TORIA "HIS-TORIA" DRAFT 1

Written by Anthony Nelson

INT. INTERSTELLAR SPACE SHIP TIGHT ON bright neon GREEN SCREEN. MAN (O.S.) Its worse than we could have predicted. Weve lost all primary functions on board and are now running auxiliary for life support, however weve got bigger problems...

SFX: Paper RUFFLES and UNFOLDS. MAN (CONTD) Take a look here... PAN OUT slowly. We glide upwards through a sea of green higher and higher. Suddenly we are above it and it was just a thin line... SFX: RFV - ROBOTIC FEMALE VOICE RFV (O.S.) Incoming celestial projectiles. Impact in 20 seconds... MAN (O.S.) See, we focused on the wrong things. Heat and conflicting gravities... the rest was just guess work... CONTINUE PAN: A flash of green light streaks past. A red dots controlled explosion pulses to life and just as swiftly fades... BEEP. MAN (CONTD) But... But what would happen if heat wasnt an issue? What if a harmonious centrifugal state were to exist between each sun? STILL PANNING: A second red dot erupts. BEE-beep.

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SFV (O.S.) 15 seconds to impact... MAN 2 (O.S.) I thought you eliminated What ifs when you convinced me to fly out here... PAN: A third red dot. Then a fourth. 5th. MAN (O.S.) I did but... MAN (O.S.) (CONTD) ... I, um, lost... the planet. There is an audible sigh of defeat. Or maybe its acceptance... MAN 2 Well, at least there will only be two casualties. RFV (O.S.) 10 seconds... DONE PAN on RADAR SCREEN. Five red dots dance on and off the screen as the scanning line winds past. Slinging between them in random patterns are little white question marks and amongst them... 5 seconds 4 seconds 3 seconds 2 seconds OVER BLACK: TORIA INSERT TEXT: Sometime in the distant future. EXT. PLANETARY SPACE PLANET TORIA slowly waltzes into frame. Its peaceful and serene for a beat then...

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2 STREAMLINED AIRCRAFT of brilliant silver fall into view and theyre coming in hot! ENTER through the windshield of the lead craft and land on A MAN: American. Square Jaw. Chestnut hair and eyes like sterling; He looks more like a Guy Manly than JEREMIAH GRISWOLD. FIGHTER JETS of rustic human era circa 1960s growls into view. Jeremiah smirks. JEREMIAH Charlie, we got incoming. CHARLIE (RADIO) We ARE incoming, Jerry, remember? JEREMIAH Bad guys are incoming. And bad guys never win... He looks to his left, we follow his view and see the 2nd craft in formation holds a YOUNG DARK MALE, handsome, but just so. He smirks back at us... At Jeremiah. CHARLIE You keep playing your little mind games while I show you what a bad man can do. He breaks formation and sends his craft careening towards the enemy.

JEREMIAH Call me Jerry one more time and youll have to. Jeremiah peels off after him and the fight is on. PAN BACKWARDS into WIDESHOT. Space and Toria our backdrop, then two shiny bullets hurtling towards the oncoming fighters. Its a shaky, bumpy ride but these pilots are skilled. The SECOND FIGHTER unleashes primitive, Earth-like bullets. Jeremiahs ship easily swerves right into a spiral swirl around the stream of firepower. Charlies ship lances the darkness with a barrage of PLASMA BULLETS. The lead FIGHTER barrel rolls out of the way.

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Charlie stabs the air again. The fighter drops his ship a few feet just as the plasma streaks over head, stabilizes his ship and hovers for a split sec-- BOOM! The plane/ship explodes! Jeremiah zips past, through the wreckage and on to another FIGHTER. JEREMIAH (CONTD) Thats 1 - zip... We follow Jeremiahs craft as it skirts the second ship, blasting thrusters from the front, just below the cockpit. It noses bottom over top and levels Jeremiah with his target. Jeremiah smiles, his finger hovers delicately over the trigger. JEREMIAH (CONTD) And this is-BOOM! FIGHTER #2 is debris. Charlies ship drops into view, he is face to face with Jeremiah. CHARLIE Too easy. JEREMIAH I was afraid youd say that. The two ships hover cockpit to cockpit. Jeremiah looks left. In the distance bigger, nastier aircraft arc... Charlie looks right. All guns are pointed at them. CHARLIE Bacharat Tango? JEREMIAH Lets dance. SONG PLAYS, COULD BE THE SEATBELTS - RUSH Jeremiah dips right and keeps falling upside down, Charlie mimics the move but inverted. They fall twisting around one another like two leaves caught on the same breeze. The ring of enemy craft open fire! It rains pockets of unpredictable bullets. Charlies rear thruster kicks to life and he is off like a shot. Jeremiah pushes his craft towards the planet.

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Smaller craft split from the ranks and takes off after him. The now concentrated fire tries desperately to catch Charlie as he dances and zags erratically... Jeremiah jams his brakes, throttles his thrusters right and almost knicks his wing in one of the clusters meant for Charlie. JEREMIAH (CONTD) Watch your feet! Charlie looks down to see Jeremiahs ship still has bogies... CHARLIE Keep up, old man! Jeremiah picks up speed, yellow flames begin to lick at the craft as he drags his ship through the atmosphere. He plunges through clouds.. JEREMIAH If you got eyes on me now would be a really good time to-Before he can finish, a plasma bullet streaks past. Close. JEREMIAH (CONTD) ... I wasnt ready yet! He looks back at the 4 craft behind him. Theyre coming in fast... Behind them, slow at first then like rain, missiles and lasers and all manner of firepower erupt from the cloudy backdrop. CHARLIE I told you I was a better shot. Now move it. Jeremiah watches the enemy ships get overtaken for a second then floors it. He flares left suddenly and powers down his ship. It skates out of the way and settles into a more manageable speed. He slides his ship in the opposite direction of Charlies guiding shot and hovers... The hail storm of bullets pass silently by. WHOOMP! WHOMP! WHO-WHOMP! WHOMP! WHOOMP!

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JEREMIAH Using your coordinates to send up Star Bursts. Should cause enough confusion to get you out of there. He punches in the trajectory of Charlies shot. His computer beeps. The signal is locked. CHARLIE No... dont. Charlies craft hovers, its full of holes. Swiss cheese. His cockpit is cracked... no, cracking. CHARLIE (CONTD) Im out. Youre going to have to finish this one alone. He coughs. His finger is now the one hovering a trigger. JEREMIAH (RADIO) Im coming back for you, hang in there, Sergeant. CHARLIE Keep on course damnit! Find the crazy bastard... You wont make it back in time anyhow. JEREMIAH Above the green surface is where youll find gold... Not much to go on is it? CHARLIE When have we ever had more than a little? His radar beeps. He smiles. CHARLIE (CONTD) Incoming. WIDESHOT: Charlies ship self destructs. The ensuing blast takes out the ring of enemies... JEREMIAH NO! He helplessly watches the heavens light up. The shock-wave finally catches Jeremiah in its wake, slamming his craft into the ground. Into...

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BLACK.