2007
registered online at WGA Intellectual Property Registry
TITLE
AND VO (VOICE OF THE UNDINE ISTIPHUL )
In the fourth century BC,
Plato describes the lost civilization of Atlantis in his works Criteas and the Timaeus.
There are no other historical
references.
In 1940, Edgar Cayce
predicted Atlantis would be discovered in
1969.
There are no confirmed physical
artifacts from Atlantis.
Nothing
Except--
TITLE
AND VO: (VOICE OF ISTIPHUL)
1970: TWENTY MILES OFF THE COAST OF
Ray
Brown, wearing scuba gear, rises to the surface next to a twenty foot boat
holding other two divers as a furious storm begins to hit. White caps and steep waves smash against the
hull almost tossing the boat over.
RAY BROWN
(disconcerted)
Where the hell
(wave
bouncing off boat splashes him in face—spits out mouthful of water)
did that come from?
SECOND
DIVER ON BOAT
(yelling
over rising winds)
Its too strong. We’re going to wait it out…
(pointing down into water)
The boat will do better
without us.
The
two divers splash into the water rolling off the boat backwards. The hard-hitting waves recede as the divers
descend about twenty feet. They are free
of the storm except for a strong current set in motion by the waves and the
uneven, alternately shallow and deep water around them.
The
current drives the sand on the ocean floor darkening the water. Some sort of stone structure begins to be
uncovered as sand swirls away.
The
second diver looks at his underwater watch and then up at the surface. The light is brighter. He signals to ascend. As they ascend, Ray notices something shiny
and solid blue off to the side. Checking
his air gauge and finding the air low, he goes up also.
RAY
There’s
something there. I’m going back.
SECOND
DIVER
I’m out of air.
THIRD DIVER
(just as Ray Brown
descends)
Don’t get lost.
EXT.
OCEAN BOTTOM—SHORT TIME LATER
BRING
UP CREDITS
Ray
swims toward a forty-foot pyramid that has a lapis lazuli crown stone and
carefully crafted, shiny stone sides.
Sand slides off the structure revealing a doorway in the side that
slides open. Having already swam around
the pyramid once, Ray notices the newly opened doorway. He swims through it and enters the central
chamber of the pyramid.
Ray’s
flashlight passes over a gold rod two inches in diameter that descends from the
center of the ceiling. The rod stops
above two finely worked burnt bronze colored metal hands. The metal rod has a large red ruby at the
end. The hands are holding a crystal
ball four inches in diameter.
Ray
pulls out his knife and tries to remove the ruby but it won’t budge. He then picks up the crystal ball that is
unattached. He puts the crystal in a
diving bag and pauses looking around in surprise.
Ray
swims toward the surface. The door
closes as an underwater sand dune slides down over the pyramid.
Back
in the boat, Ray reaches into the bag taking the crystal ball out and raising
it in front of the faces of two other divers.
SECOND DIVER
(examining the crystal ball)
Look. Three triangles.
EXT.
ABANDONED
TITLE
and VO (ISTIPHUL)
ATLANTIS, 10,000 BC
Baka
enters the temple through a broken archway.
INT.
ABANDONED
Three
young men are sitting on the floor of a tiny room with one wall open to a
larger temple below. At the other end of
the building the wall has fallen down and ocean waves occasionally surge in. Dirt and boulders from a steep hillside have crashed
through another wall. In the center of
the temple, a large spiraling staircase leading downward is full of broken
bricks and rubble.
BAKA
takes the crystal ball from a bag and raises it up before the faces of two
other young men—He’ad’ra and Radea.
Radea takes the crystal ball into his hands and slowly rotates it.
RADEA
(excited)
Three pyramids. Wait!
(with
confidence)
There’s a fourth pyramid
behind the first three.
HE’AD’RA
(to Baka almost in a whisper)
How did you acquire this?
BAKA
(beat)
RADEA
He stole it.
HE’AD’RA
(thoughtful)
Its called the Mentarch.
BAKA
How do you know that?
RADEA
(to Baka
with mock surprise)
You don’t know what
you steal?
BAKA
What’s a Mentarch?
HE’AD’RA
It’s the most sacred thing in Atlantis.
RADEA
I should have known that.
BAKA
By sacred, you mean?
RADEA
Yah, give us details.
HE’AD’RA
For the
last five thousand years, the High Council has used
this
crystal to insure the survival of Atlantis.
Their wisdom and power reside within it.
BAKA
A great treasure.
RADEA
A weapon for mind control.
(to Baka)
You’re a dead man.
BAKA
No
one knows I have it.
RADEA
(to He’ad’ra)
What’s missing in this
storyline?
HE’AD’RA
How he got it.
RADEA
(to Baka)
Yeah. How?
BAKA
It is not as if I can control minds.
HE’AD’RA
(with insight)
You failed the telepathy
test.
RADEA
(perplexed)
Nobody fails the telepathy
test.
FLASHBACK
INT.
SMALL ROOM--MORNING
OFFICIAL
I
am going to visualize different primary colors.
Simply tell me which ones.
Baka closes his eyes but
doesn’t see anything.
OFFICIAL
Well?
BAKA
I am not getting any
impressions.
OFFICIAL
Try again.
Baka still doesn’t see
anything and then he finds himself inside of a temple. With great detail including floor plans, Baka
sees through the walls into a secret vault and focuses in on the Mentarch in a
similar pyramid to the one where Ray Brown found the crystal ball. Baka touches the wall and sniffs the incense
in the air. There are priests chanting
around the crystal ball that begins to glow and radiates intense light.
BAKA
I am seeing a magical
ceremony.
OFFICIAL
This is a test of perception. I don’t need junk from an overactive
imagination.
END OF FLASHBACK
INT.
AN ABANDONED
BAKA
(to He’ad’ra)
What exactly does it
do?
HE’AD’RA
It grants wishes.
RADEA
Such as?
HE’AD’RA
It gratifies the deepest
desires and reveals the highest path to perfection.
RADEA
And no doubt its use extends
to preventing revolts, civil wars, and social unrest, that sort of thing.
BAKA
A wish-fulfilling gem with
political applications.
RADEA
They will kill us just for
touching it.
BAKA
(gesturing to take the crystal
from Radea)
I’m returning it.
HE’AD’RA
(snatching the crystal
before Baka can take it)
Wait.
BAKA
We don’t have time.
He’ad’ra
gazes into the crystal. There is a very
brief flash between the crystal and He’ad’ra’s eyes—there is an image of a girl
lying in bed.
RADEA
(taking back the crystal and
with command)
Whatever I desire shall fall
into my grasp.
BAKA
(taking
the crystal from Radea)
Will this work if I can’t see the fourth pyramid?
He’ad’ra
grasps the top of Baka’s head and turns it so Baka stares directly into the
crystal.
HE’AD’RA
(with a
relaxed yet mesmerizing voice)
Make your mind empty, yourself
nothing. Embrace the great void.
BAKA
(excited)
I see it.
(beat)
I only wish to thrive and to
survive.
(rhetorical)
Is that too much to ask?
Baka
races toward the door.
RADEA
(to
He’ad’ra)
What
did you ask for?
Baka
stops and turns to listen.
HE’AD’RA
A love
that will never end.
RADEA
That is what
a woman would wish.
BAKA
Our friend is beyond help.
RADEA
Hopeless.
BAKA
(as he exits)
Good luck He’ad’ra.
HE’AD’RA
Same to you.
Various
animals carouse outside the temple: a heron drying its wings, a crocodile,
vultures on tree limbs, a wood stork, a group of about forty hawks circling
overhead, and three white egrets with their long bent necks stalking fish.
Baka
pauses sniffing the air. He then notices
bubbles in the water next to the small bridge leading to the temple. He pauses, dipping his fingers into the water
and tastes the drops.
EXT. STREET ALLEY—LATE MORNING
Walking
down a busy street, Baka pauses, sniffing the air. Looking around, he notices a man whose walk
is more stately. He follows the
disguised aristocrat who is wearing ordinary clothes. The aristocrat enters a tavern.
Baka
stakes out the tavern from an alley across the street. Just then a large, golden, seemingly armor
plated cockroach lands on his wrist. Snapping the bug off, he sees a dab of blood
on his arm. Hearing a whirring sound, he
turns and sees further down the alley a cloud of the bugs flying toward
him. Baka backs into a deep set doorway
where a thin noose drops down around his neck.
EXT.
STREETS OF ATLANEAN CAPTIAL—EARLY EVENING
He’ad’ra walks over a canal
bridge and past a military check point.
Soldiers march by double time.
He’ad’ra climbs an outdoor staircase to a small cottage built on the roof of a larger residential building. He sits in the window watching the moon and then falls onto his bed and sleeps.
MONTAGE: INT. BEDROOM—LATE NIGHT
He’ad’ra sits up in bed amid
a lucid dream. Blurry lights around him transform into myriads of stars,
nebula, and galaxies. He gets out of bed
and stands up as the walls disappear.
M100, at first appearing as a small spiral galaxy, expands into a
gigantic galaxy of white, blue, and red stars that rotates beneath him and then
drifts through his legs.
EXT. AMONG GALAXIES—NIGHT
He’ad’ra’s room seen
faintly illuminated amid the stars.
GOD (OS)
Of all those who dwell on the earth, it is only within your heart I am
free to appear.
Ask of me, therefore, whatsoever you will
in the heavens above, upon the earth, or beneath the earth and I will grant it
to you.
HE’AD’RA
May my will be in
harmony with Your own--that all my actions in service to others may arise from
the One Light and serve the purposes of Divine Providence.
GOD
(OS)
Because you ask for
neither wealth, fame, nor anything for yourself at all but only to benefit
others, your power shall be without limitation--your voice shall be like My
own. There shall be none like you,
neither before you nor after you in the history of the world.
INT. BEDROOM—LATE NIGHT
He’ad’ra awakens from the
dream still lying in his bed. He reaches
out to touch the faint image of a galaxy beside him, actually a reflection from
the moon shining on the side of a table as he falls out of bed onto the floor.
INT. LIBRARY ARCHIVES—EARLY EVENING
Two
men enter a small room.
A
few moments later, Radea enters the same room.
He takes out a piece of glass and switches the light off by waving his
hand over a switch on the wall. Holding
the glass to his eyes, he sees footprints illuminated in the faint dust on the
floor. Radea follows the footprints to a
bookcase. He takes a book out and
reaches back with his hand. Finding a
small indentation in the wall, he presses and a hidden door opens.
Radea
enters a lit corridor and follows it through a very old, ancient archive. He turns down another corridor and finds a
circular opening in the floor containing a ladder. Climbing down, he follows a dark tunnel with
his hand on the wall. For a few seconds,
the floor illuminates flickering on and off and then goes out. A distant, eerie howl echoes down the tunnel
from behind him.
Radea
enters another library even more ancient.
Ahead he sees the two men entering a door.
Radea
also enters, quickly moving off to one side.
He gets down on his hands and knees squeezing into a crawl space until
he comes to an opening and peers into the center of an underground
coliseum.
A
sphere of fiery, blue light pulsates at the center of the coliseum. A robed priest chants in a baritone voice in
front of the blue light —Hesh, Ma, Ah. Hundreds
of men standing in the bleachers join in after each refrain.
As
the song continues, two men guide a cloaked woman up a short ramp. She disrobes and then enters the light. There is a delay and then she screams. Some unseen force lifts her off the floor as
she slowly rotates, helpless. Her
screams pass from terror onto an orgasmic and intense moaning.
FLASHBACK
Radea hears a similar
chant; a young child screaming replaces the spectacle in front of him. Radea recalls being held over a smaller
version of the same flame surrounded by several chanting men wearing similar
robes. A robed man, “Taste the fires of
hell.”
END FLASHBACK
INT. LARGE DUNGEON ROOM—NIGHT
Blindfolded, Baka is thrown
down on a stone floor by two thugs, one muscular and one scrawny. The muscular thug pulls up Baka’s left shirt
sleeve rubbing the skin but nothing is there.
The scrawny thug takes off Baka’s blindfold.
MUSCLAR THUG
(to scrawny thug)
Throw him down again?
SCRAWNY THUG
(whispering)
Quiet.
Baka
lifts his head off the stone floor.
Inches away another face stares at him.
It is a tall, thin man with piercing eyes and exquisite cloths. Standing up, the man graciously helps Baka up
and gestures with his thumb for the muscular thug to leave.
HEAD OF THIEVE’S GUILD
(mock sympathy)
Baka, Baka, what am I do
to with you?
(thoughtfully)
Put you to death slowly
over days in some hideous place or
impale you on a stake for
the whole world to see what happens
to those who violate our
laws?
Baka
opens his mouth to speak.
HEAD OF THIEVE’S GUILD
Silence. You were
observed not once but twice within the
forbidden zone.
(reasoning
aloud)
You have special
abilities. And I love audacity. Perhaps if
you had joined our Order
this unpleasantness would not have
befallen you.
A
grunt from behind a pillar and a military general in full regalia steps forward.
HEAD OF THIEVE’S GUILD
(deferring to general)
Ah yes.
(to Baka)
For a little
while judgment ….postponed.
(to scrawny thug)
You were the only one to
observe Baka?
SCRAWNY THUG
That’s right.
HEAD OF THIEVE’S GUILD
No doubt you expect a
reward.
SCRAWNY THUG
(hopeful)
I was just fulfilling my
oath to the guild.
HEAD OF
THIEVE’S GUILD
Still, it must never be
said that I am not generous.
He
hands the thug large gold coins falling into the thug’s palm click, click,
click, and then quickly, deftly, twists the thug’s wrist hurling him into a
dark, bottomless pit.
HEAD OF THIEVE’S GUILD
(casually)
I will leave you.
Head
of Guild exits.
GENERAL
(wonderous)
You actually held the
crystal? Its real?
BAKA
(tentative)
Yes.
GENERAL
(matter of fact)
Now listen carefully: I have purchased your
life. As repayment, you will bring me
the plans for an antigravity device, a flying machine.
(beat)
The prototype was never destroyed.
BAKA
(realization)
The Sealed City.
GENERAL
If that is what it takes.
(beat)
If you succeed, I will then need someone to build me
a fleet in secret. Wealth beyond your
wildest dreams. But if you fail ….
The
general turns and looks at the pit.
He’ad’ra approaches a central desk. A sitting female official laughs seductively as she says goodbye to a professor. He’ad’ra stops in front of her. She ignores him but finally looks up annoyed.
HE’AD’RA
I am here about admission.
OFFICIAL
(casually, returning to her work)
You are in the wrong
building.
(looking
up, smiling condescendingly, certain)
The
(sarcastic)
They have an open
admission’s policy. We do not.
HE’AD’RA
This
is the right building. I am applying to the Academy of
Magic.
OFFICIAL
You
are confused. You can’t come in
here.
HE’AD’RA
These are my papers.
OFFICIAL
(tolerant yet edgy)
I don’t need to look at your papers. You don’t belong here. Now leave before we have an incident.
The
head of security walks up and takes He’ad’ra’s papers.
CAPTAIN OF
THE GUARD
These papers grant him
probationary status.
OFFICIAL
That is simply impossible. Who signed them?
CAPTAIN OF THE GUARD
Alturo. With Alturo anything is possible.
OFFICIAL
(standing)
Alturo
is retired. I will not permit him to
enter.
CAPTAIN
OF THE GUARD
Matters pertaining to security are my domain.
OFFICIAL
(gives him an evil look)
(beat)
CAPTAIN OF THE GUARD
(gesturing with hand at his waist)
You and I am way down here in the hierarchy.
(gesturing above his head)
His papers are signed by an authority way up here.
The security head takes He’ad’ra off to the side.
CAPTAIN OF THE GUARD
You know she is right. You don’t have the colors.
(beat)
Still, your papers are in Order.
(moving back to official)
He is within his rights.
OFFICIAL
I will die before one of his kind gains entrance to the Mysteries.
The Security Head gives her a baleful look.
CAPTAIN OF THE GUARD
(back to He’ad’ra, conspiratorially)
Look, I don’t know what’s going on but you are entitled to an examination. The committee can meet you somewhere else.
(beat)
Dawn tomorrow, roof of the tech building, across the canal.
HE’AD’RA
I owe you.
He’ad’ra retreats.
INT. ABANDONED LIBRARY—A HALF HOUR LATER
Radea leaves the coliseum and
reenters the abandoned library but a man is sitting at a table in the center of
the room.
BLACK
LODGE LEADER
(picking
up a manuscript from a cylinder heavy with dust)
Look
at these manuscripts. This one
chronicles the weather from twenty thousand years ago. Winds blew a hundred miles an hour for ten
years.
(looking up)
Hello Radea.
RADEA
(beat)
Hello.
BLACK
LODGE LEADER
But our past is not the
problem, is it?
RADEA
Am I safe?
BLACK
LODGE LEADER
(tilting head)
I won’t go
that way. You’ll die for sure.
RADEA
What do you want?
BLACK
LODGE HEAD
I am your benefactor.
RADEA
What?
BLACK
LODDGE LEADER
Your father and I were life long friends.
(beat)
RADEA
Were?
BLACK
LODGE LEADER
Did
you think that your father’s only peculiarity was selling forbidden
manuscripts? No, he was a genius
seething with rage at the High Council for repressing thousands of years of
scientific advancement.
RADEA
I am lucky he didn’t roast me on a spit and eat me.
BLACK
LODGE LEADER
(quiet
agreement)
Yes.
(offering a ring that shines with silvery blue light)
On behalf
of your father.
RADEA
He made this?
BLACK LODGE LEADER
A
unique contribution.
RADEA
What
is this blue flame?
BLACK LODGE LEADER
It
is terror and horror. It is love and
wonder--the opposites of life joined.
RADEA
And the woman?
BLACK
LODGE LEADER
A
little anguish. Some unbearable pain.
Side effects. Women are perfect
vessels for amplifying passion, love, desire—their prolonged orgasm is a gift
of power.
RADEA
What am I missing?
BLACK LODGE LEADER
Consumed
by the hunger within the sacred fire, the woman offers her body and soul. We absorb her essence into ourselves.
(beat)
We
feel what she feels. Joining is the
source of our power.
RADEA
And the ring?
BLACK
LODGE LEADER
Your
father has taken the flame from out of the coliseum. Your contribution is to take it further, to all
of Atlantis and then we shall have power …forever.
RADEA
And
no more High Council.
BLACK LODGE
LEADER
(beat)
Experiment. A trial run.
Take it out and see what it can do.
(standing
up)
We will all know soon enough if you are worthy
of the
mysteries.
RADEA
Wait.
BLACK LODGE LEADER
I will send someone
to watch over you.
(gesturing to his right)
Follow the tunnel behind that
door.
Radea
walks through the door and continues down a hall through smoke and steam
venting into the tunnel. He raises his hand
to protect his face from the steam and then turns into a side tunnel.
Pausing
to lean against the wall, the wall gives way and he falls into the tunnel
below. As he hits the floor, this floor
also gives way and he falls further into an underground stream running through
another tunnel complex. The stream
carries him into a circular room with a whirlpool at the center. As he is sucked down, he manages to catch a
handhold on a ladder set into the wall.
Climbing it, he breaks through the surface gasping for air and continues
climbing.
Climbing,
he finds a small trap door above his head and presses it open. He peers into a huge room with walls made of
black, pointed cones. A few feet away is
a red, cylindrical quartz crystal fifteen feet high and eight feet wide that
blocks his view of the rest of the room.
Radea turns his head toward a crackling sound from behind him. A ball lightning, a foot wide, casually
drifts toward him along the floor. He
drops his head down and slams the trap door as the lightning ball explodes on
the other side.
He
climbs down and enters a small opening to the side of the ladder.
Some
time later, Radea trips and falls into a room amid a pile of bones. Getting up,
he is covered with white dust.
INT.
MEN’S CLUB—JUST BEFORE DAWN
He’ad’ra enters a large room with subdued lighting and wood paneling. Luxurious chairs, couches, and small tables with lamps are scattered across the main floor. Balconies on several floors circle the walls. There are sounds of whispering, footsteps, doors quietly opening and closing.
He’ad’ra climbs a stairway and emerges on a flat, white
marble roof. He walks toward a semi
circular table set amid huge white columns open to the sky. The
Five
officials sit behind the table. He’ad’ra
walks toward them.
EXT.
ROOFTOP—JUST BEFORE DAWN
The
first official glances up as He’ad’ra approaches.
FIRST OFFICIAL
(speaking to second official,
whispering, skeptical)
Trained in the womb.
SECOND OFFICIAL
(normal voice)
Isn’t that forbidden?
FIRST OFFICIAL
Only if you tell someone.
SECOND OFFICIAL
Could there be something more?
THIRD OFFICIAL
Don’t even think it.
He’ad’ra
stands in front of them.
MODERATOR
(to He’ad’ra)
Your test results are exceptional. Your concentration exemplary.
FOURTH OFFICIAL
Is it true that you speak with animals and understand the language blades of grass whisper in the morning?
MODERATOR
(exasperated)
Another time Alto.
The sun is just about to break over the horizon.
MODERATOR
(to He’ad’ra)
You must understand, admission to the Academy requires
a recommendation from a member of the High Council or a provincial
governor. The potential for abuse ….
FIFTH OFFICIAL
(cutting in, with finality)
He has no bloodline.
As the sun edges over the horizon, its light hits
the semicircular row of pillars that now act as mirrors refocusing the light
onto a flat stone that redirects it to a large diamond crystal at the top of a
pole. The crystal blazes with light over
the city.
Heburis’
image takes form as he walks out of the blaze of light and moves toward the
group.
HEBURIS
No established
bloodline.
(to moderator)
With your permission.
MODERATOR
(tried patience)
Of course.
HEBURIS
(to the panel)
We study the mysteries—from inner vision the outer world transformed. But the best and brightest are pursuing science and commerce while we sit around enamored with our traditions. We need fresh blood, new ideas.
FIRST
OFFICIAL
You can’t change the age in
which we live.
HEBURIS
(ignoring
them, to He’ad’ra)
There is an emptiness about you, a depth ….
uncharted, unmapped…like the sky at night, so easy to miss.
Walking
around him and speaking to He’ad’ra from the side.
HEBURIS
Answer this question.
(walking in front of
He’ad’ra and facing council)
What do you find when you gaze into that darkness
within your soul, that void of
emptiness and silence?
HE’AD’RA
Within my heart light and
darkness join.
FOURTH
OFFICIAL
(whispering to fifth official)
So what?
FIFTH OFFICIAL
He’s quoting an ancient
prophet.
HEBURIS
For what purpose?
HE’AD’RA
To find new wonders.
MODERATOR
(to
He’ad’ra—deadpan sarcasm)
Life is full of surprises.
(to Heburus)
Get on with it.
THIRD
OFFICIAL
He will destroy Atlantis. I see it in his aura.
FIRST
OFFICIAL
(sarcastic,
funny, laughing)
I see it in his aura. I see it in his aura.
HEBURIS
(to He’ad’ra, overly casual, but serious)
Tell me, what is the final end you seek?
FLASHBACK
EXT.
VOLCANIC TIDE POOLS-- LATE AFTERNOON
He’ad’ra
climbs down over rocks and out to the edge of the ocean as ten foot waves break
on three sides with the spray raining upon him.
An undine (mermaid in human form named Istiphul—the most beautiful creature
on earth) moves through the waves towards him.
As they speak, the spray continues to wash over them.
ISTIPHUL
You
want to ask who I am but you restrain yourself.
How adorable.
Have you felt the electricity of the lightning
storm running through your nerves? Or
heard the consonants and vowels
Of waters crying aloud making
love on every beach of the world in the rapids, the streams, the river’s falls.
Do you
know the releasing arising from the ocean floor
Or the
sinking, the letting go into the undertow?
With
whom can I share these things?
The dark
depths of the ocean trench,
The
slippery touch of the jellyfish and the nautilus,
The
caress of arctic cold,
Or the warmth of curling up on a
tropical beach
Of a
woman walking out of the sea naked and free
Drops
of water anointing her skin.
I am as old as
the sea yet wild and free as the spray of these waves that have searched for
your face.
She draws close face to face.
He’ad’ra
Why?
ISTIPHUL
Why am I here?
I am known for
prophecy, but your visions greatly disturb me.
They speak of a joining in which the boundaries of nature and the divine
are set aside.
Istiphul then takes his hands into hers and fixes her eyes upon
his.
ISTIPHUL
That I might know of the higher
and greater Love that informs the universe, reveal to me the dream that holds
you in its power.
Speak plainly now. Hold nothing back. Answer my question. What is the final end you seek?
HE’AD’RA
One day a woman will say to me,
‘I see as you the inner light shining in all things. I hear as you the songs the stars sing.
A brief image of a woman sleeping.
I feel as you the joy that is
infinite. And with this same passion and
desire, my love for you will never end.’
ISTIPHUL
(hands caressing his face, fingers through
his hair)
If you were not destined for
another, I would become your lover. In
another life time, I will offer you again the love and the treasures of the
sea.
Istiphul kisses him on the lips and then walks off into the
ocean disappearing as a great wave collides with the shore and then, bouncing
back, carries her off with it into the depths.
END FLASHBACK
EXT. ROOFTOP—MOMENT LATER
HEBURUS
(mesmeric,
waiting)
Your answer?
HE’AD’RA
The final end I seek is a love that is so one with
another all separation is annihilated.
FIFTH OFFICIAL
Cut the crap He’ad’ra. What’s your purpose? Why are you here?
HE’AD’RA
(with finality)
There is no
other purpose for entering life than to be of service to others.
FOURTH OFFICIAL
I
can’t take this anymore.
FIFTH OFFICIAL
Don’t soil your pants.
FIRST OFFICIAL
(pressing)
What is your mode of service?
HE’AD’RA
To find the greatest need and to respond to it.
FIFTH OFFICIAL
(irritated)
The bottom line--there are those who are a part of
light, love,
and joy. And
there are those who are a part of darkness,
domination, and endless pain. You are from the dark side.
HEBURUS
A dark age is knowledge
without vision and none of us
wish to return to that.
(to
He’ad’ra)
Will you destroy Atlantis?
HE’AD’RA
Twenty-five
thousand years of tradition cannot protect us from the unknown or prevent the
unexpected. We must rely on our own
hearts to make our best choices.
SECOND
OFFICIAL
This
is no answer.
Sounds of music and yelling
are heard in the distance.
MODERATOR
Enough.
Heebrus, do you sponsor him or not?
HEBURUS
Out of respect for Alturo, he shall wear my colors.
Grim looks and scorn combined with respect for audacity from the sitting officials.
INT. UNDERGROUND
DOORWAY—EARLY MORNING
Radea comes to a door with
a large mental ring, very rusted, that he turns.
The door opens to bright,
blinding light that silhouettes a huge bird. Its wings are spread and its head
and beak turn toward him. As his eyes
become accustomed to the sunlight, a beautiful woman takes off her mask and
steps toward him wearing something like a string bikini.
EXT. ALLEY BY STREET FESTIVAL—MOMENT LATER
SA
Hi sweetie.
RADEA
(off balance)
What?
What?
SA
I am your guardian angel. I offer you opportunities beyond anything you
can imagine.
RADEA
(eyeing her figure)
Torment
me with your beauty. Baptize me with
your love. Make me new.
She smiles wickedly.
Men
with pikes and swords passing by halt eyeballing Radea.
(under her
breath but sweet)
If you wish to remain alive, fetch me a skull.
Radea
reaches back through the door and picks up a skull.
SA
(imperial)
Take off your clothes.
Radea
strips and she drenches him with a jar of water rinsing off the soot. She then hands him a loincloth and a red
cape. As he dresses, she snaps a collar
around his neck that is attached to her waist with a golden chain and then pats
his butt.
She
strings a decorated bag over her shoulder as they step out and enter a parade
like carnival. He dances in front
holding the skull with both hands while she throws rose petals before him.
They
join other pairs of dancers and proceed with Radea leading a string of dancers
all joined with golden chains. Some of
the dancers play drums, flutes, tambourines, and bells. Around them are dancers with head masks of
lions, bears, eagles, egrets, and mythological beasts such as harpies, satyrs,
manticores, etc.
EXT. ALLEY—EARLY MORNING
Baka emerges through a hidden door into the same alley where he was caught as Radea goes by leading the parade with Sa in front of him.
BAKA
(seeing Radea)
Oh shit!
On top of another building overlooking the street, He’ad’ra finishes his admission examination.
EXT.
–FESTIVAL PROCESSION—A SHORT TIME LATER
The dancers turn the corner into the central
plaza.
RADEA
( to Sa)
Is this necessary?
SA
(cheerful,
exuberant)
Its
Festival!
Women line the outside circle
of the plaza carrying switches, whips, and nets. Spectators, mostly men, line
the rooftops. As the men in the center
of the plaza are released, we see a figure cloaked in black extending a
skeleton hand from the robe signaling for the women to attack.
The men run through the plaza
down a street with the woman chasing them.
One man falls and the women swarm over him. A woman on top of the fallen man moves her
hips wildly. Another woman in the group
stands up looking for other men as she licks blood off her lips. Across the street a man desperately tries to
climb up onto a balcony. The spectators
on the rooftops yell and applaud his attempt to escape. But at the last moment a hand grabs his ankle
and he falls screaming. The man’s clothes are thrown into the air above the
mob.
Radea turns down a side
street but as he turns the corner the entire street is filled with women
waiting for him with gleeful, crazed expressions.
RADEA
(pausing)
I hate holidays.
INT. LE’AH’E’S BEDROOM—JUST AFTER DAWN
Le’ah’e lies on an ornate, circular bed hung with fine curtains next to a window and balcony. A white egret sticks its head through the curtain and then returns to the balcony.
Le’ah’e dreams. She sees a hawk released from an arm. The hawk attacks a flying swan and drags it down into the garden.
Le’ah’e awakens. Wearing her elegant but sparse night clothes she races out of her room, down the outside staircase, and into the huge gardens.
EXT. GARDENS—MOMENTS LATER
Le’ah’e sees a hawk with claws outstretched flashing down and grasping a snake on the ground. The hawk takes to the air clutching the snake but the snake manages to wrap its body around one of the hawk’s wings and the two animals flop down to the ground. The snake coils its body around both wings and the neck of the hawk now lying on its back.
Le’ah’e sees a man in work clothes bending over a plant turn around at the sound of the two animals hitting the ground. The snake rises up a foot above the hawk and, without losing its grip on the hawk, hisses furiously at the gardener. The man, He’ad’ra, walks up and kneels close enough that the snake, with the fury of hell, strikes at him repeatedly but he is just out of its reach.
Looking around, He’ad’ra reaches for a branch and pins the snake’s head to the ground and then grasps the snake behind its head. The snake will not uncoil form the hawk.
HE’AD’RA
(deep, mesmeric voice)
Eeeee, llllll, mmmmmm
The snake slowly, reluctantly uncoils from the hawk and crawls off through the grass. He’ad’ra’ places the branch between the two claws of the hawk, still upside down, and, though still stunned, the Hawk’s claws close on it. He’ad’ra lifts the branch and with it the hawk off the ground. The hawk slowly lifts up its head and looks into He’ad’ra’s eyes and then leaps into the air. With two beats of its wings, the hawk flies up and perches on a tree limb fifty feet up.
Le’ah’e walks over to confront He’ad’ra.
LE’AH’E
(demanding)
HE’AD’RA
I can not permitted to talk
to you.
LE’AH’E
(demanding)
You are?
HE’AD’RA
(uptight)
The new gardener.
Le’ah’e puts her hand out to touch his aura.
LE’AH’E
You are no gardener.
She
steps closer and looks into his eyes.
LE’AH’E
(calmly
probing)
With
the snake…..?
(sudden
insight)
You speak the language of
the creator.
HE’AD’RA
I am not….
LE’AH’E
Shut up and answer my
question—
Do you speak the language of
the creator?
HE’AD’RA
Yes.
LE’AH’E
Show me.
(beat)
And then I’ll go.
(beat)
And I won’t speak with you
again.
(beat)
Not a word.
(beat)
Not as long a breath is within my chest and blood
flows through my veins. I swear it by
the Most High.
HE’AD’RA
(with quiet charisma)
The
divine majesty is known for its creativity.
What
dream would you make real?
LE’AH’E
What
do you see when you look into my heart?
HE’AD’RA
(gazing
into her eyes)
What lies within
you is beyond the knowledge of our world.
What you ask is too dangerous.
LE’AH’E
Tell
me what you see.
HE’AD’RA
The consort of
God, the Goddess of the Earth—her spirit dwlls within you.
LE’AH’E
Will
she appear if you call her?
HE’AD’RA
Yes.
LE’AH’E
Call her here, now.
HE’AD’RA
(yielding to
her request)
We have to touch.
LE’AH’E
Why?
HE’AD’RA
In the divine art, there is
no separation.
She
puts her arm around his waist.
LE’AH’E
Will this do?
HE’AD’RA
Slight
nod.
(invocation with montage of
images)
Goddess.
Earth, air, fire and water are your children.
You are the storm and its lightning
The sea that drinks in the rain with salty
lips
You are the fire beneath the earth,
The
deserts, the forests, the mountains, the plains
By
your command
Volcanoes
explode,
Dust
blinds the sky
Ice
ages rise and fade
And
by your song
Nine
planets dance and sing
Nothing happens. Le’ah’e gives He’ad’ra a look. He’ad’ra looks back at her. She sees a radiant light reflected in his
eyes and across his face. The goddess of
the earth appears. Le’ah’e bows down.
GODDESS OF THE EARTH
(walking
toward them)
Four billion
years I have watched over and tended this planet. I created life. No
religion comprehends Who I Am, though it is I who grant permission before each
appears.
(walking up to Le’ah’e)
Your
innermost desires are the same as my dreams:
To
have children who can see through the eyes of the stars,
who unite all
opposites, the constellations themselves, into one song of love.
(beat)
Will
you shine with my light?
Be
anointed with my beauty?
Speak
with my voice?
LE’AH’E
Yes.
GODDESS OF THE EARTH
Two things I
require:
Establish
justice upon the earth
(beat)
And do as my Beloved and I do—
(passionate)
make
the world new.
LE’AH’E
How
do I do this?
GODDESS OF THE EARTH
Create
a religion without rituals, priests, or temples in which love, wisdom, power,
and justice are equally honored and pursued.
The goddess
fades away. Le’ah’e remains staring at
where the goddess stood. He’ad’ra moves
slightly so that Le’ah’e’s arms no longer touches him. But Le’ah’e grasps his hand and turns toward
him. Tears rain down her cheeks.
INT. LIBRARY—EARLY AFTERNOON
Le’ah’e enters a huge room opening to a balcony. A blue heron stands on the balcony. Le’ah’e approaches her father who is sitting with four men before an archway. The men continue talking solemnly for a moment and then rise and silently leave. Le’ah’e approaches and bows slightly before her father.
JARMON
You can’t talk to commoners.
LE’AH’E
There was a disturbance in the garden. I went to investigate. I insisted he answer my questions.
JARMON
Next time let the guards answer your questions.
LE’AH’E
You hired him.
JARMON
I didn’t know he studied under Alturo.
LE’AH’E
Alturo?
JARMON
Alturo resigned from the High Council twenty years ago and retreated into seclusion. They say he lost his faith in the future. In the old days, rogue magicians like Alturo and He’ad’ra were eliminated. You must beware He’ad’a’s voice and never read anything written by his hand.
LE’AH’E
I have taken an oath never to speak with him.
JARMON
Fair enough.
At the same time as Le’ah’e and Jarmon speak, He’ad’ra is tossed out onto the street by family guards.
JARMON
When a father loves his daughter, she grows in dignity and fortune. If you know love here within your family, it will walk beside you the rest of your life.
Consider your options. Two great houses joining. Your children will shape history.
LE’AH’E
And you will have the power to choose the next high priest.
JARMON
Power is a good thing when guided by wisdom and used in the pursuit of a noble purpose.
(beat)
Some think that because I am a lineage holder that I am important but I am not. I have always served purposes greater than myself.
Le’ah’e kisses his hand and then leaves.
Jarmon’s wife enters.
JAMON
Why is it that children inherit not our strengths but our weaknesses, not our virtues but our vices?
WIFE
She is young. She thinks passion is inspiration and reason is her enemy. We were once like that. Have you forgotten?
INT. HE’AD’RA’S BEDROOM--MORNING
Lahe,
in disguise, cautiously enters He’ad’ra’s former apartment. She finds a piece of paper crumpled on the
floor. As she reads aloud, the room
briefly fades away and returns when she stops.
She reads on and her voice changes into He’ad’ra’s voice as she is
transported into the imagery of the poem.
MONTAGE: moonlit lovers in garden beside a lake. At the same time, He’ad’ra, walking down a
corridor at the Academy, has flashes in his mind of Le’ah’e holding him in her
arms like a shadowy image of her body against his.
OS (He’ad’ra’s voice)
When you are in my arms
My wounds are healed, my
dreams fulfilled.
The moon sets sale to solar
winds
My hands glide upon your
skin
I no longer know who I am
Except a path of love that
knows no end.
Deer graze in the meadow
The leaves of birch trees
shiver…
The sound of guards entering the
room break Le’ah’e out of her trance.
INT.
Radea, He’ad’ra, Daria, Kora,
two more students, and a professor stand before an ancient gallery of paintings
of nature spirits.
PROFESSOR
Dangers? What dangers?
FIRST STUDENT
You
could lose your soul.
PROFESSOR
How?
KORA
Just
accept a gift.
PROFESSOR
Like
what?
SECOND
STUDENT
The
philosopher’s stone, magical relics.
FIRST STUDENT
Gold,
gems.
PROFESSOR
And
so?
FIRST STUDENT
If
you do not return something of equal value they own you.
DARIA
That
is a problem.
They begin walking down an
isle looking at the pictures. He’ad’ra
gets flashes of Le’ah’e’s face.
KORA
(to professor)
What
does the High Council think about us?
FIRST
STUDENT
There
is no High Council.
PROFESSOR
Oh
they exist.
FIRST
STUDENT
If
so, they are tyrants.
PROFESSOR
Tyrants?
DARIA
Spiritual
dictators. By making choices for us,
they deprive us of our freedom.
PROFESSOR
What
has the High Council ever denied you?
SECOND STUDENT
Weather
control.
PROFESSOR
A
little rain never hurt anyone.
DARIA
No
guns, explosives, no nuclear power.
PROFESSOR
Swords
have more dignity and nobility.
The group passes by a picture
of a sylph.
PROFESSOR
Daria, summon Cargoste.
DARIA
I
don’t do sylphs. They are too aloof and
detached for my liking.
The group continues walking
on.
FIRST STUDENT
No mechanical modes of transportation.
PROFESSOR
Think
about it: no factories, no pollution, no ghettoes, and our cities retain their
beauty and community.
KORA
Not even horses?
PROFESSOR
No horses.
The group walks by a picture
of the gnome named Muscar. Appearing
like a friendly, even humorous middle aged Nordic king, he is robust, sturdy
with muscles that look like they are made of steel though they are not at all
bulky.
SECOND STUDENT
Why?
PROFESSOR
To appreciate life you have to slow down. Not speed up.
The group pauses before
another picture of a salamander, a creature of fire resembling a tall
person.
PROFESSOR
What is this Kora?
KORA
Pyrhum--the greatest salamander on earth.
(beat)
He is my opposite.
The professor gestures at the
painting. The students gather in a semi
circle around Kora. Kora calls “Pyrhum”
with a flourish and soft, penetrating voice but nothing happens.
HE’AD’RA
(quietly to Kora)
Try a sigil.
Kora draws a burning sigil in
the air with her fingertip. In a burst
of flame, the salamander emerges from the painting standing in front of them
and ranting at the human race for disturbing his peace.
PYRHUM
Why
is it only a few of you can speak with me.
Mages are like jesters and clowns.
You think with your wand or your little sigil you can force me to do
your bidding. I can command a strand of
magma to ascend from the core of the earth through the earth’s crust and build
a mountain above the clouds. This is my
power. But you can not even control your
heartbeats or the waste that clogs your arteries.
While no one is looking, the
first student spits into the triangle of Pyrhum and the spit vaporizes.
PROFESSOR
Questions
anyone?
Le’ah’e speaks inside
He’a’d’ra’s mind—“Come on. Its class
participation.”
HE’AD’RA
(to
Pyrhum)
Share with us your secrets, your innermost dreams.
Pyrhum moves a few steps toward
He’ad’ra. There is a brief contest of
wills. Then as Pyrhum speaks the group
appears suspended on a small outcrop amid a huge chamber beneath the earth
filled volcanic eruptions and magma explosions.
PYRHUM
I
have dwelt for countless eons in solitude perfecting my mastery of fire. And in response to my innermost desire a
great being of light appeared before me.
He revealed that I am free to recreate myself. And then for a time we walked not upon the
earth but within the nuclear fires of the sun, radiant and majestic amid cosmic
power. There is my destiny—not to manage
low grade radiation and magma on this tiny planet but to create light that
shines to the ends of the universe.
The professor turns and
begins walking away. Pyrhum and the
cavern of fire fade away. The first
student tosses a pencil into the magic triangle and there is a small
explosion.
RADEA
(glancing at
Kora)
He talks like a woman I know.
DARIA
Flying machines.
PROFESSOR
What? They are
a first strike weapon.
DARIA
I
was thinking more of space exploration and interstellar travel. Combined with
suspended animation you go to sleep on earth and wake on another planet at the
dawn of a new civilization.
PROFESSOR
Though
the body reawakens and the mind remains active, the soul has been known to
depart leaving us with something less than human. Is that what you want?
SECOND STUDENT
What
about the survival of the human species.
One asteroid, one high level virus, an unexpected change in the earth’s
rotation, and the human race—zip.
PROFESSOR
We had a colony on Mars four thousand years ago.
DARIA
Is this a joke?
PROFESSOR
Radea.
RADEA
The records are in the archives.
Daria walks right up to Radea
eye ball to eye ball.
DARIA
You’re pulling this out of your ass.
RADEA
Think
about it. Four thousand years ago we
were obsessed with science. There would
have been space probes and colonies.
The group gathers around the
professor. As the professor speaks,
images of a building set back into a cliff in front of a cave, glacial ice
nearby, hydroponic gardens inside, etc.
PROFESSOR
It
was expensive even to send them one way.
They were already homesick before they arrived. They squabbled incessantly and we learned
nothing that we couldn’t have learned better by studying our own planet.
DARIA
We abandoned the colony?
PROFESSOR
No. A religious faction that helped sponsor the
expedition stole the recycling equipment.
Of those who tried to return to Earth, only a few made it back
alive.
FIRST STUDENT
How….?
PROFESSOR
The
cult had been crossbreeding for centuries to develop their telepathic and
hypnotic powers. They left clues that they were planning to settle on a moon
further out. But they had actually been
planning to leave the solar system from the beginning.
SECOND STUDENT
Why
leave?
PROFESSOR
The obvious--we would have tracked them down.
FIRST STUDENT
Four
thousand years ago. They could have
settled in five different solar systems by now.
KORA
Assuming they survived their interstellar voyage.
PROFESSOR
And
this is why we have a High Council—to prevent special interest groups from
destroying our civilization by exploiting either science or magic to their own
advantage.
FIRST STUDENT
This is rather hard to believe.
PROFESSOR
Yes,
but who would believe that we once depended on copper wires for communication
and energy transfer.
SECOND STUDENT
No way.
MONTAGE: He’ad’ra attending magic
classes, a new receptionist, and further telepathic contact between He’ad’ra and Le’ah’e. He’ad’ra is
sitting in his room and sees Le’ah’e looking at him and she sees He’ad’ra in
her mind looking at her amid her garden.
INT. LARGE UPSTAIRS HOTEL ROOM--LATE AFTERNOON
Ten robed
individuals with hoods hiding their faces sit in a cozy, plush room drinking
and casually eating fruits and nuts.
HIGH PRIEST/HEBURUS
We
must restore the balance.
EXT. ALLEY ACROSS
FROM TAVERN
Baka watches the
same aristocrat leave the tavern and enter a hotel next door. Imperial guards cross in front of the back
end of Baka’s alley.
Baka crosses the
street to the alley next to the hotel.
Another band of imperial guards cross in front of this alley.
Baka enters a side
door into the hotel where he watches guards halting outside the door just
behind him.
INT. HOTEL—A
MOMENT LATER
Baka follows the
staircase and sees the aristocrat entering a door. Baka hears the guards coming up the stairs
behind him.
Baka enters a
doorway next to the aristocrat’s door.
INT. LARGE HOTEL
ROOM—A MOMENT LATER
Heburis now
wearing ordinary clothes sits alone before the fireplace with his back to
Baka. The guard captain enters the room.
INT. LARGE HOTEL
ROOM—CONTINUOUS
HEBURIS
(turning to address the
captain)
Its ok. He’s an old friend of the family.
The guard leaves.
(beat)
HEBURIS
(gesturing
to a chair)
Please.
In a split second, as the
Heburus speaks, Baka enters another virtual reality vision. This time he sees
in quick flashes zooming in on details of the sealed city, its layout, the
various levels, its blocked entrances, and its location in relation to the
above world. The vision includes a room
with water running from a cracked wall and down through a fissure in the floor.
HEBURIS
(getting eye
contact)
We
wish to employ the services of an outsider. You are qualified. Simply put, we need one of the Dark Order’s
crystal balls. You will bring it to us.
( beat)
You may then call upon us for a
favor.
INT. BEDROOM—EVENING
Radea sitting in bed. He studies and then puts on the ring. Once asleep, the ring radiates an eerie green
light. Radea wakes and Sa is lying nude, her form beneath the covers beside him
in bed. He sits up suddenly looking at
her but notices something on the floor—a large snake’s tail curling up beneath
the covers at the end of the bed. He
slowly lifts the covers off the bed following the body of the serpent. Before he gets far, Sa sits up beside him.
SA
(extremely aroused and passionate)
Hi cutie. I am your destiny. Taste my bliss.
RADEA
I know this face but you I have never met.
Her head turns into a
serpent’s head and sinks its teeth into his neck as she says,
SA
Relax. It won’t hurt so much.
Screaming, Radea jerks back flinging the
covers away but she has vanished.
Laja’s arms circle him from
behind. Radea turns to face her.
LAJA
I am the love missing from your life.
Radea grabs her shoulders and
holds her away but Radea’s own arms turn into snakes that encircle and tighten around
his own neck.
Radea leaps out of bed. Ga, sitting on a desk across the room, twists
around and partially lifts her butt off the desk.
GA
My
ass is yours.
A large green serpent of
light rises out of Radea’s solar plexus bending him forward, lifting him off
the floor, and carrying him toward Ga who waits for him with open arms. But before he gets to her a gong sounds in
the courtyard and the girl and serpent vanish as Radea collapses on the floor
exhausted. Falling off his finger, the
ring rolls across the floor.
RADEA
(spread eagle on
the floor and now awake)
Wow.
EXT. SCHOOL—LATE AFTERNOON
Again, He’ad’ra’s
mind receives telepathic images from Lahe as he walks among marble columns at
the school.
MIDDLE AGED GENTLEMAN/ARCH DEMON
(OS)
(breaking He’ad’ra’s
telepathic rapport with Le’a’he)
There is no where you belong.
There is no community whose membership offers you
meaning.
The man steps out
in front of a column ahead but He’ad’ra ignores him.
MIDDLE AGED GENTLEMAN/ARCH DEMON
(falling into step
next to He’ad’ra)
There is no love you can receive even when it is freely given—
You can never experience genuine intimacy.
He’ad’ra continues walking.
The middle aged gentleman appears floating in the air moving backwards as He’ad’ra continues walking. The man is now wearing multiple black robes blown about by unseen winds.
MIDDLE AGED GENTLEMAN/ARCH DEMON
You think you are a human being but you are not.
I know who you are. It is impossible to miss. You can not
hide your identity from
me.
(whispering in his
ear)
You are the dark eye that
consumes the sky and drains the
stars of their light.
The man walks beside He’ad’ra
again returning to human form.
MIDDLE AGED MAN/ARCH DEMON
But
why have you come to this solar system and to the third planet from the
sun? What purpose is here and I can not
see it?
HE’AD’RA
(casual)
What
you say means nothing. I have the same
desires for happiness as anyone else.
INT. LE’AHE’S
BEDROOM—LATER EVENING
Lahe again dreams of a swan in her garden but now red and white feathers like snow drift through the air.
Le’ah’e wakes up and goes into the garden where she met He’ad’ra. All is quiet. She kneels down and touches the head of a pet bobcat.
An assassin slits the throat of a guard as other assassins come over the wall into the garden.
Bending down, Le’ah’e sees an assassin just before he sees her.
She takes off her rope belt that is weighted at the ends and uses it as a bolo tossing it at him as he charges her. The bobcat leaps at the assassin but is cut in two. The bobcat distracts him just long enough that the bolo wraps around his neck. Leaping at her, she defends with a dagger. He has a narrow, long blade and a net. They spar. She rolls at the edge of the cast net as she throws her dagger into his throat.
A second assassin is upon her. He has a staff with a weight at one end and a blade at the other.
SECOND ASSASSIN
Surrender. There is no other option.
She throws the first assassin’s net at him which he slices in half with his blade. Approaching with his staff twirling over his head, he leaps at her. She drops low to ground and knocks him off balance with a low circular kick. He hits her with the weighted end knocking her down. He lifts her off the ground his hand around her neck. She undoes a hair clasp and jabs it against his wrist. He smiles at her but she presses a lever on the hair clasp and a needle punctures his skin. He frowns and dies.
A third female assassin catches Le’ah’e’s neck from behind with a loop of rope on the end of a stick. Le’ah’e grabs the stick and shifts it using her hips to flip the assassin over. The assassin rolls and comes up throwing a steel ball at Le’ah’e attached to a wire. It breaks Le’ah’e’s arm.
Le’ah’e begins to fall but uses the stick to gain her balance. The assassin hurls the steel ball at Le’ah’e just as a snake strikes the assassin in the leg. Her aim off, the ball strikes Le’ah’e’s not on the other arm but on her head at the same moment Le’ah’e stabs the assassin through the heart with the knife end of the stick. Le’ah’e falls dead.
A horn sounds and the garden fills with guards.
INT. HE’AD’RA’S ROOM—A MOMENT LATER
Le’ah’e appears before He’ad’ra in a death “sending.” Serene and peaceful, she casually speaks to him.
LE’AH’E
If I had held you in my arms just once, I could die knowing my life was complete. But this was not to be.
EXT. PATH TO LE’AH’E’S HOUSE—MOMENT LATER
He’ad’ra races across the canal into the residential area. His robe trails behind him and at check points the guards stand up but act paralyzed.
He enters the mansion estates of Le’ah’e’s family. He’adr’a comes to where Le’ah’e is lying on the ground surrounded by her father, mother, and physicians. Guards are nearby carrying torches.
PHYSICIAN
She is dead.
He’ad’ra places his hands on her body and begins chanting several sounds.
HE’AD’RA
(a sound of incredibly eerie, otherworldly power)
jjjchhhhhwww.
The light darkens and the Angel of Death appears, a man who radiates a shiny black color that blurs the air around him and heightens the outlines of people and objects exchanging color for grey.
There is a inner struggle. At first, the angel is held against his will. There is a brief image of a great whirlpool of black light set amid the stars. The angel is compelled to walk toward He’ad’ra perplexed yet intensely curious. He approaches and then looks at each of those present finally dropping his gaze to the girl. Then he looks back at He’ad’ra and speaks aloud with morbid and angelic finality.
ANGEL OF DEATH
I will not disturb the two of you again until that day
when
Atlantis is destroyed and sinks beneath the waves forever.
The
angel walks away fading. Le’ah’e awakens
as if from a sleep. Opening her eyes,
she looks at He’ad’ra. Sitting up
slightly, she hugs him.
LE’AH’E
I love you more
than life.
WIFE
(to
Jamon)
There is your next high priest.
EXT. AN ABANDONED
The car careens over the edge
into a pit and crashes below. Baka enters a door on the side of the tunnel.
Baka walks along pausing to
smell the air. He looks through another
door into a large kitchen area where a variety of different sized sub humans
are working huge ovens. Crawling along
the floor behind a counter toward another door, he stops as a huge subhuman
guard races into the room. The guard
stops and carefully looks everywhere.
The worker sub humans stop their work.
Baka sneaks out of the
room. A few moments later, he pauses
before a hallway of doors. Passing
through one, he proceeds to the top of a stairs and stops in front of a door
with a large, star shaped lock in the center.
A number of guards enter
the hallway of doors sniffing the ground to track the thief.
Baka begins probing the
lock when a voice speaks from behind him.
INT. VAULT DOOR—AFTERNOON
SUB HUMAN CHILD
Are you the trickster who will set us free?
Turning he confronts a
child subhuman staring at him.
BAKA
Now
that is an idea. Keep lookout for me,
OK?
Baka continues working the
lock. A door opens in multiple layers
unfolding away from the center.
Baka enters a large pyramid
shaped room with a large, glass cube in the center. The door partially closes behind him. On top
of the glass cube is an Atlantean version of a chess board with squares,
circles, and intricate designs covering its surface. The game uses various mythological creatures
as pieces.
As Baka moves his hand over
different pieces, the entire room changes projecting holograms that nonetheless
bear a certain elemental power. With
each piece, Baka sees a brief flash of a person killed attempting to move that
piece.
There is a Fire dragon that
turns the room hot and steamy.
With the ice gorgon, the room
turns cold and Baka exhales mist.
White a saber tooth tiger,
ferns and jungle appear around Baka.
A priestess turns into a
devouring serpent as the floor becomes covered with slime.
A wizard appears as lightning
strikes around the room.
There are also hydras, sea
monsters, and a Cyclops.
As Baka is about to make his
choice, a gnome, a strong Nordic looking man with a beard appears beside Baka as
a shadowy image. The man places his hand
inside of Baka’s and together they make the correct choice, moving the fire
dragon. As Baka picks the dragon up, the
room turns into a blue sky.
Baka walks through clouds and
thunderstorms with lightning flashing and finds another door within the sky
that opens.
The room Baka enters is part
of a very ancient and long forgotten museum.
The museum contains the lost and forbidden technologies of Atlantis from
the beginning.
EXT. TIDE POOLS—NEAR EVENING
Le’ah’e’s head rises from out
of the pool. Her chin still submerged,
her butt and legs float up to the surface a few moments later.
LE’AH’E
Come in.
HE’AD’RA
(shaking his head)
I have visions when I get in this pool—it would
take me hours to recover.
LE’AHE
So?
He’ad’ra reluctantly puts his
legs in.
Le’ah’e floats on her back by
the side of the pool.
He’ad’ra kisses Le’ah’e’s
navel. He lifts his head and sees a
young woman sitting at the edge of the pool.
The girl swishes her feet back and forth in the water. She looks up at He’ad’ra longingly, gets up,
and then runs away. The vision fades.
He’ad’ra very slowly strokes
Le’ah’e hip.
He’ad’ra next sees Istiphul
looking at him from beneath the ocean waves.
Istiphul turns and swims off.
LE’AH’E
What is it?
HE’AD’RA
Nothing.
Le’ah’e is lying down so she
doesn’t follow his gaze.
LE’AH’E
Is there another woman?
HE’AD’RA
I
would never want to be touched by another woman. Next to you, all other women pale by
comparison.
Le’ah’e climbs out of the
pool and sits on the side.
A gust of wind stirs the
pool. Spray from a large wave falls like
rain. As He’ad’ra wipes the water from
his face, his mind is transported to a spiritual dimension. There is a woman
cloaked in dark purple, her face hidden by a hood.
CHIEF JUDGE OF SATURN
I am emptiness,
darkness, the void, and the abyss--the places of spirit where matter does not
exist. Though you have attained understanding
beyond the knowledge of your race, you have yet to renounce regret, sorrow, and
loss. It is a weakness that pervades
humanity. Even the wisest among you down
through the ages shall have the greatest difficulty overcoming the loss of
love.
She walks over and kneels
down behind Le’ah’e.
CHIEF JUDGE OF SATURN
Learn
to be as me--weep not when fate and death take away. Every ending, separation, farewell, and
goodbye is a sacred rite in my eyes.
The spirit sits between the two of them
her feet in the pool.
CHIEF JUDGE OF SATURN
I test every
great world teacher by offering a soul mate as beautiful as the stars in the
sky. Then I require she be sacrificed so that the love and beauty behind the
universe might be seen in their full glory and magnificence.
I offer you perfect, complete, and absolute enlightenment. Take it, now!
(beat)
Keep Le’ah’e
and you rob the human race of its ability to ascend.
The vision vanishes. He’adr’a hugs Le’ah’e.
LE’AH’E
I love the way you hug. Every time it is as if ….
(beat)
HE’AD’RA
As if we will never see each other again.
LE’AH’E
What is it?
HE’AD’RA
The
pool, the stars, you—the beauty is
overwhelming.
LE’AH’E
The
pool gives you visions. I give you love. Where do the stars fit into this triad?
HE’AD’RA
They sing.
LE’AH’E
(humorous, light)
You hear the
stars singing?
HE’AD’RA
(serious)
When
I listen, I can hear the song of every star in the universe. This has no practical application, though it
does get me through difficult moments.
LE’AH’E
(doubtful)
Really?
HE’AD’RA
Go ahead. Pick a star. Any star in the sky.
LE’AH’E
(pointing
to Betelgeuse, the star in the top left corner of Orion)
That star.
HE’AD’RA
Betara. Her song takes you by the hand and guides you
to the place where the stars themselves go to lie down, to sleep, to rest, and
to be renewed. Her magical name is
Prapara, “the jewel that shines with Eternity.”
She holds the dream of the universe in her heart.
LE’AH’E
So
the universe is your first love?
HE’AD’RA
The
universe would be without stars if you departed from my life.
LE’AH’E
Good answer.
Wandering about the museum,
Baka finds a showcase containing the blueprints of a flying saucer.
Examining the blueprints as
he slowly walks on, Baka bumps into a bookcase.
Manuscripts fall down. Turning he
sees a ways off the flying saucer prototype contained in the designs.
Baka walks toward the saucer
but is distracted by a semi circular opening.
Through the opening he sees a large ruby illuminating a room full of
glass and crystal containers with human beings inside. Some people are fixed in crystal while others
are suspended in liquid in various states of hibernation. Some of the glass structures are partly
opaque. Some have fallen or been pushed
over and broken so that whatever was inside is missing. A few of the containers are torture devices
from thousands of years before. It was a
time when the worst punishments were meted out by keeping individuals alive
indefinitely in a state of pain and/or partial consciousness.
Baka probes a small control
panel attached to the sphere. Nothing.
He pulls out a small laser he carries and tries to cut through the
glass. Nothing. Frustrated, he picks up a brick from the
fallen rubble lying nearby and throws it at the glass. Not a scratch.
The child sub human
approaches and looks into the eyes of the woman. Caught in a trance, the child’s hand pushes a
combination of figures on the control panel.
The crystal’s liquid drains and a glass door slides open. The woman collapses. Baka lifts her into his arms as she slowly comes
to life.
The sub human child’s hand
pulls on Baka’s pants.
SUB HUMAN CHILD
Hurry.
Baka carries her to the
flying saucer as the child follows.
A group of the huge, sub
human guards are rushing across the room toward Baka and the girl. Baka enters the open door of the saucer. The girl grasps a lever on the wall as they
enter and the door closes. He puts her
in the only chair in the saucer which is in front of the controls. She leans forward gazing at the panel without
touching anything. The saucer lifts and
begins hovering in the air.
BAKA
How did
you do that?
ARLUS
(exhausted)
I
designed it. I sure as hell know how to
make it work.
The saucer slowly rises. As it nears the ceiling, the saucer emits red electrical sparks that melt an opening in the ceiling. The saucer flies free.
Sa casually walks down a city
street. She sees a clear picture in her
mind of the past, present, or future of each person she walks by.
There is a healthy, young man
buying flowers but she sees him in a casket partially mummified with withered
flowers on his chest.
There is a young woman with
her lover. Sa sees a picture of this
woman with red eyes drunken at a table.
A weary soldier learning
against a wall she sees as a high ranking military officer and guest of honor
at a great feast. Another young girl,
not so pretty, she sees as an older mother surrounded by children.
Sa sees a young woman and
then the woman with an older man at a seaside mansion. The girl smiles out the window at a gardener
before she turns and helps the man rise from his bed. But then the scene shifts. The same woman, slightly older, has the look
of hate and rage as she stands amid a smoking stone lava field with an active cinder
cone in the background. Sa pauses for a
moment to look again at the girl.
Sa glances next at a young
couple and then sees a set of tombs that have the same faces and bodies carved
in the marble lids of the caskets. The
marble images of the lovers indicate they died young.
Sa’s hand is grasped by that
of a child who has been walking beside her the whole time.
EXT. LAVISH PARK—
Radea
purchases two stuffed lobster claws at a street vendor. Baka, slipping out from an alley, falls in
step next to Radea who casually hands him a claw. The two drift across the street into the city
park next to a lake with elaborate gardens and occasional gazebos.
BAKA
Do you have it?
RADEA
I need something first.
BAKA
I am your servant.
Radea
looks at Baka laughing at the joke.
RADEA
(serious)
I am looking for an
attractive, nubile woman.
(beat)
For an experiment.
(pointing)
Perhaps that one.
Sa, the previous host of the
festival, is sitting at the end of an archway made of flowers. She is sketching something on a scroll.
BAKA
You do not want that woman.
RADEA
Why not?
BAKA
Ask her.
RADEA
(walking up to Sa)
I am going to corrupt you.
SA
I
think I would like that. But first I
will need you to play a role for me in the Festival of the Seasons.
RADEA
I’ll pass.
She moves slowly face to
face, nose to nose, lips almost touching Radea’s. Then Sa kisses him.
RADEA
What’s this?
SA
A test to determine the course of your
life and the
fate of your children.
She kisses him again.
Radea attempts to speak but
she puts her hand over his mouth.
SA
I’ll be here if you need me.
Sa moves in close, almost
nose to nose to Baka but instead of kissing him she pushes two scrolls into his
stomach.
Baka opens a scroll and looks
at a picture of a woman. It is Arlus.
SA
This
woman is not from our world.
BAKA
(laughing)
You are trying to fool a thief?
SA
(smiling)
She is the reason you exist.
(beat)
Baka
opens the second scroll. It is the
drawing of the gnome from the hall of nature spirits.
SA
(whispers)
Your
choice is love or immortality.
BAKA
Why not both?
Baka
and Radea continue walking observing different women from a variety of social
classes. They walk casually up to, by,
and behind women, smelling their scent and nearly touching them as they pass
by. For brief moments, we see the women
through Radea’s eyes—each appears standing alone frozen, cold.
BAKA
You want sex?
RADEA
No.
BAKA
Woman are always about sex.
RADEA
Women
use their bodies as a weapon to enslave men.
BAKA
That’s
part of the equation.
RADEA
That
one.
Radea
draws the girl through the hypnotic powers of his ring into a secluded area of
the gardens. She moves as if in a dream
or not realizing quite what she is doing.
Baka glances in the distance
and then at Radea who also sees a fleeting figure disappearing behind a tree.
BAKA
Are they yours?
RADEA
No.
Baka runs. A guard running on the other side of a hedge
does a sliding kick and trips Baka as the two meet at the end of the hedge
row. Other guards wear bronze head and
wrist bands.
A prince from one of the ten
dynasties stands over Baka. The price
opens one of the two scrolls before handing both back.
PRINCE
Nice looking girl.
(aristocratic
humor)
I apologize for this
rudeness.
The Prince takes Radea’s
remaining lobster claw, sniffs it, and gives it to a guard.
Another guard places a
three legged folding chair for the prince to sit on. The guards back off some distance, mostly
disappearing from view.
PRINCE
(encouraging, curious)
Proceed
with what you are doing.
(smiling)
I
am not here.
BAKA
(to Radea)
What do you want?
RADEA
I
want what makes this woman most alive…. I want her life inside me.
BAKA
Court
her. Woo her. Gain her love you and she will give you her
heart, her soul, her youth, her innocence, her sensuality—whatever you want.
.
RADEA
(slowly)
What
I want no women can give—I want a woman who searches for the deepest desires in
my heart and then seeks to gratify them.
BAKA
(looking at Radea and the girl
carefully)
You
don’t want her beauty. You want her to absorb your pain and degradation into
herself.
RADEA
(obsessed)
Can you make that happen?
BAKA
Why do you hate women so much?
RADEA
Their
love can not fill the emptiness inside me.
BAKA
Emptiness
is a good thing—it keeps you on the edge of the moment.
RADEA
Then give her my emptiness.
(beat)
Isn’t this what you people
do?
(quoting)
For
every desire, a satisfaction; for every craving, a gratification, for every
hunger, need, or outrageous drive, the chance to be fully alive.
BAKA
Emptiness
is bliss and wonder.
RADEA
Bliss? Ok. Wonder? Wonder I can not
understand.
BAKA
(ignoring him and gesturing to the ring)
May I?
Radea hands Baka the ring.
BAKA
(putting the ring on and using
it to enchant Laja)
Bliss
is the body united to the source of life.
Laja sees herself lying on a
beach as a wave breaks over her body, the water rising up to her chin. She is laughing as the image changes--she is
floating on her back drifting out to sea until she is in the middle of a calm
ocean. In the present, with eyes closed,
she begins to smile and then becomes radiant.
Baka snaps his fingers and
Radea’s mind is inside Laja experiencing what she experiences.
RADEA
This is really something.
BAKA
We’ll
try rapture instead of wonder. Rapture
is consciousness without limitation.
RADEA
How far can you take her?
We hear Radea’s and Baka’s
voices which gradually fade away as we see what the girl sees.
She looks at Radea and sees
him standing in the center of the underground coliseum leading a magic
ritual. See looks at Baka and sees him
and a girl walking through a metal door that faces a small village in the
Egyptian desert. And then she looks past
the Prince and sees Ray Brown diving beneath the ocean.
FLASHFORWARD
A thirty-five foot long glass
bottom, tour boat is cruising at eight knots.
INT. GLASS BOTTOM BOAT—
MALE TOURIST
(eyeing clouds on
the horizon)
We get lion squalls on the
Over captain’s shoulder
about 100 yards ahead sits anchored the same boat from the first diving
scene. No one is on board.
CAPTAIN
(facing back toward the tourists, wheel in one
hand, mike in other)
You
don’t have to worry about storms out here, not with these trade winds.
Tourists—mothers, children,
retired couples, younger couples--looking occasionally from their chairs at the
large window centered in the bottom of the boat. Nothing but water shows.
From the point of view of
the anchored boat, we see the glass bottom boat surging closer.
VO: (annoyed) Had you been
looking for these pyramids?
INT. LECTURE HALL—1975,
EARLY EVENING
Behind a podium, Ray Brown
stands facing thirty-five people sitting on metal chairs in a small lecture
hall. The crystal ball sits on a
pedestal to Brown’s right.
RAY
BROWN
We were
diving just for fun.
QUESTIONER
(challenging)
You
found this by accident?
(gesturing to crystal)
FLASHBACK: INT. PYRAMID
BENEATH OCEAN, 1970, AFTERNOON
Ray Brown picks up the
crystal ball and hears a voice.
ISTIPHUL (OS)
You have what you came for. Now leave.
INT. LECTURE HALL—A MOMENT
LATER
RAY BROWN
In
the beginning, I had no training in scuba diving. Some of my buddies invited me
to go diving with them. We got out in
the ocean and I just did what they did.
I put on my gear and jumped in. I
followed them down a hundred feet. After
a while I was getting tired so I started ascending by myself.
INT. GLASS BOTTOM BOAT—
The captain turning around
to face front notices the boat thirty yards ahead. He cuts the engine and turns sharp to the
left.
VO: RAY BROWN
Just as I was about to
break the surface ….
INT. GLASS BOTTOM
BOAT—MIDAY
An eight year old looking
down at the glass sees a diver float directly beneath the glass and slide off
to one side as the boat banks for the turn.
The kid pulls at his mom’s skirt and she looks down but sees nothing and
goes back to talking to a friend. The
kid just looks down at the glass.
INT. LECTURE
HALL—CONTINUOUS
QUESTIONER
So what
happened?
EXT. FIVE FEET BENEATH
OCEAN SURFACE—
Laja hovers in ghostly
outline at the edge of the flash forward during the following scenes as if
following the action.
MONTAGE: A thin sphere of
light gradually expands outward from Ray Brown’s body floating beneath the
ocean. Laja appears in stronger relief
and then is pulled into Ray Brown’s body.
VO: RAY BROWN
My
body was unconscious but I was wide awake.
I was aware of fish that were nearby.
But I wasn’t seeing them externally.
I became the fish sensing what fish perceive. I was breathing with gills and swimming with
fins. I became aware of greater
distances and everything living within the ocean. I entered the mind of whales and dolphins,
manta rays and squid, sharks and turtles—until I became the entire sea.
END OF FLASH FORWARD
BAKA
Find
bliss and rapture in yourself and you won’t obsess on women.
RADEA
(noticing girl’s
mystical clarity)
What happened?
At
this point, Baka hesitates and the Prince steps in.
PRINCE
Bliss,
rapture, horror, terror—each serves a purpose.
PRINCE
(leaning forward, taking the girl’s chin in
his hand and raising her eyes to his)
What was the worst thing that ever
happened to you.
Laja
The
worst was also the best. When my child
was born I felt a peace that, if nothing else, gave me a reason for being
alive. But I had agreed to give the
child to another couple. They would
raise it as their own under far better circumstances than what I could provide. Giving my daughter away two days later was
the worst. But once you have been one
with another as I was, all suffering is overcome.
PRINCE
What do you desire from a man?
LAJA
That he love me as I love him.
PRINCE
Handing Baka a small, round bag.
(insidious)
For the eyes alone of the High
Council.
(to Laja)
Will you accompany me?
The girl rises and
takes the arm of the prince.
PRINCE
(walking off)
Tell me about the love you would give
another.
EXT. HE’AD’RA WITH LE’AH’E ON HER GARDEN
BALCONY—AFTERNOON
The captain of the guard
appears apprehensively on the balcony impatient to be acknowledged.
(to He’ad’ra)
We have a problem.
EXT. GAZEBO IN PARK BY
Baka and Radea take refuge
from the onset of heavy rain in a gazebo where a stream runs into a lake.
Radea and Baka discover Sa and
her child, Vehu, already within the gazebo.
Thunder and a powerful gust
of wind.
Sa picks up Vehu.
SA
Its ok.
Vehu whimpers.
RADEA
(to Vehu)
If you look carefully,
you can see the grey elves
riding their warhorses
in front of the storm.
Images of elves portrayed
in black and white drawings appear before the eyes of Vehu.
BAKA
Their leader is known
as Agoni. He is famous for tearing laundry from your mother’s clothes’ lines
with his lance. That’s him trying to
knock that tree down.
RADEA
Their second in
command is Mogo. He carries a great
hammer and rides out of his way to hit unlatched doors that slam shut with a
bang. That’s him howling because he
can’t find any doors out here to attack.
BAKA
Those gusts on the
water are the footsteps of Fada. He is a
great archer. He shoots your hat off so
fast it flies from your head before you can catch it with your hands.
RADEA
The problem with these
grey elves is that they have no power of their own. In another hour, they will fade away into
nothing until another storm comes round.
VEHU
Are there other kinds of elves?
BAKA
(looking for permission from Sa who
nods)
There are the bright
elves. They are noble and heroic. They invented chivalry and honor. And for those they favor, the wind always
blows steady.
VEHU
Are there forest elves?
RADEA
Yes--tree elves. They like peace and keep to themselves. They plant trees in circles and hear others’
thoughts as clear as a bell. The wind is
gentle and caresses the leaves peacefully when the tree elves pass through a
forest.
SA
Perhaps I have seen
these tree elves. When no one is
looking, they dress up in silver and violet.
When the moon rises they call out: The coast is clear. Come out, come out, and dance all night as
the stars circle above us.
RADEA
And then there are the
dark elves. They are seen only on
moonless nights. They are fond of
confusion, thickets, and ensnaring brush.
They try to make you forget where you have left your possessions so they
can steal them after you have left. They are the ones who shift the wind in
different directions.
VEHU
Any others?
BAKA
Blessed elves. They are skilled in making wine, love
potions, and magical charms. They
invented harps and whistles. And they
dance on water when the wind ripples across a lake in cat’s paws.
VEHU
(to
Radea)
Perhaps you have secrets you are not telling me about?
RADEA
(to
Baka)
Go ahead.
BAKA
The last are called
fire elves. They sometimes disguise
themselves as human beings so they can move among us in order to recite their
poetry and sing their songs. But
actually they are great warriors.
VEHU
Warriors? Do they fight like the gray elves, attacking
laundry, slamming doors, and shooting off hats?
SA
No. They are the only ones
strong enough to destroy the darkness in the human heart.
RADEA
But they pay a price
for such magic. There is not a single
fire elf who has not died of loneliness at least once, twice, sometimes more.
VEHU
They are elves and not human?
BAKA
No one is quite
sure. They travel freely through both
the human and the invisible worlds.
VEHU
How can you tell when you meet one?
SA
Their eyes shine with
the light of dawn and their voices sound like thunder and the laughter of waves
splashing in ancient seas long gone.
VEHU
So why fire elves?
BAKA
Their courage is
forged from fire because they destroy all fear,
VEHU
I would like to meet a fire elf some day.
RADEA
Be careful what you wish for.
The wind is gone. Vehu runs off to play.
SA
(to
Radea)
You are good with children.
RADEA
(beat)
There is nothing as horrible as childhood.
Baka picks up a disturbing
scent in the air and without explanation quickly leaves.
Moments later, Vehu
discovers the body of a sub human floating next to the shore.
Radea follows footprints
along the shore. Sa takes Vehu and
quickly leaves.
EXT. JUNGLE—LATER AFTERNOON
He’ad’ra finds Radea
examining a second dead body of a sub human at the edge of the marsh next to
the temple where Baka swam down.
HE’AD’RA
You have a problem?
RADEA
Its not my problem.
HE’AD’RA
It is now.
Twenty sub humans (emaciated,
pale, scrawny, but amazingly agile) begin to circle around He’ad’ra and
Radea. The creatures are armed with
spears, curved knives, short swords, axes, etc.
He’ad’ra and Radea stand back to back.
The two men pull out from under their robes short staves which extend
doubling their lengths. Radea’s staff
has bladed knives which pop out of the ends and He’ad’ra’s staff is weighted
with metal at the ends.
RADEA
This
would be a good time for you to do some magic.
HE’AD’RA
I don’t like magic.
RADEA
Why not?
HE’AD’RA
The side effects are
disturbing.
RADEA
Won’t you reconsider?
The sub humans attack and
He’ad’ra and Radea break through the circle and leap onto a low, crumbling stone
wall leading into the swamp. The sub
humans follow on the wall but most struggle through the mire on each side
barely keeping pace with the two men.
Other sub humans come running down the stone wall from the opposite
direction. The two men fight back to
back skillfully defending and deflecting as they move slowly down the wall.
RADEA
I looked it up.
HE’AD’RA
You looked what up?
The wall leads to the top of
a small unfinished pyramid sunk in the swamp.
The two men climb steps on the sides to the top which is flat. There they jab and fling the creatures to the
sides or over their heads as the creatures advance in increasing numbers from
four directions.
RADEA
The
Mentarch—there is a whole room in the archives dedicated to it.
HE’AD’RA
And so?
RADEA
Turns
out the Mentarch is not so difficult to manufacture. Everyone should have their own Mentrach,
don’t you think?
HE’AD’RA
Sure if you want to end life as we know it.
RADEA
Life
as we know it has already ended. Wouldn’t you agree?
Just when the two men are
about to be overwhelmed by sheer numbers, the creatures stop and vacate one side
of the pyramid. The two men walk down
the side to an open space where the sub humans circle around them.
RADEA
I
make you a deal. I will help you destroy
the Dark Order if you share with me the secret of immortality.
HE’AD’RA
Do
you really want to live forever? Could
be boring.
RADEA
I’ll risk it.
HE’AD’RA
I
don’t think it would be fair to the mankind if you or I hung around for more
than one lifetime.
One of the sub humans comes
forward and gestures a challenge to Radea.
Radea tries to strike him but the sub human easily avoids the strike
sensing Radea’s actions before he moves.
He’ad’ra steps in front of Radea and knocks the creature down with a
strike to the chest.
RADEA
I appreciate that.
HE’AD’RA
Anytime.
The sub humans bow down on
their knees as a tall, powerful human looking figure approaches.
RADEA
(loathing)
Vampire.
The vampire shows open palms
to He’ad’ra indicating he wishes to fight one on one. He’ad’ra approaches and with blinding speed
the vampire has He’ad’ra’s hands twisted so his wrists are bent (sankyo) and he
stands on his toes to avoid the pain.
Then one of He’ad’ra’s wrists
is twisted in the opposite way (nikyo) and He’ad’ra is on his knees. With a yank, the vampire jerks He’ad’ra up
and locks the fingers of each of their hands together and again, bending
He’ad’ra’s wrists, forces him to his knees.
Slowly, the vampire forces
He’ad’ra onto his back with his arms out to the sides and, then bending over
him, begins sucking He’ad’ra’s life force
from his body into the vampire’s eyes and mouth.
But then the direction of the
flow of life force suddenly changes and the vampire’s energy is drawn into
He’ad’ra. The vampire sees himself for
an instant falling through an event horizon of a black hole.
The vampire stands up and
backs away as his body implodes and then explodes in a cloud of dust. The sub humans flee in terror.
RADEA
How
you do that?
(smiling cynically)
I
thought you weren’t going to use magic.
HE’AD’RA
(sadly)
I didn’t use magic.
INT. SECRET CHAMBERS—LATE NIGHT
ASSASSIN
What about his voice?
HEAD OF ASSASSIN’S GUILD
What about it?
ASSASSIN
They say he can kill with his voice.
HEAD OF ASSASSIN’S GUILD
Did I tell you about the man walking on a dark night?
ASSASSIN
No.
HEAD OF ASSASSIN’S GUILD
Someone
shouts at him and he falls down.
(beat)
It
is his own fear and surprise that cause him to fall.
ASSASSIN
Ah.
INT. HIGH COUNCIL ROOM—LATE
EVENING
A council member finds a
crystal ball on the council table. He has
a brief flicker in his eye of someone leaving through the balcony.
MONTAGE: There are a number
of coliseums with thousands of black magicians chanting.
INT. HIGH COUNCIL ROOM—A FEW
MINUTES LATER
The High Council with its ten
members is gathered around the crystal ball casually examining it. The crystal
suddenly lights up. There are then
bursts of brilliant light, each burst killing a different council members all
within a few seconds. As the crystal
begins to flare again, its light suddenly goes out.
Lying on the floor are seven
council members. Some are bleeding from
their eyes, some are smoldering, and one is in the last throes of a
seizure.
Heburis, one of the three
survivors, looks around at the dead. He
glances out a window and notices that the city lights are going out.
HEBURIS
We have a problem.
(beat)
Get He’ad’ra.
INT. ONE OF
COLISEUMS—SIMULTANEOUS
The black magicians’ crystal
ball’s light also goes out. The high
priest of the Dark Order pauses to examine the crystal.
DARK PRIEST
Get Radea.
INT.
RADEA’S BEDROOM—LATE EVENING
Radea is sitting at a table
in his room when he suddenly rises, holds his head, and throws himself on his
bed. A dark blue sphere of light appears
in his room. An arch demon materializes
through the light and then speaks to Radea.
Radea isn’t sure if he is dreaming.
RADEA
(loud voice)
What do you want?
ARCH DEMON
(casual,
friendly)
Once
or twice every thousand years your race is tested to see if there is someone
who can pass through the darkness and obtain cosmic wisdom. Succeed and you shall have all that you
desire.
RADEA
I always thought of
demons as being narrow minded and shallow twits. Overly possessive ….you know what I mean?
ARCH DEMON
Each race has its strengths and weaknesses. Ours has strong will but is weak on feeling.
Yours has weak will but a wondrous sense of being alive.
(beat)
The
bottom line is that we do good work.
Someone is confused or in despair?
We grant obsessions that draw them back to their senses. Or we limit an individual’s freedom so that
life is seen in perspective. You never
appreciate what you have until it is taken away—that’s our job—to enable people
to see life’s true value.
RADEA
You are saying malice is good?
ARCH DEMON
Not
malice but the result. With a little
fear and old-fashioned terror, people become hard working, productive, and, above
all, loyal—we establish long lasting ties to a community.
RADEA
Why me?
ARCH DEMON
We have a position available and you seem to be
qualified.
RADEA
What about love?
ARCH DEMON
Love….yes….tell me
what you want from a woman?
RADEA
A woman who is
innocent yet sophisticated, vulnerable yet committed, vivacious yet caring,
sensual yet with depth. I want a woman
who is so receptive that she can contain all that I am enfolding me in an
instant with her eyes, her lips, her breath.
ARCH DEMON
(leaning forward)
Too easy. Try again. Speak from
the depths of your heart.
RADEA
I want a woman who I
can be one with and one with the universe in the same moment. After all, what is a woman for to a man but the
beauty of nature right there in front of him available to touch, to taste, and
to melt into him at his command.
ARCH DEMON
This
is what I like about you. Unlike so many
others with their petty requests for wealth, fame, pleasure, and power you
bring your full imagination to the bargaining table. Your request is granted.
The
arch demon disappears.
INT. RADEA’S BEDROOM—A MOMENT LATER
Radea dreams himself
walking on a carpet of red roses toward Sa.
RADEA
Why so icy cold?
(beat)
Did I not pass the test?
SA
At
the center of your heart is a pit of unimaginable horror. The only question is will you climb out or
remain where you are and draw others into your hell.
RADEA
So, even your love
can not heal me.
SA
And
this justifies your torturing women and children?
RADEA
No, no, but it eases my pain.
(beat)
Walking close to her noses
almost touching.
RADEA
Find
me in another life time when I am young and haven’t been corrupted from the
moment of my birth.
INT. RADEA’S BEDROOM—LATE
EVENING
Radea wakes. There in his bed beneath the sheets is a nude
woman fast asleep. Checking the floor by
the bed first, Radea cautiously raises the sheets to look at her.
RADEA
Who or what are you?
GA
I love you.
RADEA
I should believe this?
GA
I am proof of the
existence of love.
RADEA
Let’s see the proof.
With one hand she pushes him down
onto the bed and begins kissing his chest.
There is a loud knocking on
the door that interferes with their love making.
INT. CHAMBER OF FIRE
Arlus works with a group of
sub humans in the chamber of fire crystals—a room filled with fifteen foot high
quartz crystals. A few dead sub humans
lie scattered about on the floor. One of
the fire crystal’s light has gone out. A
piece from the damaged crystal lies next to it on the ground.
Balls of lightning directed
at the sub humans from the fire crystals are defused as Arlus holds a makeshift
lightning rod that grounds the lightning.
One of the sub humans repeatedly hits another crystal with a huge hammer
before becoming encased in electrical beams sent from the other crystals. The sub human dissolves into nothing as he is
electrified.
EXT. STREET ALLEY WITH
ENTRANCE TO UNDERGROUND—EARLY MORNING
Radea opens a door leading
into the chamber of fire crystals, the one he previously had stumbled upon
beneath the city.
HE’AD’RA
(to Radea)
Has this happened before?
RADEA
No. Never.
INT. CHAMBER OF FIRE
He’ad’ra, Radea, the Captain
of the Guard and some soldiers discovers Arlus and the sub humans in the fire
crystal chamber.
The Captain and his men take
control of the sub humans.
He’ad’ra walks out onto the
floor carefully moving his hands to somehow press the ball lightning away when
they move toward him. All of the fire
crystals shoot lighting into He’ad’ra.
The electricity encases him in a red and white brilliance. But it has no effect. The lightning in the room ceases.
He’ad’ra goes over to the
piece of the broken fire crystal that is on the floor and picks it up.
Arlus spits into the face of
Radea as he approaches her. Radea walks
up to her.
RADEA
(to
Arlus)
Look. I am a nice guy. What you are doing here ….its very creative
but I deserve a little respect.
Radea quickly grabs, bends,
and breaks her arm.
HE’AD’RA
(to Radea)
Radea, I need
that woman for questioning.
MONTAGE: individual and small
groups of sub humans begin quietly entering the city from sewers, large pipes
opening into the canals, sealed doors broken open, etc.
He’ad’ra talks to Arlus in
HE’AD’RA
Why?
ARLUS
Why destroy the fire crystals?
(beat)
We dreamed
of a new civilization in which each individual is united to every other heart
to heart without separation. Telepathy
made this possibility. But we discovered
the Dark Order—a spiritual corruption that threatens to engulf the world.
HE’AD’RA
So you left earth?
ARLUS
We
had no choice. You don’t get it—their
power continues to grow. One day it will
reach us even in other solar systems.
HE’AD’RA
(insight)
They
didn’t kill you when you returned to earth.
ARLUS
The
Council wanted me alive to tell them if the colonists succeeded in settling
other solar systems.
HE’AD’RA
And?
ARLUS
We are in two other star systems.
HE’AD’RA
What is Baka?
ARLUS
Baka
is the product of four thousand years of genetic selection guided by a few we
left behind. He is supposed to finish
the job if I fail. But now we have you.
HE’AD’RA
You think so?
ARLUS
You recall the legend about the planet that destroyed
itself and became the asteroid belt?
HE’AD’RA
Not
really.
ARLUS
They
engaged in dangerous experiments. Earth
will also destroy itself but it will be a spiritual death--the soul of every
person will become corrupt and evil.
(beat)
If
you do not let me destroy the fire crystals, you will have to destroy Atlantis
later. You know this.
He’ad’ra turns to leave.
ARLUS
What
spirit indwells you?
Turning back.
HE’AD’RA
(with a different voice)
I use
this body, these emotions, this mind and personality as my tool to shape
history.
ARLUS
For what purpose?
HE’AD’RA
Why
are I here? Why am I anywhere? To
celebrate the beauty of the universe.
ARLUS
Bullshit.
(He’ad’ra’s own voice,
walking up to her an inch from her face)
HE’AD’RA
A
race shall appear on earth whose descendants shall spread across the
galaxy. Even their enemies shall call
them the bestowers of peace and the children of light, for they shall make all
wars cease. This shall be my gift to
humanity. But not to this race and not
in our age.
ARLUS
Can I ask you personal question?
He’ad’ra nods.
ARLUS
How
can you love when part of your self is forever isolated from the world?
HE’AD’RA
Emptiness
is my compassion—I know how fragile and precious life is, every moment.
(beat)
Thank you.
ARLUS
For what?
HE’AD’RA
For
trying to touch the part of my self that has never known love.
ARLUS
Nothing
is beyond the reach of love.
HE’AD’RA
Where I am from there is no polarity, no
opposites to attract and so love does not exit.
INT. HE’AD’RA’S STUDY—LATE
EVENING
The city lights are back on
as seen through his window. Hea’d’ra
sits at his desk reading a scroll. He
lifts his eyes and with perfect recollection he sees brief images of Le’ah’e
from the pools, her death, their first meeting, when she discovers his poem in
his room, etc.
He’ad’ra then stares at the
wall as he sits up straight and speaks to unseen person sneaking up behind him.
HE’AD’RA
You
have no fear—is why they send you?
ASSASSIN
Yes.
HE’AD’RA
(still facing
forward)
What you see when you gaze upon me?
ASSASSIN
(pausing for a moment)
Your
aura is dark like an infinite abyss without pity, mercy, or forgiveness.
(thoughtful)
Can one escape
who falls in?
HE’AD’RA
Not until the universe ends.
ASSASSIN
Ah.
(beat)
Tell
me, one professional to another--is it true you can kill with your voice?
HE’AD’RA
You’re pushing your luck.
ASSASSIN
I really must know.
HE’AD’RA
I
never try to hurt anyone …. but things don’t always go my way.
The assassin waits a moment and
then wipes his nose and notices blood on the back of his hand. He touches the corner of his eye and sees
blood on his fingertips. He coughs and
blood splatters into his palm.
The assassin leaves.
He’ad’ra casually returns to
reading his scroll.
INT. HIGH COUNCIL
COMPLEX--EVENING
He’ad’ra and Le’ah’e walk
down a hall side by side.
LE’AH’E
How could you not know about vampires?
HE’AD’RA
I never thought about them until I ran into one.
She gives him her look.
HE’AD’RA
What’s
worse—terrorizing children with the fear of hell, keeping wisdom from the
masses, or killing someone in order to feed every six months? I do not know.
Le’ah’e turns down a
different hall as the Captain of the Guard comes up to He’adr’a.
CAPTAIN OF THE GUARD
(walking up)
This is impossible.
He’ad’ra enters the first
door in a long corridor of doors each leading into a different council chamber.
In the first room is the general who interrogated Baka.
INT. FIRST ROOM--EVENING
GENERAL
Listen
to me. Men love war more than they love
food, sleep, or women. Without war, the
blood goes bad. Weak men rule. Allow us at least a civil war from time to
time. Otherwise we as a species will
cease to exist and this will be on your head.
He’ad’ra leaves and enters
the next room. Here are the three
surviving High Council Members—among them Heburis and Sa.
The three are arguing and
barely notice He’ad’ra.
INT. SECOND ROOM—EVENING
HEBURIS
(to
He’da’ra)
Can’t
you suppress the Dark Order for ten or twenty thousand years—give our
civilization a chance to flourish.
HE’AD’RA
You
want to seal them away like you did with the Arlus and the sub humans?
SA
You
entered the world for this moment—to save Atlantis. Now do it.
Destroy the Dark Order.
HE’AD’RA
Its not that simple.
SA
Why not?
HE’AD’RA
If
I use my will in this way the human race becomes my slave.
HEBURIS
No. We would have an age of prosperity, science,
healing, and education. Justice would
prevail.
HE’AD’RA
Atlantis
has not had a king for five thousand years.
SA
You
would be a benevolent king who brings a golden age.
HE’AD’RA
Controlling others is not my way.
He’ad’ra leaves and enters a room
full of vampires. The vampires bow down to the ground.
INT. THIRD ROOM—EVENING
VAMPIRES
Master.
HE’AD’RA
Return
to the sealed city and there remain.
He’ad’ra enters a room
containing Le’ah’e and Ra Ta.
INT. FOURTH ROOM--EVERNING
LE’AH’E
What are you going to do with the sub humans?
HE’AD’RA
They
are a strange race—some have souls and some do not.
LE’AH’E
Take
them to the temple of beauty. The light
will uplift them.
RA TA
We
are all brothers and sisters. Without
compassion, the spirituality of Atlantis is worthless.
HE’AD’RA
Make
them another temple, somewhere outside the city so there are no more
riots. I don’t need more riots.
He’ad’ra enters a room with
Radea and several members of the Dark Order.
INT. FIFTH ROOM--EVERNING
HE’AD’RA
Is this the crystal ball you gave the High Council?
RADEA
Yes.
HE’AD’RA
Seven
of the Council are now dead after viewing it.
RADEA
They
asked Baka to get it for them.
He’ad’ra takes the crystal
out of the bag and views it. A demon
sitting on a blue throne like a great king in a majestic palace appears in
it. He’ad’ra’s eyes flash like sunlight
and the demon vanishes.
He’ad’ra and the others then
see in the crystal a set of brief images relating the history of the Dark Order
including murder, torture, demon possession, evil experiments, etc.
HE’AD’RA
Look
at your history—treachery, betrayal, greed, murder. What’s the point?
RADEA
(gesturing
toward the window)
Do
you see the stars? The law that governs
the entire universe is that the strong rule over the weak. Conflict and struggle are necessary. You already know this.
HE’AD’RA
The others wish you dead.
RADEA
I
understand your dilemma. Since you were
born, some sort of cosmic nothingness has drawn closer to our world. Those who sense it face madness and terror
….the masses will soon be out of control.
Our power has grown as a result of your being here.
HE’AD’RA
Why is that?
RADEA
Because we bond people to each other and to
the world of the five senses. We offer a
refuge and a safe haven.
HE’AD’RA
A refuge, huh?
FORMER HEAD OF THE DARK ORDER
We
want what you want—to unite matter and spirit.
This has always been the dream of Atlantis. Whereas others have failed in this quest, we
have succeeded. You kill us you kill the dream.
(beat)
\
He’ad’ra enters a room
containing Baka, Arlus, and the head of the thief’s guild. Baka looks older, more Nordic and rugged with
a pose of royalty.
INT. SIXTH ROOM—EVERNING
BAKA
(to
He’ad’ra)
Cultural
Engineering.
HE’AD’RA
What?
BAKA
It solves your problem with the military. Let them set up foreign bases among the
tribes on different continents. One day
these tribes will become great empires.
Accelerate their cultural evolution.
HE’AD’RA
How?
BAKA
Covert
operations that implant high ideals. For
warring chieftains, give them a religion of submission. For those who want
worldly domination, give them a religion of love. If they have a thousand gods, give them a
master who worships light without form.
The point is you keep your military distracted by doing something
challenging.
HE’AD’RA
And
what do you propose for Atlantis? What
is the opposite of ourselves?
BAKA
What
world teacher would challenge our deepest assumptions? Atlantis was founded as an experiment to fuse
wisdom and love, religion and science, the inner and outer worlds. Along the way we got lost. The only thing left undone is a battle
between you and Radea. Winner takes all.
HE’D’RA
So colonies are your answer?
BAKA
At this
moment in time, your best option is designing a new beginning.
He’ad’ra next enters a room
with the heads of the ten family dynasties which includes Jarmon, Le’ah’e’s
father.
INT. SEVENTH ROOM--EVERNING
BARON
There are many of us who object to your proposals.
HE’AD’RA
I would like those who object to remain in this room
and the rest of you leave. It has been a
long, trying day but I am sure we can work out something that is mutually
satisfying. I will just step out into the hall for a moment.
When He’ad’ra returns, the
room is empty.
He’ad’ra next meets the
captain of the guard in the hall.
INT. HALL--EVERNING
CAPTAIN OF THE GUARD
What do I tell them?
HE’AD’RA
On my watch, no wars, no fighting, no riots.
CAPTAIN
OF THE GUARD
Or else what?
HE’AD’RA
Just tell them.
INT. RADEA’S LIVING ROOM--EVENING
Radea
enters his room and sees Laja standing in the doorway to the bedroom. She turns slowly into
GA
I can give you what you want
from this girl.
RADEA
Can you?
GA
Give me your ring.
(beat)
RADEA
What’s love without
trust?
Gives
her the ring.
An
image of Ga begins detaching from Ga’s body and steps inside of Radea.
RADEA
What is this?
GA
A love offering.
RADEA
You are my slave.
GA
This one time I am giving
you all that I am freely.
Stepping
out of his body back into her self.
Radea
sits.
RADEA
Incredible.
What do you call that?
GA
You already know—its being one with another without
separation. But this is not what you
really want.
RADEA
Oh,
what do I want?
GA
You
want to rape a woman taking all her beauty, love, and life into yourself,
turning her into a pit of horror full of hate and rage. And this you do not as an act of violence or
expression of power but because it is what you believe intimacy to be.
(beat)
But one woman will never satisfy you.
RADEA
Then who should I rape?
GA
For a man of your
stature—Atlantis.
RADEA
How do you know these
things?
GA
It is what the demon does to me.
RADEA
But you are not empty, abused, or in pain.
GA
No. Like the demon, I feed on others to restore
myself.
RADEA
How
did he ever possess someone of your nobility?
GA
To
save my land, I made a pack with the demon.
MONTAGE/FLASHBACK: A barbarian king and hordes stand ready to
sack an ancient city. But the queen of the
city goes with them as a willing but bound slave. The hoard departs.
GA
They
abused me, tortured me, raped me, and then married me—the things men usually do
to women.
RADEA
Was
it worth it?
GA
The
demon was the protector of our city. You
want protection, you make an offering.
When you sacrifice for love, it is a small price to pay.
RADEA
All for one soul?
Ga
nods.
RADEA
How did that work
out?
GA
The
kingdom flourished for a century before being destroyed.
RADEA
Will
you ever be free of your contract?
GA
Everything comes to an end.
INT. SECRET CHAMBRS—LATE
NIGHT
SECOND ASSASSIN
What about his voice?
HEAD OF ASSASSIN’S GUILD
What
about it?
SECOND ASSASSIN
They say he speaks with a voice of thunder.
HEAD OF ASSASSIN’S GUILD
Not
only that. They say the mountains, the
trees, the seas, the earth itself quakes and is afraid of the day when he shall
unleash his full power.
(beat)
Did I tell you about the man walking in the dark?
SECOND ASSASSIN
No.
HEAD OF ASSASSIN’S GUILD
It
turns out there are thunder and lightning.
If you get hit by lightning, you are in the wrong place at the wrong
time. But you are the best of the
best. You will be in the right place at
the right time.
SECOND ASSASSIN
And if I hear the thunder?
HEAD OF ASSASSIN’S GUILD
If you
hear the thunder, it means the lightning has missed you and you are still
alive.
SECOND ASSASSIN
Ah.
EXT. JUNGLE BASE--AFTERNOON
Baka and Arlus inspect a
newly built flying saucer. The hanger it
is in has numerous sub humans working on another flying saucer. The child sub human looks at Baka and Arlus
and shakes his head.
BAKA
Shall we give it a try?
ARLUS
Why not?
The two stand behind the
controls which are about the only things present inside the hollow saucer. The saucer slowly hovers and then glides out
of the hanger.
BAKA
It works.
ARLUS
Watch out!
The saucer begins moving
sideways instead of forward knocking down several trees before slipping into a swamp. Baka falls on top of Arlus as the two slowly
slide across the floor and out the door into the water.
INT. HE’AD’RA’S
STUDY—TWILIGHT
A blue heron lands on the
balcony and squawks at He’ad’ra who turns to look at it. He’ad’ra gets up and stops just on the inside
of the balcony door. An assassin clings
upside down on the outside wall above the balcony.
HE’AD’RA
Nice
try.
The assassin drops down and
immediately tries to attack He’ad’ra but He’ad’ra can stop his motions with a
wave of his hand.
He’ad’ra invites the assassin
to a table set for two with drinks. They
drink.
ASSASSIN
Can no one kill you?
HE’AD’RA
Do
you really have to have the answer to that question?
ASSASSIN
I can not leave without it.
He’da’ra gestures to a faint
image of the Angel of Death standing in the corner of the room.
HE’AD’RA
Ask him.
The Angel of Death begins
slowly stalking the assassin who immediately stands up and flees by climbing
rapidly down the side of the building. A
few moments later, there is a scream in the distance.
MONTAGE. RADEA’S ABUSES OF POWER OVER TWENTY YEARS:
There are images of children
in blue flames screaming, dark magicians controlling classrooms at the magical
university, dark magicians using crystal balls in pyramids, the psychic rape of
innocents, kidnappings, hypnotic control of others, cruel experiments,
political assassinations, etc.
INT. SEALED CITY—NIGHT
Radea and Ga stand in front
of two glass cylinders filled with liquid which contain an older Laja and her
grown daughter.
Radea somehow creates a blue
flame in the cylinder surrounding the daughter.
The girl experiences intense sexual arousal and torment in the same
moment as she is psychically raped. Radea
releases her.
He then stands between the
two cylinders holding his hands out to each sensing their torment.
RADEA
(to Ga and
the two prisoners)
This is so intimate.
Thank you.
LE’AH’E
So
what? Our knowledge exceeds our
wisdom. Our power exceeds our love. Is this a reason to give up?
HE’AD’RA
Atlantis was doomed from the beginning.
LE’AH’E
Give
me your power. I will destroy them and remove them from the earth forever.
HE’AD’RA
You don’t know what you asking.
(beat)
What do you know about me?
LE’AH’E
You
love. You speak the cosmic
language. You destroy. You create.
I am just asking you to do what’s right.
Search your soul.
HE’AD’RA
I
can offer the human race a second chance—we can start over from the beginning,
this time without the knowledge of magic.
(beat)
HE’AD’RA
I have something for you.
He’ad’ra hands her the
Mentarch.
LE’AH’E
What do I do with this?
HE’AD’RA
Hide
it somewhere so that when civilization rises again millennia from now it might be
used for the purposes it was
created.
(beat)
I will remain
here and stand guard.
As Le’ah’e exits through the
door, He’ad’ra walks down a stairs into the gardens. As he steps onto a path, he walks inside of a
vision. Eerie images flow together in a
montage of suffering, hell, nightmares, sorrow, death, and devastation.
Ahead of him on his path is a
hooded woman cloaked in dark violet robes.
He’ad’ra approaches her.
CHIEF JUDGE OF SATURN
You have been avoiding me.
HE’AD’RA
What would it take to save Atlantis?
As the two walk farther down the path, the setting
slowly changes to a road. On each side
are brief images of the ruins of different civilizations past and
future—Lemuria, Atlantis,
The road leads to a temple in which are set the
forty-nine thrones of the Judges of Saturn.
The Saturn Spirit sits on one of the thrones.
CHIEF JUDGE OF SATURN
(gesturing to one of the thrones)
Take
a seat among us. Reveal yourself to the
human race as the world teacher that you are.
(passionate,
ferocious)
Children
shall walk hand in hand with the Mysteries. This golden age will never
end. Those who comes to this planet seeking truth shall
become enlightened.
HE’AD’RA
Only
many individuals working together have the right to manifest such a vision.
SATURN SPIRIT
You
understand the alternative? Mankind will
live as barbarians for ten thousand years—before they regain a small portion of
what they have now.
.
She puts her hand upon his
shoulder, dropping her hood to reveal that she is Sa.
HE’AD’RA
You!
SA
You
will have to follow your heart. The
choice is yours alone.
INT. RADEA’S PALACE--NIGHT
GA
Why the glum looks?
RADEA
He’ad’ra
blocks our every attempt to assume power.
He is beyond the reach of our magic and our assassins.
GA
Call
your demon. That’s his job, isn’t it?
—to solve problem that have no solutions.
Ga pours oil in a set of
indentations on the floor. The oil and
indentations form a set of magic diagrams.
Ga lights the oil and the arch demon appears at the center of the
diagrams.
ARCH DEMON
Why have you called me?
RADEA
I want you to
destroy He’ad’ra.
ARCH DEMON
That
is a great idea. Excellent. I admire you for contemplating it.
(beat)
But
trust me on this: no living being, mortal or divine, can overthrow He’ad’ra’s
will. His power is beyond all
understanding.
RADEA
Then what can I do?
ARCH DEMON
You
are not helpless. The reason He’ad’ra’s
spirit has come to this planet is to learn about love. Destroy Le’ah’e. Take her love from him and He’ad’ra will lose
his will to live. This you can do.
EXT. GARDEN WITH POOL OF WATER—LATE AFTERNOON
The Angel of Death stands at
a distance in the shadows quietly watching Le’ah’e.
MONTAGE: many pyramids and
ceremonial chambers with dark magicians gathering and putting on their robes.
INT. DARK ORDER CHAMBERS--AFTERNOON
RADEA
Is everything ready?
ASISTANT
Yes.
RADEA
How many?
ASISTANT
Three
thousand magicians awaiting your orders.
RADEA
As the sun touches the horizon, attack.
INT. CEREMONIAL CHAMBER—LATE
AFTERNOON
A young priest stands with
other priests in a room with a crystal ball in the center. An image of Le’ah’e forms in the crystal ball
and then as a hologram in the air.
YOUNG PRIEST
(to older priest
next to him)
She’s awful beautiful.
The older mage gives him a
baleful glance.
YOUNG PRIEST
So
why are we going to kill her?
OLDER PRIEST
To
get to He’ad’ra.
YOUNG PRIEST
Right. Is it true that she can sing the Song of the
Universe?
OLDER PRIEST
(grasping and choking him for emphasis)
It
doesn’t matter. It is her time to die.
One of priests begins
intoning a chant and the rest join in as a dark, reddish blue flame engulfs
Le’ah’e.
EXT. BY POOL IN GARDEN—SUNSET
In a distant land, Le’ah’e
glances into the pool and sees the Angel of Death reflected among the
shadows—she rises and grasps her chest and falls to the ground dead as the
Angel of Death passes over her.
INT. HE’AD’RA’S CHAMBERS--SUNSET
He'adra senses too late the
psychic blow that kills Le’ah’e. He
feels the last breath of life pass from her lips.
Le’ah’e appears as herself
as a psychic projection before He’ad’ra in a “sending.”
LE’AH’E
Let me go, my Beloved,
Do not call me back.
In the fullness of
time
I will find you
And we will love again
as we have loved before.
Le’ah’e fades away into a
sphere of shiny light but the light remains as she vanishes. Within this light another being appears—the
Goddess of the Earth. The Goddess is no
longer beautiful—her appearance is distorted, pale, drawn, weary, and sick.
GODDESS OF THE
EARTH
The whole world is
about to become enslaved. Speak the Word
of Power granted to you by the One.
Otherwise, my soul will be corrupted and the spiritual life of this
planet will die forever.
INT. RADEA’S CHAMBERS—AFTER
SUNSET
GA
(giving Radea his ring back)
I am now free.
RADEA
Free of
what?
GA
Of both you and the demon.
RADEA
How is this possible?
GA
I did what the demon asked.
RADEA
Which was?
GA
I
got you to kill Le’ah’e. That was my
mission. My debt to the demon is paid.
RADEA
No
woman could love the way you have loved me without being in love.
GA
I fooled you.
RADEA
(Walking up to her the way he
walked up to the thief girl before he broke her arm.)
You
could fool even God with your love.
EXT.
ROOFTOP—AFTER SUNSET
As
He’ad’ra steps through the doorway onto the roof, he steps inside a vision. He’ad’ra sees in front of him a 23 year old
girl, the one he saw previously at the tide pool. She is sitting on a dock casually kicking her
feet in a lake that stretches out before them.
UNBORN
DAUGHTER
Why won’t you let me be born
through my mother?
HE’AD’RA
Who
are you?
(getting up)
I am your unborn daughter.
She
walks up and hugs him.
UNBORN
DAUGHTGER
I
want to breathe air, to taste life. I
want to love and be loved. Don’t take
this from me.
HE’AD’RA
Child, if there were
possible to save the world I
would do so. It is not possible.
INT.
RADEA’S CHAMBERS—AFTER SUNSET
The
room is dark, lit only by the fading twilight.
PRIEST
Radea,
we have a problem.
RADEA
Le’ah’e’s dead?
PRIEST
Yes.
RADEA
Then
leave me alone.
PRIEST
But….
RADEA
I am having bad day.
PRIEST
\ The crystals have shut down.
RADEA
What
does it matter? You can’t kill He’ad’ra
with crystals.
PRIEST
I think He’ad’ra shut the crystals down.
RADEA
Oh.
EXT.
He’ad’ra walks to the center
of the roof top amid the circular pillars.
He’ad’ra stops, pauses, and
then begins speaking a word of power consisting of three sounds.
EXT. ROOF OF ACADEMY OF
MAGIC—SAME TIME
Radea
goes out on the roof and sees He’ad’ra on top of the other building with a
whirlwind of magical energy expanding around him.
RADEA
You’re bluffing, right?
EXT.
HE’AD’RA
(speaking word of power)
Jaaaaa
With the sound of “Jaaa” an
opal light of dark violet, red, blue, and green intermingling expands across
the sky.
MONTAGE
All manner of spirits from
all seven planetary spheres including the Angel of Death, arch demons, the 49
judges of Saturn including Sa, the elementals Pyrhum, Istiphul, Muscar,
Cargoste, etc. and many other spirits from many realms and domains are surprised
and astonished as they are held captive and bound by He’ad’ra’s voice.
The spirits turned their
faces toward the third planet from the sun and to the continent of Atlantis and
then to He’ad’ra.
Hurled and caught by a
cosmic power of concentration, like the swirling tides of a cosmic whirlpool in
a cosmic sea, their voices join. The
united spirits appear before He’ad’ra as a bright flame with a whirlwind of
colors whirling within it. These cast a
dark red glow that melts, twists, and cracks the columns of marble and the
floor.
As they presented
themselves in front of He'adra in a column of light, they speak as one in an
unearthly calm, in an eerie, quiet, and childlike voice:
SPIRITS
For what purpose are
we called?
HE’AD’RA
Chaaaaaaa
With the sound of “Chaaaa”
a dark violet light with silvery sparks spreads out like a flat but expanding
circle of light until it covers the entire continent of Atlantis amid the
ocean.
VO (He’ad’ra)
(simultaneous with the sound of
“Chaaa”)
Take Atlantis, take
her marble buildings with their lapis and golden crowns, take her hills and her
valleys, take her mountains and her meadows, take her with all her splendor and
with all her mysteries, take all of her, take her and pull her down beneath the
waves and into the depths.
We now see the destruction
of Atlantis with priests and their pyramid temples being buried, sunk, and
destroyed along with the capital city and its masses. There are also ice caps breaking up, tidal
waves, thunderstorms, earthquakes, fire in the sky, mountains falling, the seas
boiling, etc.
Radea watches the city around
himself shaking and falling down.
Beneath the city, the fire
crystals break and fall over.
The power goes out in the
flying saucer carrying Baka and Arlus. The saucer coasts to the ground in
Baka and Arlus exit the saucer
not far from a barbarian desert village.
EXT. ROOFTOP—AFTER SUNSET
He’ad’ra speaks the third sound in the word of power.
HE’AD’RA
Wwwaaaa
The “Wwwaaaa” sound emits a
lilac color like fog rolling over the ocean.
VO (Istiphul) And with the final sound, the waters and
oceans
are
commanded to hold Atlantis and enfold her, sealing her away in a secret place
that will not be found until the dream of Atlantis is again ready to be
revealed--until there are enough hearts on earth that call out for the beauty
that shines with the light of the mysteries.
He’ad’ra stands and watches
as the world collapses around him. He
too disappears along with the capital city amid the waves and earthquake.
The last of Atlantis sinks
beneath the waves until one gigantic wave finally covers the sea where once
Atlantis stood.
EXT. OCEAN—SOME TIME LATER
Istiphul standing on the
surface of the sea.
ISTIPHUL
Fair, fair,
Beautiful beyond
compare,
Wondrous land,
Oh place of beauty
where the gods did walk—
Their footsteps
echoing throughout the hills,
Oh fair Atlantis,
Land of dream and
happiness,
How you have now
fallen,
Fallen down
Beneath the waves and
the sea,
Forever gone.
INT. RAY BROWN’S LECTURE HALL—AFTER LECTURE
YOUNG MAN
(to friend standing in
front of crystal)
What do you think it
is used for?
FRIEND
Making wishes.
YOUNG MAN
Do you see the
fourth triangle?
FRIEND
I can feel it but not
see it.
As the friend touches the
crystal ball, there is a tiny flash of light.
Ray Brown’s young female assistant notices the tiny flash of light
between the crystal the young man’s eyes.
YOUNG MAN
Did you make a wish?
FRIEND
Yeah.
YOUNG MAN
I think I will too.
FRIEND
Careful what you
wish for.
Shot of the lecture hall from
outside panning up into the sky, across the Sonora desert to the ocean, and
down into the pyramid near Bimini where Istiphul’s form is seen among the
shadows by the open door into the pyramid, the currents of water flowing
through her hair.