He hastens over to interrupt
her from surveying the truck.
NEIGHBORHOOD MAN
Hey.
Hey-hey, where are the cameras?
They
gotta be around here somewhere?
(leans against van for a second)
Whoa,
this thing is hot!
Diana RIPS
the door from the truck and drops it aside, just missing his feet! She next
TEARS OPEN THE SIDE OF THE TRUCK and nervously eyes hundreds of red bomb wires
that fan everywhere.
NEIGHBORHOOD MAN
Holy
shit, that’s a bomb!
(staggers into street yelling)
Holly.
Holly, Hollyyy.
HOLLY
(out of a second story window)
What?
What the hell’s the matter with y--
NEIGHBORHOOD
MAN
Get
outta there. There’s a bomb. Get out!
Faces pop up
from windows and corners everywhere. PANIC erupts.
INTERCUT -
MALL FOOD COURT / MUNDANE CAR PARKED ON MAIN STREET
Under a
jacket in back of car, a camera focuses on a distant limousine with motorcycle
escort. The sweaty brow and beady eyes of the BOMBER, 30, short, disheveled,
are just visible as he types away amid the mall’s din. The limousine is on his
screen.
NEIGHBORHOOD
STREET
Neighborhood
Man greets HOLLY, 30, curlers, BABY in her arm, on the brownstone stoop. Holly
also pulls her young DAUGHTER, 4.
At Holly's
side, DIANA PUSHES OVER THE VAN. She then stoops to grab the frame. Holly drops
phone; it bounces to her husband's feet. They both watch as Diana jostles the
truck over her head.
HOLLY’S DAUGHTER
Mommy,
why is that lady wearing pajamas?
INTERCUT -
MALL FOOD COURT / APARTMENT WINDOW ABOVE MAIN STREET
Diminutive
Bomber flutters laptop keys. Out a third story window a camera peers/zooms
towards the Neighborhood St. intersection.
NEIGHBORHOOD
STREET
Diana
stoically lifts into the air and accelerates the truck ever quicker skyward. A
BALDING MAN, 40, approaches the brownstone stoop holding up a camera phone.
BALDING MAN
Where
do you think the wires are?
INTERCUT -
MALL FOOD COURT / APARTMENT WINDOW ABOVE MAIN STREET
People
running from the Neighborhood St. intersection appear on the Bomber's laptop!
He sits up and taps keys. Camera zooms in.
INTERCUT -
NEIGHBORHOOD STREET / MALL FOOD COURT
Diana clears
the buildings. She accelerates beyond Neighborhood Street and out of site.
Files race across the Bomber's laptop.
BOMBER
No-no.
No. NO--
He taps
enter: bomb DETONATES, just beyond
Neighborhood St....
INT. WHITE
HOUSE OVAL OFFICE – SAME
A FIREBALL
outside stops The President from writing. He stands to observe the bright light
outside his window.
MAIN STREET -
INTERSECTION – CONTINUOUS
Limousine
carrying MINISTER and his WIFE nears the intersection. The BLAST WAVE sweeps
down Neighborhood St.; the limo's escort motorcycles are then blow down at the
intersection. Limo itself is shaken. Steve
ducks against town car as its windows shatter.
UNION STATION
- MALL FOOD COURT – SAME
A FLASH
SHATTERS station's glass façade. The Bomber gets up to see the fireball. A
SECURITY GUARD, 40s, approaches him sternly.
SECURITY GUARD
(in
Uzbek language)
Sit
down!
BOMBER
But,
it is over!
SECURITY GUARD
I
said, sit, down.
The Security
Guard pulls a chain from a trash receptacle, loops it through the door handles,
and locks it taut. He then pulls an AK47 out of a shrub and fires it into the
air. People panic.
UNION STATION
- MAIN OPERATIONS ROOM – SAME
Office
personnel are glued to a wall of A/V security monitors.
STATION
SECURITY MANAGER
Now
what the hell is that?
INTERCUT -
INT./EXT. VARIOUS UNION STATION ENTRIES
Other
Terrorists hear shots. They chain doors, deploy smoke grenades, and jubilantly
shoot glass facades forcing people away from exits. An aerial view of Union
Station shows MUZZLE FLASHES.
STATION
SECURITY MANAGER (VO)
They're
driving everybody to the center
of
the mall! Why?
UNION STATION
- MALL FOOD COURT
The sweating
Bomber pulls out a hand trigger detonator. A bomb can now be seen behind his
newly undone clothing. He looks up at the train schedule board... and numbly
hits the laptop's enter--
EXT. AMTRAK
LOCOMOTIVE - SAME
An EXPLOSION
rocks a Genesis locomotive's undercarriage, at speed, ten miles from the Union
Station yard!!
UNION STATION
- MAIN OPERATIONS ROOM – CONTINUOUS
While Union
Station personnel are glued to A/V screens, the rail yard lines on the board
behind them quietly begin turning red....
INTERCUT -
UNION STATION WEST MALL ENTRY / EAST MALL ENTRY
LAUGHING
TERRORIST, 35, gleefully shoots out west entry glass. He flips his AK's clip
and laughs. The crowd flees. A jostling KACHUNK-KACHUNK of the chained doors
has him look back curiously.
SIX CHAINED
STEEL DOORS THEN EXPLODE AT HIM. He's yanked into the air just before the
juggernaut is to cut him down.
Whipped
through the air squealing, he collides with TERRORIST AT THE EAST ENTRY. This
entry then also EXPLODES OPEN.
UNION
STATION - MALL FOOD COURT - CONTINUOUS
People cower
against counters. PONYTAILED GIRL, 5, lays on top of her WAILING MOTHER, 30s.
They hide under the Court's anchored tables. The mother's panic attack attracts
COURT TERRORIST, 20s.
COURT TERRORIST
You
there. Get up. Get up.
A shadow
comes over top of the Girl and her Mother. A gold spike POPS through the table and
bends it to block the Terrorist. The Girl looks up at blue, gold, and the
Emissary's curls of black.
The Bomber
hides in the crowd as Diana SCANS ITS FACES, her IRISES FLASH SAPHIRE BLUE when
his site crosses hers. She then glares back at the Court Terrorist and struts toward
him.
Red boots
forebodingly clack. Phone screens rise up from behind counters and all over the
crowd. The Terrorist nervously backs away. Diana gets to the end of the row as
the Security Guard steps out behind her, and opens fire.
The Princess’
back arm becomes a BLUR OF SPARKING FISTS. She stops it in back of her head
with fingers open, letting two shots past her cheek, which then wing the Court
Terrorist’s jacket.
The Bomber,
cowering in the crowd, now watches people run from the food court towards the
exits Diana broke open.
The Security
Guard flips his clip; the Court Terrorist lifts his AK; LOUD GUNFIRE then drowns
out their yells as they close in on Diana. The Princess moves also - aligning them - at
each other.
Diana SPINS
INTO A BLURRED TOP AND VANISHES! Bullets whip the Security Guard to the ground.
The Court Terrorist's gun is shot away from him; unable to reach his AK47, he
sits and stares at the childishly screaming Security Guard.
EXT.
UNION STATION - AERIAL VIEW - CONTINUOUS
People
begin flooding out the exits amidst a helicopter's din.
INT.
UNION STATION - MALL THOROUGHFARE INTERSECTION - CONTINUOUS
Rotund, NORTH
ENTRY TERRORIST, 30s, taunts people clinging to the wall. Rounding a corner he
staggers as Diana flies at him. He tries extending his rifle. She yanks the
barrel; the rifle sling pulls him and he smacks his forehead into the gun butt.
As if a coat,
Diana hands him to a hiding, buff, MALL GUY, 30s. A lanky SOUTH ENTRY TERRORIST
sees this, and ducks behind a column.
DIANA
Could
you hold this for me?
The Mall Guy
wilts under the weight. Diana RIPS THE AK IN TWO and flings its barrel across the
mall. It impales behind the South Terrorist; debris dust pelts his face and he
turns away. Diana's fist then breaks through the column's corner to catch his
jaw.
OBESE MALL KID (OS)
Woooooo!
Diana,
surprised, glances across the thoroughfare. Three black MALL KIDS, preteen,
peek out from a hobby store. OBESE KID jumps out to do his best Bruce Lee. The
Kids laugh. Diana giggles.
The
Princess twists through the air snatching up bad guys. She pulls the fat terrorist
gracefully from the Mall Guy’s droop hug.
DIANA
Thank
you.
As Diana
weaves up to the balcony, she RIPS OUT a grab rail, then looks to TWO OFF DUTTY
SOLDIERS; they move to help as she BENDS THE POLE around the unconscious
Terrorists.
Scared LATINO
FASHIONISTA, 20, glasses, stands glued to a column near rail. Diana
sympathetically leans back on the balcony wall. Her gold and red boot
inadvertently comes up to push against it.
DIANA
I
really like your shoes.
As the girl
returns the supportive smile, Diana pushes back and falls into a dive. The
Fashionista cranes frantically over the wall to watch Diana glide away, just
inches off the floor.
MALL
FOOD COURT - CONTINUOUS
The Bomber
staggers in the ebbing crowd. He turns suspiciously and Diana's cleavage greets
him! He then looks to his trigger thumb,
and sees hers now rests between his and the button.
Diana jerks
the Bomber up into the Station’s cathedral like a big yelling ribbon. The
Ponytailed Girl's little head follows them out (dolly by her side) as a SHRILL
ALARM now echoes the station:
STATION
PA SYSTEM
Please
proceed to your nearest exit.
INT.
AMTRAK LOCOMOTIVE - AT SPEED FIVE MILES FROM YARD - DAY
ENGINEER,
50, hopelessly pulls levers. CONDUCTOR, 30, watches.
LOCOMOTIVE ENGINEER
I
can't slow it down.
CONDUCTOR
They
can still stop us in the yard...
right?
LOCOMOTIVE
ENGINEER
We’ll
never make the turn. We’re going
into
the Metro.
INT.
UNION STATION – METRO TERMINAL – SAME
A
crowded terminal of innocent people bustles to board the Metro.
AMTRAK
LOCOMOTIVE - AT SPEED THREE MILES FROM YARD - SAME
Diana
arcs out of the distant sky to catch the train. Nervous people looking out of
its windows are agitated as she WHIPS BY.
POLITICIAN
ON TRAIN
What
the hell was that!
ENGINEER
and CONDUCTOR watch dumbstruck as Diana floats down in front of the train. They
rush to the windshield in disbelief.
Diana
leans back against the hitch and throws both feet at the ties. Splinters shower
around the train. Some ties break loose and lodge under the engine; its front
carriage hops the rails! Diana slips and frantically re-grabs above the coupling.
The
prow of the train CRUMPLES as her hands pull up. The engine lifts and its nose
realigns just as the prow RIPS loose; Diana is spit into an overhead signal and
cartwheels high above the train.
Wheels
bounce on the rails; the jolt rolls down train in a wave.
Diana
levels out to see Station ahead. She rockets back to the front of engine. Now facing
it, she straddles the gauge. Her EYES TURN IRIDESCENT BLUE. Gold heels MORPH
AROUND THE TRACKS; GLOWING AMBER rails appear to shoot under the wheels of the train.
METAL
SQUEALS. Passengers stumble forward. Cars BANG together. Conductors jump away
from the windshield as SPARKS ENVELOP the engine. Diana's LIMBS SWELL. Her head
trembles against the hitch.
EXT.
UNION STATION - TRAIN PLATFORMS - DAY
STATION
SECURITY MANAGER
(running
along platform)
Clear
the platform. Get out of, here....
Train,
showered in sparks, enters the terminal. Security Manager looks down at Diana
heaving against it as it mundanely stops. The Princess then rises in front of
train. She winks at the Engineer.
AMTRAK
LOCOMOTIVE - CAR ROOF AT BACK OF TRAIN - CONTINUOUS
A
bomb vest trigger dangles across the train car divide. The half-naked Bomber
reaches for it despairingly. Diana’s hand then rests softly on his shoulder. He weeps.
EXT.
NEWS VAN - DRIVING BY UNION STATION MALL - DAY
MANDY RIVERA
(sees
Diana flying w/Bomber)
Stop
the van.
MANDY RIVERA,
30, a Katie Couric wannabe still stuck doing local news, opens her door to get
out of the van. The road whizzes by.
CAMERAMAN/DRIVER
Mandy,
we're in the middle of the road.
Hesitating,
she steps out of the now screeching van. Her heel rolls over and her shoe gets
spit under the wheels. She looks back to see Diana still floating above the
mall.
Mandy hobbles
around the van with news mic in hand. She ignores the car SCREECHING within
feet of the back bumper. She kicks off her one remaining shoe and makes her way
between the buildings.
ANGRY DRIVER
Are
you crazy?
EXT.
UNION STATION - PARKING RAMP ENTRY, POLICE STAGING - SAME
Shoppers
crowd outside as a SWAT style truck, towing a black bomb-disposal trailer, swings
across the road. SWAT DRIVER, 45, then
preps the trailer as news trucks and other police arrive.
Diana drops
down with Bomber hanging, hairy, in his underpants; SWAT Driver falls into a
trance as she puts bomb vest in trailer.
DIANA
I
believe I got everything. I’ll let you
check
the rest.
Mandy tumbles
from in front of a squad car SCREECHING to avoid her. She gazes up at Diana
smiling caringly over her shoulder.
The SWAT
Driver's eyes rise back up as Diana re-turns toward him. She lifts her arms off
her sides, rises into the air, and waves.
DIANA
Bye
now.
OFFICERS
FROM SQUAD walk over as SWAT Driver leers at the sky.
SQUAD
OFFICER
Hey
Sonny, was that that Super Guy?
SWAT
DRIVER
Noooo.
Mandy stands
hypnotized by Diana. She comes to; shoppers, cops, and news cameras are all fixated
on the sky. She notices a black car pull up close to the crowd. Agent X steps
out and looks up.
Cameraman
runs up out of breath and hands Mandy her shoes. She hesitates, and then takes
his camera instead.
CAMERAMAN/DRIVER
Hey!
(as Mandy films crowd)
Mandy,
she’s up there.
MANDY
RIVERA
(gesturing to other cameras)
Pick'n angle! This is the rest of the story.
INSERT
- NEWS CAMERA VIEW FOCUSING IN ON AGENT X
Agent X takes
off his shades. He looks around disparagingly at the crowd. He then looks
straight into Mandy's camera.
RETURN TO -
MALL PARKING RAMP, CROWD OF PEOPLE ALL LOOKING UP
The
handcuffed Bomber stands alone, surrounded... but unwatched!
MONTAGE -
UNION STATION FOOD COURT - POST EMISSARY MEDIA BLITZ
Mandy,
shoes in hand, strolls numbly by MALL PATRONS negotiating with NEWS CREWS for
the best deal on their 15 seconds of fame.
INT.
UNION STATION - MALL THOROUGHFARE INTERSECTION - CONTINUOUS
Agent X glares
at AK barrel stuck in wall. A figure comes behind.
MANDY
RIVERA
Lot
more witnesses this time. Not to
mention
cameras. This is turning into a
public
relations nightmare, isn’t it?
(leans over, fixates on barrel)
...Know
what's really interesting?
None
of them were killed. It's almost,
altruistic.
(to
X's face when he turns)
You
believe in that sort of thing agent?
AGENT
X
Wouldn’t
you be safer at home baking
cookies Ms. Rivera?
MANDY
RIVERA
Wow.
Is that secret agent for, “Hi, my
name
is Dick.”
(to
back of X as he walks away)
No,
I like keeping the dark shady people
right
in front of me where I can see'em.
And
as long as we're on the record, I
buy’em at the
store like everyone else
in
the twenty first century... asshole.
INT.
NEWS VAN - BACK A/V EDITING DESK - SHORT WHILE LATER
Mandy hops in
and slides the side door angrily closed. She turns on other news casts then
flips through her notebook. She crumples a sketch of Agent X; under this is a
sketch of Diana looking over her shoulder... she pins it up next to one of
Diana flying.
Mandy refolds
a newspaper: "RAVEN HAIRED WOMAN STALKS D.C.," and pulls off a shoe
to rub her bruised foot. The door slides
open.
MANDY RIVERA
What
do you want?
CAMERAMAN/DRIVER
...I
got the paper you wanted.
He plops it
on the counter and SHUTS the door. Mandy lugs the cumbersome hatch back open - he's
already a few car lengths away.
MANDY RIVERA
Sorry...!
Mandy settles
back in to unfold the new edition: "MODERN DAY WONDER OR SHE DEVIL IN A
STRIPPER SUIT." She immediately sits up, refolds the paper, and lays it
over the older edition! The words: "WOMAN" and "WONDER"
align... she smiles.
MONTAGE
– POSH APARTMENT TV FLIPPING THROUGH CHANNELS
-- MANDY
RIVERA (OS)
So,
can you tell me what happened?
MALL
GUY
Yeah,
I was hanging on to him, you know,
struggling
with him. I almost had him!
And
then, you know, pow, she was able
to
come in and, you know, finish him.
MANDY
RIVERA (OS)
Which
one of you ripped the assault
rifle
in half...?
--Zoom in.
Break to next interviewee.
MANDY
RIVERA (OS)
I
understand you were able to speak with
the
mystery woman. What did she say?
LATINO
FASHIONISTA
She
wanted to know where I got my shoes.
I
told her I got them on sale at--
--Channel
changes several times, ending back on same one.
OBESE
MALL KID
(very animated, w/entourage)
It
was Bruce Lee, with a wig.
--Channel
change: Chelsea’s costume contest, Ross vs?--
--Channel
change: Rose garden of the White House.
PROMINENT PRESS CORP REPORTER
Mr.
President. There’ve been reports of
a,
raven-haired mystery woman, clothed
only
in a flag, roaming DC saving people.
Is
there anything about her you'd like to
share
with the American people at this
time?
PRESIDENT
OBAMA
(chuckles)
Jake,
you seem to know more about it
than
I do. But I can assure you, if I
find
anything out, you'll be the first
to
know. Next question--
--Channel
change: Back to Mandy.
MANDY
RIVERA
(to Neighborhood Man)
What
did you think when you first saw
her?
BALDING
MAN
I
knew it was real. I’ve got it all
right
here on my phone.
NEIGHBORHOOD
MAN
Get
outta here, Mr. where are the wires.
The two men
begin to push, they bump camera-- and back to Mandy!
MANDY
RIVERA
There
you have it! The question remains,
where did this raven haired mystery woman
come
from? Who is this, Wonder Woman...?
This
is Mandy Rivera, reporting live--
INT.
STEVE TREVOR'S POSH HIGH RISE APARTMENT - CONTINUOUS
A TV picture
of Diana lifting the bomb truck freezes. Steve sits in front of the couch
covered only in a sheet, remote in hand.
The sound of
popcorn CRUNCHING has Steve look to his side. Diana sits in the fire light,
covered (barely) within his sheet, engrossed in a large bowl - Steve does a
double take with the TV.
STEVE
Tell
me again, exactly, how I’m
responsible
for. This?
Diana
looks up at Steve, then at TV. She smiles back into bowl.
DIANA
I
do not know how it works, I just know
that
it does. The armor only reflects
that
which your mind's eye sees.
(peeking up at a blushing Steve)
I
rather like it. Especially the boots!
STEVE
And
this, armor, It's....
DIANA
Themyscira
is the source of my sister's
strength,
as it is mine. As its Emissary,
the
armor is merely my connection to it.
STEVE
But
now you’re so... more!
DIANA
(chuckles)
The
armor cloaks me in Themyscira’s
essence.
Protects me, so I may venture
far
from her shores, yet not let go
their
embrace.
STEVE
And
these, Emissaries, they can--
DIANA
There
can only be one. The power of the
Emissary
cannot be taken, it must be
freely
given. By the one whom it
possesses....
(ashamed, changes subject)
What
did it feel like, out on the ocean,
within
the armor’s light?
STEVE
Well,
kinda like... you know!
DIANA
Oh,
oh!
STEVE
And
you?
DIANA
Oh,
no!
STEVE
(moves
closer)
Tell
me again how you knew about the bomb?
DIANA
Well,
I, smelled it.
STEVE
(kisses
her nose/cheek)
Oh,
you smelled it.
DIANA
And then, I, heard it.
STEVE
(moves across cheek, ear, neck)
You
heard it.
DIANA
And,
I... felt it.
STEVE
Oh
that’s my favorite....
(moves
down her neck, then stops)
How
did you know when it was going to
go
off?
(he
straightens up as she shrugs)
But
you would have been alright, I mean,
DIANA
I bleed just like everyone else.
Steve locks
Diana in a long kiss. The popcorn spills as a RING TONE plays; they chuckle. He
reaches for his jacket unwillingly.
DIANA
I think we need more pop-corn! Who gets
a
Hoogan’s Heroes ring tone anyway?
STEVE
You
know that that’s Hoogan’s Heroes.
DIANA
Of
course! I lived on an island, not
another
planet.
STEVE
I
think I’m in love.
DIANA
Mother thought it was a Nazi conspiracy!
The Reich were sadistically persistent.
Many
sisters were tortured and gave their
lives
trying to infiltrate them, to protect
Themyscira....
I wanted to help so badly.
But
as always, Mother objected....
(suddenly
smiling, upbeat)
I
swam sub patrol!
STEVE
Why doesn’t that surprise me.
DIANA
The
War was the closest we ever came to
being
discovered. Until you.
STEVE
And we all know how Mother felt about
that.
DIANA
...If
only I could wish it so, and you
would
understand. The Germans were just
the
latest, in a long line of conquerors
spanning
the eons. Barbarians. Warlords.
Men.
Seeking control over the very power
of
Themyscira. And inevitably... control
over
us... as it was in our beginning....
FADE TO BLACK SCREEN:
DIANA
(VO)
These,
vagrands, desecrated the island.
Though
their search to uncover her power,
from
father through son... failed. But
as
fate would have it...
FADE IN:
EXT.
THEMYSCIRA BEACH - DAY – FLASHBACK (1004 BC)
Large boat
docks. A strapping BARBARIAN PRINCE, 30s, is at its helm. Hippolyta, in royal
garb and scarf, turns to him.
DIANA
(VO)
...one
of these warlords had taken a
young
bride. And she convinced upon him
to
trust an old sage. Together, they
uncovered
the power of the Emissary.
EXT.
THEMYSCIRA CLIFFS - DAY – FLASHBACK (1004
BC)
From
amongst a procession of people, Maia turns to gaze back....
INT.
AMAZON SHRINE CAVERN - CONTINUOUS - FLASHBACK (1004 BC)
The
procession gathers in awe beneath a set of steps at the statue’s base. The set
of stairs are one of three circling the shrine's center. Together they form a
short three sided pyramid between the statues great feet; LIGHT BEAMS OUT FROM
ITS TOP, like a volcano, and rises up through the statue's hands.
Hippolyta
ascends the steps half way and kneels. The Prince continues up to the top,
hesitates, then descends down inside...
DIANA
(VO)
The
young bride loved her Master above
all
else. And he loved her in kind, or
so
she thought. It was in the shadow of
this
devotion that she created for him
an
army; an invincible army of Amazon
woman,
formed by her. Loyal only to him.
...He
triumphantly emerges with the ARMOR’S LIGHT. All bow in homage, except Maia,
who stands defiantly within the crowd. The Prince then benevolently lifts
Hippolyta's chin, to bestow the Armor of the Emissary upon her--
MONTAGE
FLASHBACK - AMAZON ARMY LIBERATES THEMYSCRIRA (1001
BC)
DIANA (VO)
As
they swept across the island, nothing
could
stand in their way. What would have
taken
a mortal army months, took minutes.
It
was too easy; his thirst for conquest
had been wet. The confines of Themyscira,
at
once, proved to be... not enough. And
thus,
a bloody campaign of ego and greed
was
set in motion upon the mainland. And
though
his barbarian armies there were
only mere mortal, an “Emissary to the
Gods,” marched ahead of his men. Still,
it
simply wasn't enough... for even an
Emissary
cannot, at once, be everywhere!
BLACK SCREEN:
DIANA
(VO)
One
fateful day, the last of his mortal
battalions
squandered, callous desperation
sealed
the fate of our race. And for the
first
time, an army of invincible Amazons,
was
ordered to leave Themyscira. What
arrived
on the coast that day, however,
was
no immortal army...
FADE IN:
STEVE
TREVOR'S POSH HIGH-RISE APARTMENT - PRESENT DAY
Diana
uneasily finishes her story sitting with Steve by the fire.
DIANA
...they were now only but mortal women.
Armor and sword that had weighed a
feather on Themyscira, grew too heavy to
bear. Some marched into battle with just
their naked hands. Only to be cut down.
Like
autumn wheat....
EXT.
DEAD VACANT PLAIN AFTER BATTLE - DAY – FLASHBACK (998 BC)
Errant fires
and jutting spears carpet the ground as far as the eye can see. Tall piles of
unknown remains, one hundred yards apart, stretch to the horizon.
A distant
STAR GLIMMERS CLOSE; an Emissary to the Gods emanates from within it! It is
Hippolyta. Her lustrous white silk is wrapped in gold armor. A black crest
trails from her Spartan helmet; a slit in its top shows the Emissary's tiara
beneath.
DIANA
(VO)
...Unlike
other campaigns, no Emissary
marched
at the front of this army!
Having
been drawn to some other far
flung
corner to quell yet another of his
blunders,
she arrived only in time to
witness
the consequence of his obsession.
The
Emissary's gold greaves touch down onto the hauntingly still battlefield. Her
bladed staff falls away and lands like a felled tree. Her helmet hits the
ground. A fur cape floats off her gold shoulders to reveal a GLEEMING CLAYMORE
down her center back....
Hippolyta falls
to her knees at the base of a pile. Her hands cover in bloody runoff. She pulls
a women's corpse from the heap.
INT./EXT.
BEDOUIN TENT - NIGHT – FLASHBACK (998 BC)
The terrified
Prince watches his guards die, in shadow, on the tent wall. A woman's shadow
draws nearer. His SERVANTS leave him.
DIANA
(VO)
What
followed was a carnage like the
ancient
world had never seen, nor spoke
of
since. No mortal soul that had walked
the
battlefield that day would be left
alive.
Not even wedding vows made...
(Hippolyta
kills Prince...)
...in
blood, would stand in Mothers way.
Hippolyta,
covered in blood, sees her image in a nearby mirror.
STEVE
TREVOR'S POSH HIGH RISE APARTMENT - PRESENT DAY
STEVE
If,
Hippolyta, was--
DIANA
He
was my father.
Diana tears
up. Steve tries to stop her from pulling away.
STEVE
I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere.
...What
finally made her stop?
DIANA
...Me.
INT.
AMAZON SHRINE CAVERN - FLASHBACK (997 BC)
Hippolyta
lets the ARMOR’S LIGHT go. It drops back down into the pyramid the Barbarian
Prince pulled it from, seven years earlier.
Coddling
a baby bump under her gown - Hippolyta calmly watches from an outer ledge as
the chamber floods. The ARMOR’S LIGHT succumbs beneath the crypt dome (visible
for only seconds) while the PYRAMID STEPS WASH AWAY, like sandcastles at high
tide.
STEVE
TREVOR'S POSH HIGH RISE APARTMENT - PRESENT DAY
DIANA
I
was the last child ever to be born on
Themyscira.
And now I’ve spit in the face
of
everything that stands for, everything
she
fought for. What have I done?
STEVE
No
you did what’s right! That’s what you
are.
You’re everything that’s good and
beautiful
in this world. Never doubt that.
Amid
the fire's glow, she leans into the hollow of Steve's neck.
STEVE
TREVOR'S POSH HIGH RISE APARTMENT - BEDROOM - NEXT DAY
Diana awakes
happily to a bright new day. She closes her eyes and squeezes the pillow next
to her. Steve walks up to the foot of the bed, in military dress, fumbling with
his tie.
STEVE
I’ve
gotta go to New York for a day to,
(gesturing
apartment)
pay
for this. There’s food in the fridge--
(to
self as Diana lazily waves)
...I
know it’s only for a day and not
forever.
But she could at least try and
talk
me out of it.
Diana stands
on the bed and kisses him; the sheet falls off her shoulders, uncovering her
back.
DIANA
Goodbye.
Steve trips backing
from the apartment while gazing at Diana sitting in a sheet. As the door shuts,
she lurches for the phone.
DIANA
...I
found us a place.
MONTAGE -
DIANA AND ALLY
--Door
UNBOLTS. Ally slowly enters. Diana follows her nervously.
DIANA
There’s
the dining room. Living room is,
back
over there. Kitchen, with chairs!
(they
chuckle by the stools)
Over
here we’ve the piece de resistance.
They enter a lavish
bathroom with huge round tub. Ally freezes!
DIANA
Okay
then! I’ll leave you two alone.
--Ally's head
pokes out from a tub heaped with suds. Her nose twitches! In a towel, she walks
from the bathroom waving smoke away. As she approaches kitchen, Diana pulls
something burned out of the oven. One abbreviated sniff has Ally grabbing the phone.
DIANA
Oh!
You don’t think I can do this.
--At the
door, Ally happily receives the delivery of takeout. Diana, sullen, looks on in
her apron.
--While
watching a horror movie (Wizard of Oz), Diana sinks fearfully behind a pillow.
Ally watches out the corner of her eye; she jumps at Diana. Diana
unintentionally rips the pillow in half. She dumps the feathers on Ally who’s
laughing hysterically.
--Ally texts.
Diana busily fills a blender in the background and lets it rip. Pink slime
slops over Ally and everywhere else.
--Door opens
to Diana in an extremely short nightie. The DELIVERY BOY freezes. Diana takes
the food, leaving Ally staring at him.
ALLY
I
think you just got your tip.
DIANA
(OS)
Ally!
ALLY
(stuffing
bills into his pocket)
Alright,
alright.
RETURN
BACK IN KITCHEN - LATER SAME EVENING
ALLY
Weren't
there any men on Themyscira?
DIANA
(smirking,
washing dishes)
There
were rumors. Some were actually
able
to keep a man his entire life.
Others,
eh, maybe not so much.
ALLY
What’s
it like not to be afraid?
DIANA
I
wouldn’t know. You have to ask someone
who
isn’t afraid.
ALLY
Liar.
Diana's jaw
drops. Wiping off suds, she extends her hand.
DIANA
Take
my hand.
Ally
sandwiches it between her two. Diana closes her eyes...
ALLY
...You're
trembling!
DIANA
As
children we’re taught to keep our
fear
just below the surface, always
within
reach. If you let it show, your
enemy can use it to kill you. But if you
bury
it too deep, it, will someday kill
you.
ALLY
What
would you ever have to be afraid of?
DIANA
You!
This world. You’re all so. Fragile!
If
I let my guard down even for a second.
ALLY
What
about Steve?-- Whoa.
Diana pulls
her hand blindingly fast, then fidgets embarrassedly.
ALLY
...Diana?
Is that why you don’t like
getting
close to me... hugging me?
DIANA
I'm
sorry. I have to work on that.
ALLY
It’s
just touch; it’s me!... It’s what
humans
do.
DIANA
(pulls
up stool next to Ally)
It’s!!
Ally I’m not like you, and I don’t
ever
want to hurt you. Your world is so...
precious.
If I pull away it’s not that
I
want to, it’s... because I have to!
ALLY
That’s
crazy! I know you’d never hurt me.
DIANA
(finds
thick glass saltshaker)
Pick
that up and squeeze it.
(after
Ally ambivalently grabs it)
Harder!
ALLY
(subtle
effort, sets it back)
This
is stupid, I don’t understan--
BANG/FLASH
shocks Ally. Cap bounces away unseen. Diana opens her hand where the shaker was;
graveled glass and salt spill out.
DIANA
I
never wanna give you a reason like that
to
be afraid of me. I’m afraid enough for
the
both of us.
ALLY
...You
can make all the excuses you want;
I’m
not ascared of you... and you don’t
have
to be ascared of me.
Ally slides
off the stool and hugs Diana tightly, eyes closed. Diana loosely wraps her arms
around Ally, eyes open with fear.
ALLY
A
hug is something you should wanna do,
not
something you have to work on....
Isn’t
it funny, the million ways we’re
the
same, we just always end up worrying
over
the one thing that’s different?
STEVE
TREVOR'S POSH HIGH RISE APARTMENT - BEDROOM - NEXT DAY
Kids voices
echo from the playground below; Ally sits against the footboard mesmerized by them.
Diana, in bug-eye shades w/matching earbuds, lays over the end of the bed
upside down (grooving to Abba). RIPPLES
in a goldfish bowl briefly distract her....
ALLY
What’s
it like to live forever.
Not
to worry about dying?
DIANA
Whoa!
(rolls over, removes glasses)
Where
did that come from?
ALLY
I
wish we never had to worry about time,
leaving,
never coming back.
DIANA
Then
don’t.
Ally
disgustedly sneers back at Diana who tenses in surprise.
DIANA
Ally.
I won't live forever.
ALLY
Don't
talk to me like I'm a kid. You
know
what I mean.
Diana
stiffens apprehensively. She then CONSPICUOUSLY PLOPS on the bed, face half
buried, staring at the back of Ally's head. Ally finally looks. She pulls the
blanket over Diana, giggling.
ALLY
Cut
it out.
Diana pulls
the covers, then notices the GRANDMA walking with her GRANDDAUGHTER on the
playground below. As she watches with Ally, the Grandma passes a MOTHER
TWIRLING, then hugging, her TODDLER; their LAUGHTER paralyzes Diana; she TWISTS
her wrist nervously within its tight, silver bracelet - this gets Ally's
attention.
DIANA
(fixated
on Mother w/Toddler)
If
Granna Maia were here, she would say,
everything
has its price.
ALLY
Was
she really your grandma?
DIANA
She
was everybody’s grandma. She once
told
me, death is the knock on your door
that
you only hear once, because there’s
nobody
home.
ALLY
You
miss her don’t you?
DIANA
No.
Because now I have you.
Diana reaches
to try and stroke Ally's cheek-- a muted BOOM, spins her back to RIPPLES in the
fishbowl. They both run out onto the large top floor balcony overlooking the
city.
STEVE
TREVOR'S POSH HIGH RISE APARTMENT - BALCONY
ALLY
Look
at that shadow? There’s nothing
above
it!
The fast
moving shadow THUNDERS past with a muted boom and JET WHINE. A huge EXPLOSION
then erupts five blocks away.
DIANA
Ally,
go inside and don’t come out.
Diana swings
over the rail. Ally runs to watch her fall. A FLASH converts Diana into the
Emissary - flying off towards the danger.
ALLY
Whoa!
MONTAGE
- DOWNTOWN D.C. T INTERSECTION
--Diana flies
in above the street. Nearing the explosion, unseen voices, near and far, loud
and soft, distract her like flies!
INVISIBLE VOICES
Diana. Diana, Diana. Diana--
A VOICE slams into her side! BUDA-BUDA-BUDA
echoes as her body rips through the face of a brick building from
window-to-window. Bricks rain over people scattering from the side walk. She
flies across the intersecting street and through a third story wall.
--A vacant
office EXPLODES open into light and dust. A large metal desk moves off the wall
and slams over. Diana staggers out from under it. Still dizzy, she snarls back
out her impact hole.
-- INVISIBLE
VOICE
Diana--
The Voice
hits her like a meteor from above. Cars along the street plow and tumble as
she's bowled under them.
--Diana
pushes incoherently from her impression in the wreckage. A car quietly floats
down from above and behind! It SMASHES her.
--Ally,
running franticly, is now within a block of the chaos.
--Alarms
CHIME. The wreck CREAKS. Diana's straight arm then rolls the car off of her. Bloodied, her head rises up just in time to lock
eyes with:
ALLY
Diana.
DIANA
Ally,
run--
--Wispy,
semi-visible APPARITIONS swoop down. They yank Diana under the chin and she tumbles
back up above the intersection. A THIRD APPARITION hooks her around corner; she cartwheels above the cross street until demolishing
the back of a large truck.
--Diana gazes
up, sandwiched within boxes. An Apparition, barely audible, WHIRS BY. Diana’s
eyes close. Another Apparition WHIRS PAST - HEARING IT, she smiles (which tugs/moves
her earlobe!)--
The truck
BUCKLES as Diana LAUNCHES LIKE A MORTAR skyward. She floats back to earth posed
as the statue from the shrine. With her eyes closed, she slowly twirls above
the intersection.
-- INVISIBLE
VOICES
Diana.
Diana, Diana-- aaaaahhh!
Diana's
grab-spin-throw is whip fast. A roof-top sign clips off the Apparition's lev
pack, KILLING ITS CLOAK. Ionia, wrapped in an armored suit, BECOMES VISIBLE as
she falls to earth.
--Ally hangs,
hysterical, on a chain link fence. The Second Apparition (Bethania) drops down
behind her....
--Diana
shoots up in an arc as the Third Apparition (Persephone) just misses her. She
lands on its back and forces it down into the crossroad. Persephone's CLOAK
THEN FAILS. She laughs into the smoldering tar as her helmet’s clear face
shield retracts. Diana then RIPS off her lev pack. Persephone laughs even harder.
DIANA
It’s
always funny when they can’t fight
back,
isn’t it Persephone?
(opens
back panel in armor)
Let’s
see how funny it is without this.
Diana pulls a
smoking power cell from the back of the armor.
DIANA
Have
fun walking home. Sister.
--An
EXPLOSION erupts, blocks away. Persephone laughs raucously as the Princess
bolts into the air, taking her pack and cell. She then tries to stand while unamused
DC RESIDENCE gather-round her.
-- BETHANIA'S INVISIBLE VOICE
Are
you Diana’s little friend?
A half-cloaked
Bethania APPEARS in front of Ally; a BLADE EXTENDS from her hand. Ally doubles
back, but the Apparition loops over top to grab her. She pulls wildly to be free,
and suddenly, she is! Cement rushes to meet her face, yet she STOPS inches
above the sidewalk!! She turns to look down her arm at Diana, holding on atop
Bethania. Ally lunges at Diana, crying. They tightly hug.
DIANA
Hold
tight. Don’t let me go.
--The two
keep hugging as Diana stands; Ally locks legs around her and buries her head.
Bethania then grabs for the blade by her hand, prompting Diana to RETRACT ONE HEEL
from her foes back.
DIANA
Yes
Bethania...
(STOMPS/SNAPS
blade with boot)
...she
is my friend.
The Princess
makes a final ¼ turn to face Bethania's legs (her other boot heel still firmly
planted in Bethania's armor). She then kicks backwards! Bethania slides up into
the air screaming.
(Note: Soccer
Rainbow move, in heels, with Bethania as the ball)
As Bethania
slips free, Diana spins in the air. Her boot then drives Bethania's helmet into
the stone building along the walk.
--Bethania
eyes the gold heel across her face. It MORPHS into a blade that grows wider; it
begins to crack her face shield. Ally moans, and she pushes deeper into Diana
as Bethania whimpers.
DIANA
You
still want to be my friend too don’t
you?
BETHANIA
Yes,
of course! Ever since we were kids.
DIANA
Funny,
I don’t remember it that way. I
guess
after three thousand years things
get
a little fuzzy. Where's Mother?
BETHANIA
She
flew up the coast Diana. New York.
DIANA
Steve.
--Bethania's
helmet distorts; the blade reaches her nose bridge.
ALLY
Diana.
--Diana's
teeth unclench and she coddles Ally; she pulls her leg away and Bethania slumps
to the ground. Diana then rips a small computer from her advisory’s wrist.
--The
Princess wipes Ally's tears. Ally in turn smudges blood from Diana's lip! With
a devilish smirk, they accelerate skyward.
END MONTAGE
EXT.
FENCED/VACANT OVERGROWN SLUM PLAYGROUND - DAY
Rusted swings
creak in swaying field grass. Cradling Ally, Diana flies in from a horizon of dilapidated
buildings. The small computer's BEEPING quickens as they near a cover of trees.
They land on
an INVISIBLE PLATFORM seven feet off the grass and barely within the shade.
Ally steps down and comically tries to gain her balance. IMAGE DISTORTIONS
dance around her feet.
DIANA
Be
careful.
Ally tepidly
investigates the edge. Its shadow protrudes beyond the trees! Her head's own
shadow pokes out over it. She waves.
ALLY
Whoa.
Kneeling,
Diana puts her hand to an invisible canopy. STATIC builds. The plane's surface
CRACKLES. The canopy rolls aft exposing two sculpted, back-against-back, seats;
no sticks. Diana catches Ally and lifts her in while stealing her phone.
DIANA
Time
to fly.
ALLY
Hey!
DIANA
(hides
Ally's phone behind her)
What?
ALLY
Funny.
Wait! I already just flew, with
you.
DIANA
(as
she hops in)
Not
like this.
INT./EXT.
INVISIBLE AMAZON INTERCEPTOR - CONTINUOUS
Seats come
alive and envelop them as the canopy closes to dark. The interior and canopy
then AWAKEN AND ILLUMINATE.
ALLY
Eh,
Di-an-ah.
DIANA
(over
shoulder)
Listen
Ally, whatever you might think,
I
can’t be in two places at once. I can
only
protect you if you come with me.
You
can do this.
Engines
WHINE, ROAR. Arrowhead outline can just be seen in the rippling grass beneath.
Wings move and cant as it lifts.
Nose up, it
walks its tail thrust out of the trees. Diana & Ally see only the outside,
like flying in chairs! They speed off.
Ally
nervously watches D.C. shoot by under her feet. After a tight blink she cranes
forward, seeing, something:
ALLY
You
know that shadow outside the
apartment?
It's following us-now-it's
shooting
at us.
Diana banks
hard as Ally screams; a wing-tip skims in Potomac. WHITE ENERGY BURSTS keep
them pinned to the east bank. Docks and boats are cut in half as they pass a
marina. Diana banks ashore.
Now under a
viaduct, a hail of WHITE ENERGY destroys the street above. Dodging columns and
pieces of road, Diana is forced out.
The two
apparition aircraft hug the road and jockey cars like oversize crotch
rockets. D.C. inner city looms ahead.
DIANA
I’ve
had enough of this--
Diana stands
the Interceptor on its tail. Ally’s eyes bulge upon the imminent collision! A
wing flattens in perfect time to pivot the plane. Their enemies stare, nose to
nose, as they pass.
Flying
amongst the buildings, Diana winds her way back around to
the highway.
The rival plane loops down ahead to play chicken.
They both
begin to spin. Three toed mechanical claws then lower out of the other
Interceptor.
DIANA
Oh,
you little slut. Grapples.
Diana's claws
then also drop; she grins. Ally glances over her shoulder; she turns back and
covers in fear. THE PLANES PASS WITH A GRINDING SWIPE. Diana and Ally cartwheel.
The rivals fly out in an arc as Diana wrestles her Interceptor to a stop, nose
up.
Blue
levitation lines down the spine of the aircraft GLOW THROUGH ITS CLOAK; they
struggle to hold the plane close to the road as Diana throttles its engines; a
cloud of burning tar then engulfs the three road Y intersection. Diana revolves
into this cloud as the Rival Interceptor returns for another pass.
INTERCEPTOR (DIANA & ALLY’S)
Reactor,
engaged:
A BURST
erupts from engine, blinding the rivals. Diana and Ally are popped end over
end. The cloud is pushed away. Bad guys pass under them and GLANCE the
triangular building on the other side.
INT.
OFFICE OVERLOOKING VACANT D.C. DERELICT BUILDING - DAY
An OFFICE GUY
is distracted by a buzzing fly. Swatter in hand, he stalks the insect to the window.
As the fly cleans itself-- SWAT!
The Office
Guy gloats. The room begins BUZZING/RUMBLING! Diana and Ally’s Interceptor
floats around the derelict building (nose up) then GRAPPLES to its side (positioned
exactly like the fly). Office Guy backs warily from window (We laugh!!).
INT./EXT.
INVISIBLE AMAZON INTERCEPTOR - CONTINUOUS
Ally
eyes the WING’S SHADOW as Diana works the cockpit displays.
ALLY
Why
does it do that?
DIANA
(glancing
at Ally, then shadow)
Direct
sunlight is too intense for the
skin to project. It has to reflect it.
ALLY
...I
think I’m going to be sick. Again!
DIANA
Don’t
look down.
ALLY
Hah-hah.
DIANA
(deactivating
floor views)
Internal
gravity will hold you in, just
don’t
look out, you’ll get confused.
A PEDESTRIAN
rounds the corner. His hat blows; IDLING Interceptor looms before him. Ally watches him back away dumbstruck.
ALLY
I
think they can see us.
DIANA
There's
contact damage. It has to have
time
to heal...
Ally is suddenly
repulsed, as if the canopy/plane is now alive!
DIANA
...What we have to do, is figure out how
they’re tracking us.
ALLY
Isn't there something so you guys don’t
run into each other?
DIANA
I turned that off.
ALLY
Maybe
they attached something outside?
DIANA
No.
Even if we didn’t see it, it would
probably be incompatible with the cloak;
skin's sensors would pick it up. Unless.
(door
slides open under Ally)
Look
down and tell me what you see.
ALLY
It’s
a big, thing, with pretty violet
light
inside.
DIANA
Oh
Mother, what are you doing?
ALLY
What? What is this thing?
DIANA
It’s,
kind of a bomb.
ALLY
Kind of?
DIANA
Yeah.
Maybe a little bigger than a bomb.
ALLY
How
big?
DIANA
Ally,
the violet light is just a
containment
field. It’s what you can’t
see
that’s the problem? It's antimatter.
ALLY
How!
Big?
DIANA
I’m
not really sure.
ALLY
Whaddya mean, you’re not sure? It’s your
bomb!
You’re 3000 years old; it’s not
like
you didn’t have time to find out!
DIANA
Wha! Have you ever tried to read a book
on
quantum physics! If I had to guess,
I’d
say around, five hundred megatons.
ALLY
How
big is that?
DIANA
Eh,
how big is Wisconsin?
ALLY
The
state!
(FLICKER
catches Ally's eye)
Uh,
Diana, I think-they-found us--
An engine
BURST pops them over the building; a WHITE HAIL OF PLASMA CUTS THROUGH THE
WALLS and chases them on the other side.
DIANA
(to
cockpit, franticly dodging)
Scan
for singularity.
(lines
cross in front of Ally)
Ally
we have to make it to the coast--
Monochrome,
negative view.
(imaging
goes white on black)
When
we get there we're only going to
have
one shot at this.
ALLY
Whaddya mean? One shot at-- whoa!
(as bomb bay doors open)
Don't
bombs explode when you drop them?
DIANA
It's
not like that. It can withstand
almost
any impact. If it didn’t, we'd
never
escape the blast wave. One thing
though,
it definitely won't withstand a
direct
hit by a focused energy pulse.
Just,
FYI.
Ally mocks
Diana's smile. Her chair then comes alive! It wraps her arms and pushes up
between her fingers; crosshairs light up her face. She fights both as plasma
emitters emerge outside plane. The Interceptor then casually speaks to Ally (in
Greek!).
INTERCEPTOR
ουρά θέση επιλεγμένο όπλο...
(recalibrates to
English)
...aft weapons
targeting, active.
Tracking target.
Weapons charge, and
lock, confirmed. You
may fire when ready,
Sister.
ALLY
Eh,
Diana! Why do I have to do this; why
can't
you?
DIANA
You
mean, besides the fact I don't have
eyes
in the back of my head! Maybe it’s...
(jerking
with plane)
...because...
I'm, a little, busy!...
Ally,
if we don’t stop them now, we may
never
shake them! You have to try. All
you
need do is trust yourself, like in
your
games! The computer can figure out
the
rest. It just needs your will to
guide
it that’s all.
ALLY
It
isn't the same. I’m not you!
Diana turns
sympathetically to Ally's reflection in the canopy.
DIANA
I
can think of a million reasons why
that’s
not true. But you’re right, you’re
not
me. Someone prettier and smarter...
and
kinder, once told me, we only focus
on
what makes us different. Without that
person I would have been lost. Don’t you
see
Ally, I need you to be you! You’re
the
one that makes me truly invincible.
They stare
warmly into each other’s reflection. PLASMA ROUNDS GLANCE PAST and snap them
out of their moment.
Speeding out
over open water, the plane pulls straight up. The bomb drops and shows up on
Ally's display. The rivals chase it.
Ally
trepidatiously fires; A HAIL OF BRILLIANT WHITE trails across the ocean,
hitting nothing! Then, the bad guys flash past. Their Interceptor BECOMES
VISIBLE; its tail separates; the foe’s plane then falls into the sea.
Diana banks
around one Amazon pulling another out of the ocean. They then fly off into the
clouding skies. Diana's panel display shows two lines: they collide and read:
--"REACTOR
ENGAGED"--
WHITE HOT
PLUMES AWAKEN IN THE SKY; the plane rockets away into the clouds. Wings fold to
form a sleek chrome wedge, plasma then flows the shape, canting tail planes
whip mesospheric clouds to ribbon. Black space and stars reflect off Ally’s
irises....
EXT./INT.
INTERCEPTOR SLOWING - DARK CLOUDS ABOVE N.Y. - DAY
Diana reaches
back to tenderly cup Ally’s cheek.
DIANA
The
plane will keep you safe... I will
come
back for you.
The seat's
bottom drops Diana into the 300 mph wind outside.
ALLY
No.
Wait—
Diana plummets
through buffeting clouds. Briefly dipping a hand, she pulls out of the dive
just above the surface of the bay. Her Emissary reflection glints up at her,
moving over the water.
The Princess
banks towards New York as the Statue of Liberty beckons to her through the
haze. She hooks round Lady Liberty’s back, then heads up East River. Storm
clouds rumble forebodingly.
Diana glides
past the U.N.’s fluttering flags, then rises above the General Assembly’s dome.
She gracefully backs into a “Flying Lady” (shrine statue) pose, and, while in a
slow ballerina turn, she presses Steve’s number on Ally's phone.
EXT./INT.
MUSEUM BY U.N. - LONG COURTYARD ENTRY - SAME
A two hundred
yard flagstone walk is flanked by towering walls and buildings. A micro-wire
web - visible only close up - tautly weaves the entire length. It rises dozens
of stories high.
Inside, on
the edge of a heavy Egyptian chair, a phone plays a tune of Hoogan’s Heroes
between the tied legs of a man. Steve, gagged and bound within the chair, jumps
awake.
EXT.
U.N. GENERAL ASSEMBLY BUILDING - CONTINUOUS
Diana's
eyes open; she flies from the dome towards the TUNE.
MUSEUM BY
U.N. - CONTINUOUS
Steve jumps
franticly in the heavy chair. The phone slides.
Diana spots
Steve at the end of the long court posed within the museum's glass entry; she
angrily bolts straight toward him. Steve finally sits on his phone, silencing
it. Just then, Diana breaches the first wires in a calliope of TINGS AND PINGS.
Most RIP out
of the wall, or SNAP. Others hold, tumbling Diana's body in a wicked, haphazard
dance as if falling through the limbs of a tree. Unlike branches, however,
wires wind you up!
Diana's gray
snarl explodes into the glass entry and falls like a sack of potatoes. Her
boots and reaching hand are all that remain visible. The SMOKING tangle PINGS
and churns, like it’s alive.
Diana peers
from within her wound cocoon as Artemis’ gold, armored boots strut up. The
General squats and picks up a broken wire. She twirls the lone fragment in
front of Diana’s eye.
ARTEMIS
Before
you pass out from the constriction.
I
just wanted you to see, how the many
succeeded...
where the one failed.
Diana's
reaching hand goes limp. As Steve wails, her eye closes.
FADE TO BLACK:
FADE
IN:
INT.
MUSEUM - MAIN HALL EGYPTIAN EXHIBITION - DAY
Hippolyta, in
skin tight chrome armor, comes into focus. She sits glaring at the Princess
from atop her hovering, silver throne.
Diana, now
free of the wire tangle, tries to get to her knees. She fails. Wire wounds mar
her skin. The shackles behind her are an inch thick and extend to the elbow. Three
links of chain, thicker yet (and too short to allow standing), anchor her to a
platform at the center of the exhibit.
Diana finally
rights herself, but leans forward off balance; her chain becomes taut; instantly,
THIRTY ARMORED AMAZONS flanking the throne tensely COCK their weapons. This
prompts Diana and Hippolyta to share a contemptuous smirk. All the while,
Steve, crouched within the Amazons, strains fretfully against his bonds.
HIPPOLYTA
Daughter.
Time to come back from your
little
adventure, give back what you took.
I’m
sure it will make for great theater.
DIANA
Is
that what you think this is? A play!--
HIPPOLYTA
What
I think is that in less time than it
took
you to wipe the sand of Themyscira
from
your feet, you've put at risk what
took
eons to protect. Do you think your
little
pet is worth that? Do you think
any
of them are worth that?
Hippolyta
quiets down, then gestures at Diana’s costume.
HIPPOLYTA
You
like being their hero, don’t you. Let
me
tell you about your little rodents.
First,
they will take everything you can
give
them. Then, they will try and take
everything
you can’t. And finally, they
will
enslave you. I will turn their lands
to
dust before I ever let that happen.
DIANA
I’m
confused Mother. Are you talking
about
them...
(CLANKS
her shackle chain)
...or
you?
ARTEMIS
You
will show some respect--
Artemis
lunges. Her armor WHIRS and WHINES as she hits Diana with all her might. Metal
on metal CLANKS. Though Diana's head gets turned, she casually rolls it back
and scowls. Artemis raises her dented and sparking glove for another hit--
HIPPOLYTA
Enough!...
The
General tramps off the platform, tossing her sparking glove.
HIPPOLYTA
What
happens when the appreciated
becomes
the expected Diana, when they
demand
so much of you that you can’t
possibly
deliver? What happens when you
fail
them?
DIANA
It's
not about me.
(pleading
to the other Amazons)
Their
lives are so short. It is true,
they
live in so much fear and hatred.
They
don’t need another hand to slap
them
down. They need your hand, to help
them
back up.
HIPPOLYTA
...It's
obvious they've already caged you
girl.
Kill the pet.
Artemis
quickly pulls Steve's head back while drawing her blade.
DIANA
No,
I claim my rite to veil.
GASPS roll
around the room. Artemis freezes, appearing worried.
ARTEMIS
The
accused has no right--
DIANA
I
am still Princess and heir. Do not
overstep
your purpose.
HIPPOLYTA
The,
right of veil is an obscure,
ancient
iteration. It has no place here.
ARTEMIS
But
my queen, it is our law?...
Hippolyta
looks away. Artemis steps in front of her dismissively and motions for Steve.
TWO ARMORED AMAZONS lift him up (arms and legs still bound) and lay him out
across the platform in front of Diana (who’s still kneeling).
The Princess
smothers Steve with tears. As her hair blankets him, she covertly bites through
his rope gag, then whispers to him.
DIANA
Shhh don’t talk. You will walk away from
this,
they cannot harm you. I’m going to
give
you something of me. You must
promise
to never let it go. If you do,
the
world will never be safe from them.
Hippolyta
clutches a long gold handle protruding by her thigh. Artemis cranes
unapologetically into the throne and jerks the handle from its scabbard. A
BRILLIANTLY GLEAMING CLAYMORE slides free - it slices Hippolyta’s hand as it
does.
Diana’s head
rises up stoically. Artemis steps onto the platform admiring the blade. She
runs her naked hand fondly up Diana's neck, folding long curls over a shoulder.
ARTEMIS
Your
armor undoubtedly makes the skins
hide
tough. That will not stop this
blade.
DIANA
Before
you kill me sister know this.
There
was a time, I gladly would have
given
you this burden you've so desired.
(gestures
her costume/armor)
She
never will.
ARTEMIS
(bending
to Diana’s ear)
The
memory of everything fades in time,
Princess.
DIANA
Not
blood.
ARTEMIS
We
shall see.
Diana
concentrates as Artemis dangles the tip deftly above her.
DIANA
(to
Steve)
I
will always watch over you.
STEVE
Angel.
I'm sorry I broke your heart.
She weeps.
Suddenly, Steve sits up and rolls Diana underneath him (reversing the “veil”).
Diana and Artemis lock eyes. The blade then THUNKS through to the floor.
BLACKSREEN:
MONTAGE -
DEATH & LIFE - MOS (BLACKSCREENS BETWEEN EACH BEAT)
--Diana, with
head back, screams.
--Artemis
gloats and smugly slinks off the platform.
--Armored
Amazons look away, some in tears.
--Hippolyta
numbly opens her hand. Tears well up at the sight of a long cut across her
palm.
--Diana,
screaming, rolls her head to look at Steve laying limp, sword through his back,
on top of her.
--Diana’s
shackled hands find the blade in the floor beneath her.
--Hippolyta's
gaze rises to the claymore.
--Diana tries
to painfully lift with her body and hands. Hippolyta watches the sword's handle
rise and sway. Diana, head back,
screams.
--Diana
slides free of the blade, which leaves a wound through her lower abdomen and
back.
--Kneeling,
her face on Steve, Diana's head then begins to rise skyward; her eyes open up:
THEY ARE COMPLETELY IRIDESCENT BLUE.
--Diana’s
gold heels MORPH INTO GOLD BLADES, and protrude between the shackle cuffs and
chain! Her arms begin to SWELL.
END MONTAGE
INSERT - A
microscopic view of the shaft connecting the cuffs. Hair-like cracks are
reluctantly beginning to form, and heat up.
BACK TO DIANA
KNEELING ON HAUNCHES, HEAD BACK - CONTINUOUS
DIANA
...Give
me strength.
Trembling,
Diana closes her eyes. Her teeth unclench, BANG/FLASH. The chain then CLANKS
onto the platform--
ARTEMIS
Kill
her.
Barely to a
knee, Amazons open fire on the Princess. The plasma rounds turn her shackle
cuffs into molten junk that clanks to the floor, freeing Diana’s golden
Emissary bracelets covered beneath.
Artemis leaps
to the throne and deploys its big (Interceptor sized) plasma emitter. Whacking
its locks, she lugs it up with its great cord still connected to the
throne. She FIRES.
WHITE PLASMA
slams Diana. Her heels dig in. Awestruck Amazons begin lowering their rifles as
all their SHOTS ARE MAGNETICALLY PULLED INTO the ENERGY BUILDING BETWEEN
DIANA'S BRACELETS.
Diana squints
angrily at Artemis through the BRACELET ENERGY. Artemis abandons the emitter as
Diana's bracelets fling apart.
A SHOCK WAVE
fans out. All the Amazons are caught in its wake. ENERGY EXPLODES back to the
emitter. The throne tumbles, but its CANOPY SHIELD protects Hippolyta. Artemis
gets singed leaping away. The BLAST itself punches through many walls; it then
disappear out over the city.
Diana is
ringed by a slow motion soup of smoke and stumbling.
Out of the
scrum flies a chord, GLISTENING GOLD! Diana snatches at it, stunned when it
defies her grab! It coils her forearm.
ARTEMIS
Now
we share the power through the lasso.
Given
me, by the one true Emissary.
And
know this. Sister. I will journey to
hell
and back before I ever let it go.
Artemis grabs
hold with both hands and leans back, struggling to hold position against Diana
who stands only with her raised fist.
DIANA
If
you want it that bad. Then finally see
what
I've thought of you, all these years.
(straining
the last few inches)
...Let
me give you, a piece of my mind.
She touches
her tiara to the lasso. Artemis jolts! WHITE BLUE BOLTS SHOOT FROM DIANA’S EYES
AND CRACKLE DOWN THE ROPE. Artemis convulses when the ENERGY ARRIVES AND
SURROUNDS HER.
Artemis’ gut
curdling scream colors the chaotic sun enveloping her. Pustules, warts,
scarring, all manifest on her (now) green skin and blood-red eyes; like in a
girl's wicked witch nightmare.
Artemis lets
go of the rope; the chaos stops. The lasso falls from her hand in slow motion,
but only so far; SNAPPING BACK TO LIFE, it curls around her snake pattern gauntlet.
Diana now holds
the other end of the lasso within her hands.
DIANA
Welcome
to hell.
As Artemis is
jerked off her feet and flung around the room, she frantically works to detach
her snake pattern forearm gauntlet (caught within the lasso) from the rest of
her armor.
On the third
revolution she SPARKS the floor. As Diana orbits her high on the other side,
Artemis triggers the gauntlet’s release and flies out the upper story façade of
the museum. The snake pattern tube CLANKS
to the ground, still wrapped in the lasso....
In cliché,
Artemis smashes back in through the large, pyramid shaped, clear glass skylight
(swords like fangs, above her head).
Diana grabs for
the claymore: WHOOSH-SLAM-BANG-BOOM.... Artemis huddles, just off of the
platform, clutching her stump; she screams in torment; a green hand lays
severed near the steps.
Diana
hunches, hiding in pain. Her (Emissary) image reflects back at her from the
gleaming claymore. Blood runs through it.
Hippolyta,
emerging from the sideways throne, looks on spellbound as Diana's head begins
to sway:
DIANA
No.
Like a
baseball pitcher, Diana pivots and hurls the sword; Hippolyta can only watch,
frozen, as it flies straight at her.
The claymore
sores like a gleaming silver ship, just enough spin to keep it true. Only after
impaling the wall does Hippolyta feel it nick her cheek.
Diana
screams; her inhuman vocal chords strike a SICKENING RING. The Amazons cover their ears in pain.
Hippolyta
fights to open her eyes; Diana floats trembling in front of her: her IRIDESCENT
BLUE EYES glare skyward, her fists raise, bracelets HEAT, her AURA GLOWS, the ROOM
BEGINS TO SHAKE.
A BLUE GLOW RISES
FROM WITHIN THE EARTH, up through the floor--
ALLY
(VO)
(Diana
remembering last hug/cry)
Diana....
Diana closes
her eyes and forgivingly breathes. She relaxes into a Flying Lady pose. Her
ROILING AURA SOFTENS and stills. Her wound GLOWS SHUT! Armor RELUSTERS. Fists
relax (forming a Mudra).
Diana's feet
touch down. Her brown eyes open up to glare at Hippolyta. Instantly, TWO
HUNDRED FEET OF GOLD LASSO SNAPS UP DIANA’S LEG, coiling into just three loops
at her side.
She kneels to
attend Steve. Tears fight her. She fights back.
Standing with
Steve’s body draped in her arms, Diana can’t help but glimpse a severed green
hand. She leers at Artemis as her tears flood back.
Diana tries
looking away, but her head only turns towards Mother.
DIANA
Are
you happy?
Diana
flies Steve gracefully up through the skylight. The last panes of ceiling glass
let loose and SLOWLY TUMBLE... CRASH.
EXT.
ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY RAINY FUNERAL - AFAR - DAY
A
drenched Diana, wearing a dress, weeps behind a tree.
EXT.
ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY GRAVE - WEEKS LATER - DAY
Diana,
wearing an overcoat and black boots w/silver heels, stands somberly in front of
Steve’s grave. Ally, umbrella by her side, waits patiently in the background.
Newly placed small flags dot the hillsides.
A short time
later, close behind her, BRUCE W, 40s, elegantly dressed, w/flowers, quietly stands
behind Diana. She ignores him. A Classic limo and CHAUFFER, 70, wait for him on
the access road.
BRUCE
A
Hero. What is that? How does, a mere
man,
live up to that? How does anyone
live
up to that?
He places a
large bouquet of white roses against the head stone.
BRUCE
Most
cherish their own life so much
there’s
nothing left for anyone else.
But
I think some, just cherish life
itself,
no matter who’s it is. No
matter
what the cost....
(stands
beside Diana)
Not
inhumanly fast, nor strong. Not a
god,
or even a king. Just a man.
DIANA
I
think he was just a hero.
They chuckle.
She again looks back down in somber thought.
DIANA
And
now he’s just gone.
BRUCE
The
man may be gone Princess. But his...
(pulls
flag from the headstone)
...dream.
The vision he saw in you....
(gives
Diana flag)
Lives
on. She is, the gift a hero gave
back
to us all.
DIANA
I’m
done with that. Everything. You are
all
so. Fragile.
BRUCE
(chuckling)
Give
us a chance. We might surprise you!
He hands her
his card. Her SAPHIRE IRISES lock onto his!
BRUCE
I--
We, would like to offer you a job.
(starts
to leave, sees Ally)
Oh!
Steve’s mother contacted the landlord
about
his things. I informed her, someone
very
special to him was taking care of
the
apartment, indefinitely. Or at least,
for
as long as she wants? She'd like to
get
in touch, if that’s alright?
Bruce walks
up the hill. His driver holds an umbrella (it's not raining) and waits to open
the door. Ally watches them intently.
The limo
pulls away to reveal a MAN STANDING ON A HILL, 30, tall, black hair, trench
coat, his head down respectfully.
FASTER THAN A
SPEEDING BULLET he shoots off over the city!
Gone with a SONIC BOOM! Fall leaves knocked from the trees are his only
remaining remnant.
Diana looks
at the card: "BRUCE WAYNE, CEO, WAYNE INDUSTRIES".
EXT.
FAR HILL OVERLOOKING STEVE’S GRAVE AT ARLINGTON - SAME
Black car
pulls off the road. Agent Eugene, driver, raises his huge binoculars. Agent
Lenny, back seat, fumbles with a camera.
AGENT
EUGENE
She’s
still here, we didn’t miss her.
How
long do you think she’ll stay today?
AGENT
LENNY
It’s
a free country. She can stay as
long
as she wants.
Situating one
hand in the fly of his pants, he holds the camera up to his face with the
other. His tongue hangs out expectantly.
INSERT -
PANNING TELEPHOTO VIEW OF VACANT GRAVE SITE
AGENT
LENNY
I
thought you said she was here.
AGENT
EUGENE (OS)
Uh,
Lenny?
AGENT
LENNY
God
damn it. I told you not to let that
guy
get ahead of us; he was trouble.
BACK TO -
Eugene glaring out the windshield stiffly.
AGENT
EUGENE
Lenny!
Lenny looks up
from his camera; Diana glares at him from in front of the car. He frantically pins
against the seat, his hands coming up as if he was under arrest.
Diana coolly
makes her way to Eugene’s window; her boot's chrome heels clack forebodingly.
She kneels by his door. Eugene smiles; his eyes are the only thing that moves.
DIANA
Hi.
She strokes
his cheek; her finger snags and pulls his mic near.
DIANA
I’m
not your enemy...
(lets
mic snap back)
...little
man.
(looking
in back seat)
Your
fly is open.
Eugene rolls
his head in embarrassment. The Princess walks casually away. She blows a bubble;
it pops. We rise ever higher over the cemetery as she strolls from the car. Then,
beyond the horizon of endless rolling tombstones, the sun breaks--
FADE OUT.
Don’t
do it, they’ll only take it on you.