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THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD Screenplay by Charles Lederer Based on the story WHO GOES THERE? by John W. Campbell Jr. RKO 1951 8/29/50 FADE IN 1 EXT. NIGHT The snow piled streets at Dutch Harbor, Alaska. A wind blows. The street is empty. A bundled figure moves through the street toward a low roofed lighted building. A sign outside the building reads: "OFFICER'S CLUB, DUTCH HARBOR, ALASKA" Someone has scribbled the words under the printing "No Penguins allowed". The figure stops in the doorway and looks at a long thermometer. It registers twenty-five below zero. The figure continues into the club. 2 INT. OFFICERS CLUB ROOM - MIDNIGHT This is the social center for U.S.A. flying men roosting in the polar regions. The air base is near Dutch Harbor, Alaska - a commuting hop from the Arctic Circle. It is early winter. The night in Dutch Harbor is long and dark. In the room two of the six gaming tables are occupied. At one sits a four handed bridge game. At the other sit five men playing poker. RADIO MUSIC - an American Service Broadcast - is coming a bit feebly into the room. All is cozy and steam-heated in the room. Among the five poker players are three men who are to be active in our story. One is W.O. Vic MacAuliff. He is a tough, taciturn radio man. He has seen service everywhere, heard nearly all the languages and drunk nearly all the different brews of the earth. The second is Captain Pat Henry, in his early thirties. Captain Henry has been a flyer since he shed his first stocking cap. He is a man of whimsey and temper and also mood. The third is Lieutenant Eddie Dykes, a tall, homely man under thirty. The overcoats, boots, ear-lapped military hats of the aviators lie on an unused table nearby. EDDIE DYKES (as he shuffles and deals) It was about a hundred and five in the shade in this place. The women didn't wear any clothes at all to speak of - which was very intelligent of them. You lay in a hammock and three of them stood there fanning you. When I die, I hope to go to Accra. MACAULIFF I was there. HENRY (looking at his hand) I open for one dollar. PLAYER I stay. PLAYER I'm out. MACAULIFF Going up. He puts two chips on the table. EDDIE Scotland strikes again. I'm in. Cards, gentlemen. Two other players add another chip each to the pot. HENRY Three. PLAYERS Three. MACAULIFF These'll do. The figure has entered the room and is surveying the poker players as it removes its wrappings. He is Ned Skeely, a newspaper correspondent. HENRY Hello, Skeely, how are you? SKEELY Faintly alive. Twenty-five below and going down. It's a night for brass monkeys. HENRY Care to join us? SKEELY As soon as I count my fingers. I may have lost some. HENRY I think you know everybody here. Players smile and say "sure." MACAULIFF I haven't met the gentleman, Captain. HENRY Ned Skeely - Angus MacAuliff. MACAULIFF How do you do, sir. EDDIE Mr. Skeely's a newspaper man, Mac. We're going to put on a snow ball fight for him tomorrow. Skeely takes a seat next to Eddie. HENRY (returning to the play) One dollar is bet. EDDIE Against a pat hand hald by a Scotchman. Captain Henry, your decorations for valor have gone to your head. I'm folding. MACAULIFF Call. HENRY A pair of aces. MACAULIFF Beats two queens. EDDIE (to MacAuliff) You ought to know better than to try fooling my pal. Only dames can do that. HENRY (quietly) I promised you a kick in the belly. EDDIE (mockingly) Forgive. Forgive. A slip of the tongue. HENRY (to Skeely) How'd you make out with General Fogarty? SKEELY Your general is nursing his secrets like a June bride. MACAULIFF Deal 'em out, lieutenant. EDDIE You in, Mr. Skeely? SKEELY Yes. I am always interestad in pauperizing the air force. EDDIE (dealing) I've got a big idea that involves you, Mr. Skeely. You're not going to get any story out of this post. Forgarty has given us all instructions to treat you like a Russian spy. SKEELY General Fogarty is going to end up on his knees begging for my attention. EDDIE (intently) This is more practical, Mr. Skeely. There's a man in Edmonton who can give you the whole Radar defense story. Loves to talk. General MacLaren. You tell the General you want to get to Edmonton - and Pat and I'll fly you there. SKEELY I know General MacLaren. He bores me. EDDIE (desperately) Don't be like that! It's warm in Edmonton! They've got girls in Edmonton! Without fur pants on! SKEELY (to Henry) How about it, Captain? HENRY Let's play cards. MACAULIFF (to Eddie) Ye ought to know better than to try and shoo our captain southward - with his heart wrapped around the North Pole. HENRY That'll do, Mr. MacAuliff. MACAULIFF (grinning) I open - for two dollars. SKEELY (casually, as they play) What's going on at the North Pole? EDDIE Some scientists are holding a convention there. Looking for Polar bear tails. Ever hear of Dr. Carrington? SKEELY The fellow who was at Bikini? EDDIE The same. HENRY They're holed in about two thousand miles north of here, a lot of botanists and physicists. EDDIE (solemnly) Including a pin-up girl. Very interesting type. Captain Henry can give you any data on her you want. HENRY (looking at his cards and speaking quietly to Eddie) Someday I hope to have a co-pilot a cut above a high school boy - or at least dry behind his ears - A voice comes over the P.A. speaker. VOICE Captain Henry. Captain Pat Henry. Report to General Fogarty's quarters at once, please. Henry rises from the table. SKEELY (frowning and serious) Twelve thirty and a general yelling for his troops. Sounds like the old days. Henry starts putting on his overcoat. DISSOLVE TO: 3 INT. GENERAL FOGARTY'S QUARTERS. NIGHT A living room with a fire going in the fire place. The room is fairly well furnished. Some war trophies are on the wall, including a piece of a Japanese aeroplane, a Jap sword, and other important war souvenirs. Three men are in the room. One is General Fogarty, in his forties; the second is the adjutant of the post, Major Smith. The third is Corporal Hauser from the post's communication center. FOGARTY (to Corporal Hauser) If any more messages come in from that base I want to be notified personally, no matter what time. Tell the O.D. CORPORAL Yes, sir. There is a knock on the door. FOGARTY Come in. The door opens and a blast of freezing air hits the room as Captain Henry enters. He closes the door. HENRY Good evening, sir. Corporal Hauser opens the door and exits, letting another blast of cold into the room. The General shivers, scowls and grumbles. FOGARTY (shivering) Freddie, any chance of the Pentagon sending us a revolving door? MAJOR Could be. We got a gross of pith helmets last week. FOGARTY (to Henry) I've go something queer here from your picnic party up north. Just came in. (he reads from a paper) Believe air ship unusual type crashed in our vicinity. Please send facilities to investigate. Most urgent. (he looks up) It's from Dr. Carrington. What's it sound like to you, Pat? HENRY I think I'd better hop up. FOGARTY (dryly) I knew you'd say that. But what do you think you'll find, besides your lady friend? HENRY (quietly) I don't know. Any of our ships reported missing? MAJOR Not a one. HENRY Could be a Russky. They're all over the Pole, like flies. FOGARTY (smiling) Don't get nervous. You're going. When a double dome like Professor Carrington says "most urgent", small people like us have to jump. Better take a dog team and everything you might need for rescue work. HENRY I'll take off at 4:30. MAJOR What's the weather, Pat? HENRY There's a bad front moving in. But I think there's enough time to get there and back without bumping into it. FOGARTY You can do me a favor, Pat. HENRY Yes, sir. FOGARTY Take that newspaper fella up with you - and maroon him there. HENRY I'll invite him. FOGARTY And don't get me wrong about who gets marooned, Captain Henry. I would appreciate it if you didn't smash a landing ski and find it necessary to twiddle your thumbs for a week while it's being repaired. HENRY (coldly) That accident was unavoidable, sir. FOGARTY So was Romeo and Juliet. I'll expect you back tomorrow night - with or without Mr. Skeely. Good luck. DISSOLVE TO: 4 INT. C-54 PLANE. IT IS FLYING THROUGH A DIMLY LIT SKY. BELOW ARE CLOUD BANKS. In the plane are W. O. MacAuliff, Ned Skeely, Navigator Lieutenant Ken Ericson and Light Engineer Corporal Barnes. Captain Henry is flying the ship, Lieut. Dykes is beside him. MacAuliff is at his radio instrument. A dozen huskies and several sleds are in the plane, plus a pile of other cargo tied down under tarpaulin. SKEELY How far are we from camp? HENRY Three hours. We've slowed down. There's a breeze blowing. EDDIE DYKES (grimly) A breeze, he says. It's hitting forty miles. But you'll find that our captain has some funny ideas about the North Pole. He thinks it's a garden spot. Come and bring the kiddies. HENRY (grimly) You're yapping is out of order, Eddie. I'm not going to tell you again - EDDIE Always squawking - that's me! And for no reason! Shackleton went to the North pole once - and retired with a bag full of medals. I get to go there every three weeks - like it was lover's lane. HENRY (coldly) I'd like you to get this straight, Mr. Skeely, if you write anything. I'm liaison officer between our post and the Carrington outfit. These flights are strictly official. Usually bring in supplies. They're charting magnetic currents, growing new kinds of polar plants, looking for minerals. EDDIE That's right, Skeely. I was only kidding. It's a terrific outfit. The biggest collection of double domes ever got together on an ice cake. MACAULIFF (to the talkers) Something's coming through. Henry, Eddie and Navigator Ericson put on their head phones and listen. EDDIE (listening to the ear phones) Somebody's gooped up! HENRY (removing ear phones) Give me a new reading, Ken. KEN I can't understand it. SKEELY Who was that? HENRY The radio man, Hendrix - talking for Carrington. He wants us to correct our compass reading twelve points East. A magnetic disturbance is whacking away at everything. KEN (working) This is no place to make a mistake, Pat. We were bee-lining for the place. Hadn't we better get them back. HENRY No. Carrington doesn't make mistakes. We'll follow ground instructions. DISSOLVE TO: 5 INT. PLANE. A VIEW FAR BELOW OF THE SPRAWLING POLAR SETTLEMENT. Small dots of roofs on a flat expanse of snow. The plane starts descending. DISSOLVE TO: 6 EXT. POLAR PROJECT CAMP - DAY The C-54 makes a landing on skis some two hundred feet from the largest of the low looming buildings. The arrivals drop out of the plane door. A half dozen Eskimo workers belonging to the camp hurry toward them. DISSOLVE TO: 7 INT. LARGE ASSEMBLY ROOM OF POLAR EXPEDITION It is 60 per cent underground. It's windows are near the ceiling and function as transoms for light. The room is comfortably furnished and warm. It's steam pipes run along the wall. In the room are Dr. Chapman, Dr. Algari and Mrs. Chapman. Chapman is a forceful looking man in his forties. His wife is a good looking woman of forty who is also his assistant. Chapman is a minerologist. Algari is an elderly man, white haired. He is a botanist. A male cook stands at a large electric stove. He is cooking coffee and a hot lunch in a number of pots. Chapman walks up the stairs to the door, which is near the top of the room. He opens it. Captain Henry and his group come down the stairs. CHAPMAN Very pretty landing, Captain. We watched it. How was the trip? HENRY Nice ride. This is Mr. Skeely, Dr. Chapman, Mrs. Chapman, Dr. Algari. Mr. Skeely's a newspaperman. SKEELY Glad to know you. CHAPMAN (smiling) Glad to have a newspaperman drop in on us. We're a bit off the beaten track. SKEELY (looking around) Don't tell me I'm practically at the North Pole! Looks more like my old Kentucky home. HENRY Any further information, Dr. Chapman? CHAPMAN I'm convinced it's some sort of Russian air craft. Probably some new jet propelled rocket. ALGARI I very much doubt that, Hugo. I don't understand Russian science, but it can't be as far advanced as the indications we have from the crashed ship. CHAPMAN If it is a ship. We're all quite excited, Captain. HENRY Where's Dr. Carrington? CHAPMAN In the lab. MRS. CHAPMAN They'll all be here for lunch. It's ready - if you'd like to eat first. Fresh vegetables. HENRY (to Skeely) From their own garden. SKEELY Garden? MRS. CHAPMAN (smiling) Hothouse. SKEELY You have a hothouse! At the Pole! EDDIE (winking at Skeely) They've got everything here. Wait till you see. HENRY I'll join you in a few minutes. ALGARI I'll take you to the lab, Captain. HENRY Thanks. I know the way. He starts out of the room. MRS. CHAPMAN Please sit down, everybody. The group moves toward a long refectory table set with twenty places. We follow Captain Henry out. 8 INT. A CONNECTING UNDERGROUND CORRIDOR BETWEEN TWO OF THE CAMP BUILDINGS Henry, enters it and walks toward a steep stairway. He climbs it and knocks on a door. A voice calls. VOICE Come in. He opens the door. 9 INT. NIKKI'S OFFICE AND SLEEPING QUARTERS A small office-like room, lined with filing cabinets, holding a desk, a typewriter stand, a voice recording machine, and a couch that serves as a bed, is revealed. Sitting at the desk, typing, is a vivid, young woman, Alberta Nicholson. She is called Nikki. She stops typing and rises. NIKKI Pat! Welcome to our igloo! HENRY (smiling) Hello, Nikki. You look like seven million dollars. How are you? NIKKI Wonderful. Sit down. HENRY I talk better standing. He steps up to her and embraces her ardently. She pulls out of his embrace, calmly, and without alarm. NIKKI Please. (she straightens her hair) I think Dr. Carrington is waiting for you. HENRY Dr. Carrington will have to wait. I'm busy. He tries to embrace her again. NIKKI (evading him) No, you're not. HENRY (frowning) What's the matter? NIKKI Now, don't act surprised. We've been all through this before. I don't like promiscuous love making. It's meaningless. HENRY Who's promiscuous? We're alone, aren't we? NIKKI Pat, last time you were here, I spent three days wrestling with a typical air corps wolf. It was like playing puss-in- the-corner with Bluebeard or somebody. You even invaded my bedroom, claiming you were looking for a lost pocketknife. Now, I'm fond of you, Pat, but this time, if you don't keep your hands to yourself, we're through. HENRY You're fond of me, eh? Well, I'm fond of you, too. What are we waiting for? NIKKI We're waiting until we get to know each other. HENRY (grinning) Now you're on my side. Come here. You'll get to know me. NIKKI (pushing him away) Not that way. HENRY What other way is there? NIKKI (desperately) Didn't you ever hear the word "conversation"? Didn't you ever read a book, or see a movie - or - or think about anything? HENRY Yeah. But you don't want to talk about what I'm thinking. NIKKI No, I don't. If that's all you can think! HENRY I got other thoughts. NIKKI It would be an entrancing diversion to hear one. HENRY Well, try this one. Dames are all alike. NIKKI That's not a thought. It's a cliche. And a stupid cliche. HENRY All dames want to get married. If you ask them to marry you, you're sincere. If you don't you're Bluebeard, and a wolf. NIKKI (dangerously) Are you saying I want you to ask me to marry you? HENRY Never could figure them out. If you buy a dame one meal and try to kiss her, you're a wolf and a Bluebeard. But if the same fellow promises to buy her thirty thousand meals, then he's a prospective husband and he couldn't beat her off with a stick. NIKKI Yes, and tell a fellow your garter belt is your own business, and he'll think of every mean, stinking thing in the world to say back to you! HENRY (calmly) That's the war of the sexes, I guess. NIKKI Well, I hate war! HENRY On the other hand, it's my business. I got a commission. Gimme a kiss, Nikki. NIKKI I'm tired of you. Now, come on. Doctor Carrington's eager to see you. HENRY (gloomily) Okay. Lead on, Miss Nicholson. I guess I came to the wrong Pole. He follows her out. DISSOLVE 10 INT. DR. CARRINGTON'S LABORATORY This is a large chamer in a separate building. Here are concentrated the instruments used by the various scientists in their astronomical, mineralogical and botanical experiments. At a large flat-topped table in the room sits Dr. Arthur Carrington. He is a man of 43 with an alert, cheerful face. He is good looking, well built, soft spoken. His dominant characteristic is a smile that seems never to leave his lips. It is present always on his face like an extra feature. He is a genius of science and a man whose brain is focused like a microscope on the secrets of nature. But the intensity of his preoccupa- tion with science is not to be heard in the easy tones of his voice. It will be seen in the things he does, in his point of view - but never in his manner. Outwardly, he seems only a good looking man full of child-like enthusiasm for a task and with a soothing, amiable way for his fellow man. In the room with Dr. Carrington is a lean young man named William Stone, in charge of the camp's photographic work and equipment. Captain Henry stands silently in the doorway, his eyes moodily on his scientific rival. The doctor is studying the indicator dials of a complex instrument on the table. Bill Stone greets the arrivals. STONE Hello, Nikki. Hello, Captain Henry. How was the trip? HENRY (shortly) O. K. He remains staring at the preoccupied Carrington who seems aware neither of his or Nikki's presence. NIKKI (quietly) Captain Henry is here, doctor. CARRINGTON (without looking up, his voice amiable) Yes, I know. (his eyes stay on the indicator dials and he continues softly) Would you take these notes, please. (he dictates to Nikki quietly. She writes as he speaks) November second, 2 p.m. Deflection on screen nineteen continues - twelve point three. No lessening or wavering of disturbing element. (he looks up and smiles at Henry and adds softly) Can we start now, Captain Henry? HENRY (coolly) Mind telling me where we're going? CARRINGTON Forty-eight miles due east. HENRY Your message said an aeroplane had crashed. Is that what we're looking for? CARRINGTON (smiling) I don't know, Captain. HENRY (covering his irritation with difficulty) I'd like to know what I'm supposed to go looking for, Dr. Carrington. CARRINGTON (gently) So would I. (eagerly) I think we should start while the light holds. HENRY (without moving) We'll start after you've given me what information you've got. CARRINGTON (softly) Is that necessary, Captain? (he sees Henry's scowl and is quickly contrite) I'm very sorry. I was thinking only of the vagueness of my information. I dislike being vague. Will you please read Captain Henry my first notes, Nikki? NIKKI (opening the note book in her hand and reading from it) November 1, 11:15 p.m. Sound detectors registered explosion due east. 11:18 p.m. magnetic dial revealed twelve point three deflection. Such deflection possible only if a disturbing force equivalent to 20,000 tons of steel or iron ore had become part of the earth within fifty mile radius. HENRY That sounds like a meteor, doesn't it? CARRINGTON (amiably) Yes, very much. Except for our photographic plates. Our telescopic cameras were working last night. Here is the film taken between 11:12 and 11:15. Let Captain Henry see it, Bill. Stone switches on a light in a moviola box and runs a strip of film slowly through it. Captain Henry looks into the box. CARRINGTON You will note the small dot low on the film. It is moving from west to east. At 11:14 the dot moves upward. At 11:15 it drops to the earth and vanishes. A meteor might move almost horizontally from west to east, but never upward. If the traveling object caused the explosion we picked up, it is in the ice 48 miles from here. The sound reached us four minutes after the object's disappearance. This gives us the approximate distance from here. HENRY (frowning) Twenty thousand tons of steel is a lot of metal for an aeroplane. CARRINGTON For the sort of aeroplane we know, Captain. HENRY (abruptly) Come on, let's get going. He walks out followed by Carrington, Stone and Nikki. DISSOLVE TO: 11 INT. C-54 PLANE Captain Henry and Lieutenat Dykes are at the controls. The rest of the crew are in their accustomed places. A dog sled and a dog-team occupy the rear of the passenger cabin. Flight Engineer Barnes is scanning the snowscape below. So are Photographer Stone and the scientists Olson, Chapman, Vorrhees, Laurenz and Redding. Skeely is also peering avidly out of the window. There is an air of tension to the silence. Only Dr. Carrington seems relaxed. He shares a seat with Nikki. From time to time Captain Henry turns around to scowl at Nikki and Carrington. NIKKI (eagerly to her companion) I'm terribly excited, Arthur! I'm jumping up and down inside! CARRINGTON (softly) So am I. NIKKI (laughing) If the world were coming to an end, I don't think you'd change your expression, Arthur. You'd keep smiling - and dictating notes - and expect me to take them down accurately. CARRINGTON (nodding) And you would. Captain Henry has risen and left Dykes at the controls. He has walked back to Carrington and stood there waiting grimly for their talk to end. He speaks up now with irritation. HENRY We're fifty miles out, Doctor, and not a sign of anything. Those gadgets of yours must be screwy. CARRINGTON (amiably) I doubt it, Captain. They've exhibited no signs of lunacy in the past. NIKKI (to Henry) You must be off your course. HENRY (to Carrington, insistently, ignoring Nikki) We haven't seen anything, have we? What does that mean? CARRINGTON (amiably) It means we haven't seen it. It doesn't mean it isn't there. Henry's response is interrupted by a cry from Dykes. DYKES Hey, Pat! Look at this! The compass is turning around! HENRY (starting forward) What the holy -- CARRINGTON (calmly) We've passed it. (calling to Dykes) When did it start turning, Lieutenant? DYKES Just now -- fifteen seconds ago. CARRINGTON (to Nikki) Mark the time, please. (to Dykes) Is it a complete revolution? DYKES Yep. Hundred and eighty degrees. CARRINGTON (to Henry) Then we flew right over it about a mile and three eighths back. HENRY (curtly) Thanks. (he calls to the cockpit) Spin it around Eddie, and take her down low. Henry returns to the cockpit. Carrington follows him and stands gazing out over his shoulder. 12 LONG SHOT OF ICE FIELD FROM SHIP'S POINT OF VIEW A dark patch in the ice appears. 13 INT. COCKPIT CARRINGTON AND DYKES (together) There - I see it - over there! DYKES It's buried in the ice. HENRY (peering at the ground) What do you think, Eddie? DYKES (pointing) Looks pretty smooth over there - HENRY (nodding) Fasten your seat belts, folks. We're going to land. DISSOLVE TO: 14 THE ICE PLANE The C-54 lands gracefully on its skis. Its occupants disembark. Barnes and Dykes start hitching up the dog team. NIKKI (standing on tiptoe) I can't see it from here. HENRY It's that way. About a half mile. CARRINGTON A little more south, I believe. NIKKI Oh, I hope we don't lose it. CARRINGTON (smiling at her eagerness) Hardly. MACAULIFF This'll lead us right to it. He holds up a Geiger counter. CARRINGTON (surprised) A Geiger counter. But there's no reason to suppose it's radioactive. MACAULIFF It is, though. I noticed in the plane. See? He holds up the counter. It clicks steadily. DYKES All set, folks. HENRY (to Nikki) You ride on the sled. Nikki gets on the sled. It starts off, the rest of the party trotting along in its tracks. DISSOLVE TO 15 THE ICE PLAIN NEAR THE DARK PATCH The sled stops. Nikki gets off and runs with the others to the dark patch. They stand looking down at it from a little hillock of snow and ice. BARNES That's no aeroplane. OLSON It's certainly not a meteor. MACAULIFF Whatever it is, how in the holy name of Aberdeen, did it get in there? Look, the ice is smooth as glass. There is a little chorus of agreement and wonder. HENRY This is the craziest thing I ever saw! CARRINGTON Not really. HENRY (over polite) Perhaps you'll be good enough to explain the little mystery to all us ordinary people. CARRINGTON (staring at the dark patch) Anything hitting the earth's atmosphere at an astronomical speed would be white hot in an instant. It would melt its way into the ice which would then freeze over it again. Skeely and Barnes have moved to another hillock to get a better view of the buried object. Suddenly Skeely lets out a yell. SKEELY (at the top of his lungs) IT'S A SAUCER! IT'S A FLYING SAUCER! There is an instant's silence. They all stare into the ice. OLSON (softly) Bless my soul, that's what it is! AD LIB A saucer! A flying disc! Sure, look from over here - see? A real, honest-to-God saucer! See the direction vanes... They said there were no such things... D'ya suppose there's anyone in it? Must be ... Sure... SKEELY (jumping with excitement) Axes! Get some ice-axes! Barnes and Dykes run for axes. STONE Stand back, everybody! Let me get some pictures! SKEELY (wildly, as Stone starts photographing) Where's the radio generator! Hey, MacAuliff! (MacAuliff turns to him) Scotty, come on, quick! I want to send a message! HENRY (interrupting) Nothing doing. No private messages. SKEELY What do you mean, private! I'm going to send it to the whole world! HENRY Sorry, Skeely. This is army information. I'll have to wait for authority to let you file a story. SKEELY (beside himself) You've got your authority from the Constitution of the United States! It's called freedom of the press! I'm sending my story, Captain! HENRY All right, send it. But not from my ship. Skeely glares at him in frustrated fury. Henry ignores Skeely's rage, and turns to MacAuliff. HENRY (cont'd) Call Hendrix..Have him wire Fogarty we've found a flying disc - intact - imbeaded in the ice - and we're going to get it out! MACAULIFF Yes, sir. He starts for the plane - Skeely at his heels. SKEELY (urgently) Looky, Scotty! This is the biggest story since the Red Sea! A ship from another planet! You can't cover it up! Have a heart! Think what this means to the world! MACAULIFF I'm not working for the world. I'm working for the army, and I've got my orders. SKEELY (furiously) Even the Russians wouldn't act like this! He starts back toward Captain Henry. OLSON (to Carrington) What do you make of that, Arthur? It certainly doesn't look like 20,000 tons of steel. CARRINGTON Not even a ton, I'd say. During the above, axes have arrived. Five of the men start hacking feverishly through the ice. Nikki stands beside Carrington. Captain Henry joins the men chopping on the ice. The little group on the wind-swept snow work silently and desperately to remove the four feet covering of ice from the saucer. CHAPMAN (coming up to Carrington) What do you think it's made of, Arthur? CARRINGTON No element we know on this earth. NIKKI (excitedly) I don't see any door or windows in it. CARRINGTON They must be underneath. OLSON (peering) I can't make out any engine. CARRINGTON I doubt if we'll find anything we call an engine. SKEELY (arriving out of breath) What planet do you figure it's from, Doctor? CARRINGTON Not this one. SKEELY Must be Mars. That's the only one that's supposed to be inhabited, isn't it? CARRINGTON I'll be able to answer your questions a little more accurately after I've examined the interior of the craft and its occupants, if any. Skeely grabs an axe and runs toward the chopping group. NIKKI Occupants! They must be dead, though! CARRINGTON Dead or alive - we'll learn a great many things we don't know in the world, now. The group is swinging axes. Captain Henry suddenly stops digging. He looks up at the sun looks at his watch. HENRY (to Dykes) We can't make it, Eddie. The light'll be gone in an hour. The temperature's dropping, too, I think. EDDIE (looking toward the horizon) That storm front's moving in fast. But we can't quit. We've got to keep going! It's from Mars! HENRY I'm not going to try an instrument landing on skis in the dark - and kill off everybody. EDDIE (eagerly) We can dig for another half hour, Pat. HENRY If they get that close - I'll never get them back in the ship. They're so excited now they don't know they're half frozen. EDDIE (excitedly) Look, Pat - I feel fine. I'll stay here all night. Just leave me a sleeping bag and some whiskey. HENRY (suddenly) I got a thermite bomb on the sled. Go get it. We'll melt the ice away. EDDIE (axe in hand) Wonderful! What a brain! He runs toward the sled. At the same moment one of the diggers cries out. BARNES (axe in hand) Here's a piece in the open! We've uncovered it! The scientists and the axe wielders run over to Barnes. Captain Henry comes over. Dr. Carrington drops to his knees and examines a two foot metal edge protruding from the ice. CARRINGTON May I have a file, please? BARNES Here's one. He removes a file from his heavy clothes. The group watches as Dr. Carrington starts using the file on the protruding edge of the saucer. CHAPMAN What's it look like, Arthur? CARRINGTON (hitting the file against it) I don't know. Probably an alloy. I'll try and get some filings. We can analyze them tonight. (he looks up and smiles at the group watching him) We haven't much time. I suggest you all continue with your excavating. HENRY No need to. We've got a thermite bomb. CARRINGTON (pleased) Thermite! Oh, excellent! He stops filing and rises. He stands staring down at the machine in the ice. Lieut. Dykes arrives with a thermite bomb, a length of wire and a plunger. MacAuliff comes running up at the same moment. MACAULIFF (panting) They're relaying the message to Fogarty now. We ought to have an answer in an hour. I got some news back from Hendrix. The barometer fell down to the cellar and a freeze is coming up like nobody's business. He says to watch out. HENRY I'm watching. Drill a hole for that bomb, Eddie. SKEELY (moving in to the group in time to hear the last ramark) A bomb? Is that safe? DYKES (as he digs the hole, Barnes assisting) It's S.O.P. Standard Operating Procedure for removing ice. It just melts it. BARNES It'll uncover the whole saucer in thirty seconds. NIKKI I'm so excited, I'm almost sick to my stomach. HENRY (to Dykes) That's deep enough, Eddie. The light's going fast. CARRINGTON (softly, as he continues to stare at the metal mass at his feet) Five minutes from now we may have the key to the stars. A million years of history are waiting in that ice for us. DYKES All set, Pat. HENRY Clear the field, Mac. MACAULIFF (calling) Over here - everybody. Keep together. The crew and scientists and Nikki move across the ice, led by MacAuliff. Eddie uncoils a hundred feet of wire and walks with it. Captain Henry stands in the increasing wind - surveying the dimly outlined ship in the ice. HENRY (raising his arm) Let her go, Eddie. Eddie presses the plunger. There is the normal thermite bomb explosion. A glow of the thermite flares and dies. EDDIE (calling out) O.K., folks. She's clear. Before anyone can move there is a muffled exlosion. And a second flare starts under the ice. Gradu- ally the glare builds up. The whole ice field becomes illuminated from beneath by an unbearable light. The onlookers are forced to turn their eyes away, all save Carrington, and Henry who continue to stare at it. A chorus of exclamations and queries rise from the group. AD LIB What is it? What happened - Secondary explosion? Don't look - Shield your eyes! How can it burn - in the ice? Chain reaction - from the thermite! Etc. SKEELY (grabbing Chapman's arm) What's happening to it. Tell me, Doc! CHAPMAN (slowly) I'm afraid it's disintegrating - totally. CARRINGTON (his face tense) Secrets - that might have given us a new science. Gone! Captain Henry stands aghast as the wild burning consumes the ship under the ice. He sees its outlines run and vanish. Skeely comes up to him. SKEELY (raging) Standard Operating Procedure, you blind ape! You've destroyed it! CARRINGTON I should have thought - I should have thought... SKEELY You sure should! The greatest discovery in history up flames! Fine work! (he wheels on Henry) The army can be proud of itself - turning a whole civilization into a Fourth of July piece. Even the Indians acted smarter toward Columbus! CHAPMAN Not a shred left. Every bit of it gone - and we know nothing - nothing. CARRINGTON We know one thing...what it was made of. Obviously a magnesium alloy. CHAPMAN That's right. Only magnesium would react to heat that way. SKEELY (bitterly) Splendid! There's a story for me. (quoting) Scientists learn magnesium burns! DYKES (to Henry) Want me to mark the spot - so we can find it after the storm? Captain Henry has been staring into the wind-swept ice. He has stood silent under Skeely's abuse. HENRY (to Dykes) Later, Eddie. First, I want you to bring up all your picks and axes. Mac, I want your Geiger counter. And bring the dog sled. MACAULIFF Where to? HENRY I saw something under the ice about fifty feet from here. The flare lit it up. He holds the Geiger counter in front of him and starts walking slowly. Carrington, Ericson, Barnes, Dykes and Skeely move along at his side. The others straggle behind, MacAuliff leading the dog team. CARRINGTON What was it, Captain? HENRY I don't know. It was shaped like a man, but it might have been a piece of the disk. DYKES A man! You mean somebody got out of that saucer? HENRY Probably thrown out when it crashed. If it is a man. CARRINGTON (gesturing toward the counter, which is clicking) It's radio active. I imagine it must be a fragment fron the saucer. HENRY Maybe. It was sure man-shaped, though. CARRINGTON (with growing excitement) Good work, Captain. We may salvage something yet. SKEELY (pointing at the counter) It's getting louder. More to your left, I think. DYKES (pointing off) There it is! There! He points to an ice bank. Dimly visible in the ice is a two legged shape. SKEELY Is this a story! The man from Mars! MACAULIFF (excitedly) It's got legs - and a head. I can see 'em. NIKKI It is! It's a man... It really is! There is an ad lib chorus of excited remarks from the others. AD LIB There - see it? Look - right by that boulder! It's an animal. No - it's a man. Must be eight feet long. Etc. EDDIE How come it's frozen in the ice - if it was thrown clear? HENRY (chopping at the ice) Same as the saucer. Got melted in. SKEELY (chopping at the ice) How about using some thermite? HENRY Shut up! The men continue to swing their axes. MacAuliff has stepped into a small depression in the ice and is closest to the figure they are trying to extricate. The ice surrounding it has become flawed from their blows, and the figure it contains is practically invisible. BARNES (chopping) I can't see it at all now. SKEELY Hurry up, boys. I can't wait. (to Henry) Sure hope it isn't a mirage. HENRY No mirage. It's there all right. BARNES What did it look like in the flare? HENRY You'll believe it when you see it. MACAULIFF (from below) Hey - HENRY What's wrong, Mac? MACAULIFF (staggering away from the block they have carved out) I'm sick to my stomach. I sunk my pick right into its skull - something green oozed out. EDDIE No harm done. It was dead anyway. ERICSON The light's going, Pat. We haven't got time. HENRY You're right. BARNES Hey, look. The whole block's coming loose! CARRINGTON (nodding) Recently formed ice. Separates easily. HENRY All right -- everybody on it. We'll load the whole slab onto the sled. They load the block onto the dog sled, and start hauling it across the ice field. DISSOLVE TO: 16 EXT. POLAR CAMP. THE LIGHT IS ALMOST GONE The C-54 appears in the lowering sky. It flies erratically in the increasing wind. The plane makes a precarious landing on its skis, the rising gale buffeting, and almost overturning it. A half dozen bundled Eskimos come out of the camp and move toward the plane. Barnes, Eddie and MacAuliff pile out. They help Nikki and the scientists alight. In the half dark, the pessengers start across the wind-blasted snow toward the camp. They move with difficulty. Words are inaudible in the gale. MacAuliff gestures the Eskimos toward the plane. They climb in. Captain Henry and Eddie bring out the dogs and a sled. The block of ice, half covered by a tarpaulin, is dropped from the plane's door. Working in the icy blasts now sweeping the dark, the men move the ice-block onto a sled. Others tie the plane down, tethering it to stakes pounded into the ice. With the plane tied down, the party starts for the camp. The dogs draw the sled with the ice-block on it. DISSOLVE TO: 16A EXTERIOR ENTRANCE TO STOREROOM A series of steps have been cut through the snowbank outside the storeroom entrance. The ice-block is unloaded from the sled and bumped down the steep steps. 17 INT. STORE ROOM It is a dimly lit room, piled with barrels of scientific equipment. It has the look of a gloomy well stocked cellar. The ice-block is slid into a clear space in the middle of the room. Barrels and boxes are moved to make more room around it, all the group assisting. HENRY (to Eddie) Send the Eskimos away. EDDIE They've hot footed it already. It's going to take a lot of coaxing to get them back. MACAULIFF Anyone got some whiskey? EDDIE (poking among some boxes) Here's a whole bar room. He removes a bottle and starts opening it. BARNES (to Henry, nervously) What do we do now, unveil him? HENRY Nothing to see through the ice. (to Carrington) Can you turn off the heat in this room, Doctor? CARRIGTON (softly) If it's necessary. EDDIE What d'you meen, turn off the heat. It's fifty below outside. CARRINGTON I suggest we discuss our procedure before we take any further steps. HENRY (to Eddie) Open the window, Eddie. Eddie stares at him and climbs up to the window. LAURENZ (full of tension, his eyes on the tarp covered block of ice) We're wasting time, Captain! We must melt it out. Investigate! Examine! HENRY We're not melting it out. EDDIE (from the ladder top) The window's closed. HENRY Punch a hole in it. Eddie breaks the window. LAURENZ This is stupid! Criminal! The secrets of a universe are in there. We are scientists! CARRINGTON (quietly) It's almost certain that we'll be called in by the army to make a study of it later, Captain. LAURENZ You can't fly the thing to Dutch Harbor! This storm may last for weeks. No human can walk in it. HENRY I'm sorry, gentlemen. I'll wait instructions from General Fogarty. SKEELY (quietly) I think you're making a crazy decision. There's no army precedent for how to treat a Martian. And nobody is better qualified to take our visitor apart than these gentlemen of science. You couldn't ask for more geniuses at an autopsy. HENRY It's staying in the ice. LAURENZ You're behaving like a meddlesome sophomore, Captain Henry! There are organisms that survive after death. Cold may destroy them. REDDING (quietly) They may be dangerous organisms. Disease germs from another planet. We're not prepared medically to cope with them. LAURENZ That is absolute nonsense, Redding! REDDING Nor do we know what effect the air of our earth may have on the creature's remains. HENRY Yes, I'd feel kind of foolish if this thing disappeared in a cloud of smoke like that saucer did. LAURENZ (to Carrington) Arthur, you are in charge of this post. VORHEES We have every right to proceed scientifically. CARRINGTON (controling himself) Captain Henry, I can only urge you in the interest of human knowledge to permit us to examine the body in there - LAURENZ (excitedly) We don't have to be permitted! We have thirty men in this camp - all armed. HENRY Your request is denied, Dr. Carrington. That ice-block and what's in it is army property. And this is a military installation. As head of the military here, I'm taking over. SKEELY Martial law, eh! HENRY Until I receive instructions from my superior officer on what to do - we'll mark time. I'm posting a guard to keep everybody out - and everybody's hands off - in the meantime. CARRINGTON (softly) Captain Henry is doing what he considers right. (to Henry) It's difficult for me to mark time - with such amazing information waiting for us - but I accept your decision. I suggest that your guard use one of our electric blankets to keep warm. Will you get him one, Fred. A mechanic present nods. HENRY Thanks. How do we get to your radio room? CARRINGTON I'll show you. (he starts out) SKEELY (excitedly) The radio room! I'm getting senile! I forgot all about it. Skeely starts out. EDDIE Mind if I have a last peek at our pal -- He goes to the ice-block, and pulls off the tarpaulin. The dim two-legged shape is blurringly visible inside the block. HENRY Come on, Eddie. EDDIE (staring at the frosted ice-cake) I can't quite make it out yet, but I know one thing. They don't bread 'em for beauty on Mars. The rest of the group leaves through the inner door. We stay with Ken. He stands alone in the cellar, leaning against a barrel. He picks up a whiskey bottle and takes a swig. Then he approaches the block of ice. He stares into it for a moment and backs away. He removes his gun from its holster, and resumes his place leaning against the barrels, his eyes nervously on the ice-block. 18 INT. UNDERGROUND CORRIDOR - CONNECTING CELLAR AND RADIO BUILDING Led by Dr. Carrington, the group moves down the shadowy length. Skeely is talking as he walks beside Captain Henry. SKEELY (his excitement a contrast to the silence of the scientists and army men) Can you imagine what's going to happen when this story hits the headlines! Everybody who owns a sled is going to start for the North Pole for a look at the man from Mars. Gentlemen, you'll be doing a bigger business than Coney Island in a week! What a shame, he's dead! An interview with a live Martian! That would have been something, eh? Look, Captain, you've got to let these boys get at that corpse as soon as possible. Our readers will be waiting for details. You're liable to give the whole nation a nervous breakdown. 19 INT. RADIO ROOM The entire communication equipment of the post is housed here. A step-ladder leads to a trap-door which in turn leads to a small observation tower above the radio room. Sitting at, the radio controls is Ezra Hendrix, the operator. The group enters. Ezra is a stocky young man. He is full of excitement as he turns to the arrivals. EZRA I'm using full power. The lousy pole is shooting electricity all over the place. HENRY I'm Captain Henry. Any messages for me? EZRA Yes. Came through a few minutes ago. (he reads from a piece of paper) Fogarty to Henry. Remove flying saucer from ice at once. Use thermite bomb to melt her out. Erect temporary structure to protect find until my arrival with staff chiefs. SKEELY (beaming) That's what I like about the army. Smart - all the way to the top. (to Henry) Well, Captain, that gives you a chance to pass the buck on that thermite deal. HENRY (ignoring him) Will you send this to General Fogarty? SKEELY Make it short, will you, Captain? There's a hundred and fifty million people holding their breaths - HENRY (to Ezra) Henry to Fogarty. Flying saucer completely destroyed by thermite bomb, due to unforeseen composition of ship. Have removed dead passenger from wreck... EZRA (as he taps the key) You got a Martian? Where is he? SKEELY On ice, buddy. Hurry it up - I've got a flash for you. EZRA (tapping) The static's knocking us out of the air. HENRY Keeping dead body in block of ice. Carrington wants permission to remove and examine. Waiting your instructions before further action. That's all. SKEELY (eagerly) O. K. Cosmopolitan Press Office, New York City. You can clear through Edmonton. Try our bureau there. (he dictates) With Carrington expedition. North Pole - The world has a new visitor today, a two legged creature from Mars. CARRINGTON You are being a little premature, Mr. Skeely. That has not been established. SKEELY You can un-establish it - if I'm wrong, Doctor. EZRA It's dead. SKEELY (angrily) I know it's dead. EZRA I mean the sender. Nothing's going out. SKEELY Keep clicking, man! It can't quit on you now! Another telegraph clicking sound comes through. EZRA Something's coming in. He starts writing. CARRINGTON It will alter our situation, Captain - if we can't get through to your General. HENRY The situation remains as it is - until we do. EZRA (reading from the paper on which he has been writing) Everything grounded - can't join you. Want you to - (he looks up) The rest is scrambled, Captain. Can't pick it up. HENRY He didn't get my message? EZRA Doesn't look like it. We're a weaker station than the one at your base, Captain. I may be able to pick them up - if they keep sending - but our outgoing stuff is hopeless. SKEELY Lookie! You can't stop! I've got to get this story through. Send it anyway. Some ham may pick it up - there's millions of them. Send it! (to Henry) Pat, how about heading back for Dutch Harbor? HENRY I don't think we can get as far as the plane - in this wind. SKEELY (desperately, as he leans over Ezra) Keep hitting it, pall! Somebody'll get it - somewhere. Keep clicking... Ezra clicks desperately away on his instrument. The group stands waiting and silent. DISSOLVE TO: 20 INT. BEDROOM OF THE POST. NIGHT This is a large dormitory with cot beds in it, lining the walls. Henry, Eddie, Barnes and Skeely are in the room. Skeely is walking up and down, peering out of the window at the storming night. Eddie sits on a cot. Barnes is curled up on another cot. Henry is at a window, looking out. EDDIE You know something? These scientists here remind me of the time I was stuck on Bulan Island with the Hundred and Sixteenth. An army nurse came ashore one day and created a disturbance similar to this Martian. BARNES (from his cot) What happened to her, Lieutenant? EDDIE Nothin' she didn't like. I'm just wondering if the professors will try to rush us, Pat. HENRY (grimly) Might relieve the monotony if they did. EDDIE I'd hate to have to shoot down seventeen of the world's greatest geniuses. You know somethin? HENRY What? EDDIE They're kids, all of them. Nine year olds drooling over a new fire engine. Scientists! Did you notice those two double domes who started crying - when we left the table? SKEELY (suddenly) This storm is getting worse, Captain. HENRY Yes, it's tossing around some. SKEELY There's only one thing we can do - dog sleds! We can wrap General Fogarty up and take him along. EDDIE Fogarty? SKEELY That's my name for our pretty boy from Mars. He has the same dubious relation to a human being as that pot-bellied clam in Dutch Harbor. Dog sleds, Captain, are our only solution. HENRY Solution to what? SKEELY Getting out of here - we could make the base in five days - HENRY Cut the yammering, will you. I've got enough on my mind. It's death outside. The storm will knock off even the Polar bears. The door opens and MacAuliff enters. MACAULIFF He's going crazy. EDDIE Who? MACAULIFF Fogarty. EDDIE Which one? MACAULIFF Are you nuts? There's only one Fogarty. EDDIE There's two now. Skeely's baptized our Martian with the same name. HENRY What about the General? MACAULIFF Incoming stuff is pretty jammed. But I've figured it to read there's been a leak in Washington. News of our find has made the papers. Congress and the President and a lot of other top brass want further details. HENRY They're not picking up anything from us? MACAULIFF Not a crackle. SKEELY laughs. HENRY (frowning) What's the joke, Skeely? SKEELY (chuckling) A picture of my editor just came to me...tearing up and down his office - breaking windows and yelling for Skeely. I can almost hear him. He's liable to shoot himself by mid- night. The door flings open. Navigator Ken Ericson enters. He is in a high state of agitation. KEN (loudly) Where's Barnes? BARNES (sitting up) What's up, Ken? KEN (violently) It's eleven five. You're supposed to relieve me at eleven. HENRY (sharply) You've left your post! KEN (wildly) He's late. He was supposed to come at eleven. HENRY Shut up! KEN (desperately) I can't take it any longer, Captain. HENRY Take what? KEN You can see it now! The ice has cleared up. It's got crazy hands. No ears, and a lot of eyes. They're all open! I turned a flash on it - and it looked like it was moving. And I lit out. HENRY Get back to your post. KEN (slowly) O. K. HENRY Barnes will be right along. KEN O. K. HENRY Get going! KEN Yes, sir. He turns and walks slowly out of the room. SKEELY I'm going to have a look. HENRY You're staying out of there, Skeely - along with everybody else. Put on your flightsuit, Barnes. And get in there before Ken starts having kittens. BARNES (pulling on his electrically heated flying suit) That's the first squawk I've heard out of Ken since Ploesti. I don't like it. SKEELY All I want is to verify what I know - about it's being four-eyed. EDDIE He didn't say four eyes. He said - HENRY Never mind what he said. I'm barring all civilians. SKEELY You're being a little stuffy about this whole thing, Captain Henry. BARNES I won't need the electric blanket - if I got this suit plugged in. So in case you care to send me any company, I could make them comfortable, Captain. HENRY I'll relieve you myself at 2 a.m. And don't leave your post. EDDIE Pat's right, Barney. If you give them a chance, those scientists will have him out - waltzing with him. BARNES O.K., Captain. I'll expect you at 2 a.m. HENRY Right. Barnes opens the door. Nikki is in the doorway. She is dressed in a fetching looking outfit. BARNES (passing her) Good evening, Miss Nicholson. NIKKI Hello. May I come in? HENRY (coolly) We're a bit untidy. NIKKI (smiling at him) Dreadfully unsocial atmosphere around, even for the North Pole. HENRY I'm sorry to have contributed to your gloom, Miss Nicholson. NIKKI Miss Nicholson! Is that what happens under martial law - everybody loses their nicknames? HENRY (stiffly) Did you want to see me about anything in particular? NIKKI No. I was having a drink - all by myself in my room...and playing the phonograph. And I suddenly felt I was being very selfish. All that lovely music, only for me. HENRY (smiling at her) Want company? NIKKI That's what I'm hinting at, Mistah Henry. HENRY (to Eddie) I'll be in Miss Nicholson's quarters if anything comes up. SKEELY I take it Miss Nicholson's quarters are also out of bounds for civilians. HENRY During army occupation only. He moves Nikki through the door. 21 INT. CORRIDOR OUTSIDE NIKKI'S ROOM Nikki and Captain Henry approach it. They walk in silence. Nikki opens the door. 22 INT. NIKKI'S ROOM AND OFFICE HENRY (a bit sarcastically) You sure you trust me with little you all alone in your bedroom? NIKKI Yes, I think I can. HENRY Very manly. You ought to wear pants. NIKKI (giggling) I do. HENRY (handing her a drink) Outside of that news, what's on your mind. NIKKI I want a favor. HENRY Uh - huh.. NIKKI (producing a bathrobe cord) I want to tie your hands behind your back. HENRY (in a sudden temper) Oh, for - Look, you asked me in here - I didn't break down the door - why make a production of - NIKKI Please, Pat. I said it was a favor... HENRY (grudgingly) All right, then. But no practical jokes. Promise? NIKKI I promise. (indicating chair) Here. Sit here. And put your hands around the back. HENRY (obeying) The Secretary of Defense will never understand this. NIKKI (as she ties) It's all very simple. First there's a boogyman in a cake of ice down in the cellar. I've got a small case of jumps, and I want company. HENRY Is this the way you usually entertain your company? NIKKI (she has finished tying his hands) How about a drink. HENRY I'd love it. And a long straw, please. NIKKI (picking up a glass and holding it for Henry while he drinks) Second, I want you to know that out on the ice today, I noticed the way you jumped in between me and the exlosion... HENRY (patiently) Could we get to the point? Why am I tied up? NIKKI Because I want to tell you how much I admire you without getting fingerprints all over my clavicle. HENRY (sourly) Thanks for the compliment. Both of them. NIKKI Another drink? HENRY After you. NIKKI I'm going to have a straight one. But don't get your hopes up. Liquor doesn't make me amorous. HENRY (as she tosses off a drink) It ought to. Nothing else does. NIKKI (eyeing him steadily) I liked the way you handled yourself today, Pat. And I liked the way you stood up to all the big wigs, and refused to let them play around with the - with the thing. HENRY You like everything about me, but me, is that it? NIKKI No. I like you, too. In fact, I'm going to kiss you. HENRY Untie me, honey. NIKKI No. I'm going to kiss you, not wrestle you. HENRY (muttering) Talk about Japanese tortures - Nikki kisses him briefly and precisely. NIKKI That was very nice. HENRY Was it? NIKKI Very. (she pours herself another drink) See what a good time we can have when you're forced to behave yourself. HENRY Nikki, what you don't know about making love would populate the whole interior of Australia. NIKKI I'll learn. When I'm good and ready. (giggling) They say it comes naturally. HENRY Untie me now? NIKKI Not on your life. (she kisses him again) Admit it, Pat. This was a great idea. Look at you - sitting talking to me like a civilized man instead of grabbing around like a throwback. Why, if you weren't tied up, I wouldn't have dared tell you how much I liked you... HENRY (producing a cigarette) Got a light? NIKKI (automatically striking a match and lighting his cigarette) You see, your trouble is you don't know anything about women. You have no - no technique. What a woman likes is to - She stops and stares at Henry's hands, which are resting quietly in his lap. HENRY Among other things you don't know is how to tie a knot. (he stands up and grins at her) It's very likely because the only knots you have on your mind are marital ones. Good-night, Miss Nicholson. He goes out. DISSOLVE 23 INT. STOREROOM A faint light from the underground hallway comes through a transom. Barnes enters. The electric blanket discarded by Ken lies on a nearby packing case. It is plugged into the electric light socket, hence no light in the room. Barnes snaps on his flashlight and gets a bottle of whiskey out of another case, opens it, and takes a long swig. He leans over and plugs his flying suit into the other half of the double-socket shared by the electric blanket's plug. He takes another drink and, sitting in the semi-dark, starts whistling "Ragtime Cowboy Joe." Suddenly he stops whistling and laughs. BARNES (self-mocking) Whistling in the dark, aren't you, Barnes?.. He lifts the whiskey bottle again, then sits staring toward the ice-encased mummy. BARNES (cont'd) (suddenly) All right, let's ses what you look like, sonny boy - He switches on his flashlight, and centers its beam on the ice-block. As Ericson said, the ice is now almost transparent. Through it, only partially distorted, can be seen an unearthly horror. It has a bulbous head, a tiny suck-hole for a mouth, multiple eyes, no ears. Its arms are extra-long, ending in thorny clusters, rather than hands. It stares malevolently through the ice. Barnes lets out a grunt of dismay, and turns the flashlight away. BARNES Whew! He drinks again, and then starts making himself comfortable. He uses a bag of flour for a pillow, and prepares to stretch out on the floor. Abruptly he shines the flashlight on the ice again. BARNES (angrily) Quit staring at me! He sees the blanket lying on the nearby packing case. He picks it up, and throws it over the ice-cake. BARNES I could go nuts looking at you... He lies down, puts his head on the flour sack and taking a magazine from his pocket prepares to read. The camera moves to the electric blanket now covering the ice-cake, then follows the electric connection down to the indicator affixed to the cord. The indicator hand points to the "full on" position. After a moment, the camera moves back to the floor beneath the ice block. A slow dripping has commenced. The sounds of the rising storm outside obscure the pit-pat of the drops hitting the floor. A small puddle starts to form. DISSOLVE TO: 24 THE PUDDLE It is now a large puddle, very large. The camera pans across the wet floor, and discovers the puddle is close to Barnes' legs. 25 CLOSE SHOT - BARNES He is having difficulty reading. His flashlight has started to wane. He snaps it on and off, experimentally. The battery is nearly dead. Barnes aims it at the printed page once more, then decides it is useless for the time being. He snaps it off, and stretches himself out more comfortably. A splinter of light from the hallway outside still illuminates the scene. 26 CLOSE SHOT OF PUDDLE It continues to grow. The howl of the storm outside does not lessen. DISSOLVE TO: 27 STAIRWELL OUTSIDE STOREROOM The form of a sled dog appears. It stands poised at the top of the steps for an instant, pointing eagerly at the storeroom window. It is joined by three or four more sled dogs. They start to bark angrily, their snouts still aimed at the storeroom window. They run down the stairwell and press their muzzle against the storeroom door. 28 INTERIOR STOREROOM CLOSE SHOT OF BARNES He is sleeping. The barking and eager whining of the dogs can now be heard over the storm noises outside. The CAMERA PANS down to Barnes' legs. The puddle has reached them, and, as we look, they stir slightly, causing a little splatter of water. Barnes abruptly sits up into the picture. BARNES (staring into the darkness at his feet) What the -- At this moment, a moving shadow falls across his face. He looks up quickly. An expression of pure terror appears on his face. He screams eerily, springs to his feet, and jerks out his revolver. He fires six times, then, still screaming, jumps for the storeroom door, the cord from his flying suit snapping out of the fixture and trailing behind him. He yanks open the door and runs into the corridor. 29 INT. CORRIDOR Barnes races down the corridor, yelling at the top of his lungs! BARNES It's alive! It's alive! It's alive! 30 INT. MAIN CORRIDOR As Barnes appears, still yelling, doors have begun to pop open. Captain Henry, pyjama-clad, gun in hand, comes running out of his room and grabs Barnes. The other inmates, in various stages of undress, tumble out into the hallway only minutes later. Barnes continues to shriek incoherently. HENRY (shaking Barnes) Shut up! Cut it out! (he slaps Barnes, who stops screaming, and stands sobbing with terror) Now! What is it? What happened? BARNES (almost in shock) It - it - it came after me! It's alive, I tell you! HENRY (sharply) Did you fire those shots? BARNES (staring past him) I shot it - six times - it kept on coming at me. HENRY (releasing Barnes and wheeling to Dykes, Ericson and MacAuliff) Sounds like some joker's loose. Come on. Bring your guns. He starts for the storeroom, Eddie, Ken, and Mac following. CHAPMAN (to Mrs. Chapman, indicating Barnes) Esther, better give this lad a sedative. I'll be right back. He starts up the hall. Carrington appears in his doorway. CARRINGTON (joining Chapman) Did I hear right? The boy said it was alive? CHAPMAN (nodding) Probably had a bad dream. NIKKI (calling after Carrington) Wait for me, Arthur. CARRINGTON You stay here, Nikki. (he stops and faces the group in the corridor) I'd appreciate it if you'd all wait in the living room until we can check this nightmare. Thanks. He continues down the corridor, Chapman following. 31 INT. STOREROOM. Henry leads the way into the room. He snaps on a light, and stands staring at the electric blanket in the puddle of water. HENRY (blankly) Gone - DYKES Those double-domes! They stole it. ERICSON No. The kid said it was alive! I knew it - all the time I was here - I could feel it! DYKES Nuts! How'd it get out of the ice? For answer, Pat indicates the electric blanket. HENRY Somebody threw a hot blanket on it. DYKES I know who. Those six-year old Einsteins, that's who. Carrington and Chapman have appeared in the doorway. CARRINGTON What did we do, Lieutenant? DYKES (furiously) Swiped the freak. Hustled it off somewhere to take it apart, that's what! CARRINGTON I assure you, Lieutenant -- CHAPMAN (suddenly) Sh - h. Listen! All heads are turned toward the open door. Over the whine of the wind they hear a chorus of savage barking and growling. HENRY The sled dogs - ERICSON He's out there - CHAPMAN They'll tear him to pieces! Abruptly, Carrington brushes through the group, and darts out into the howling night. He is clad only in his pajamas and bathrobe. DYKES Doctor! Stop! CHAPMAN Arthur - are you mad! Henry curses under his breath and charges in pursuit. Locating Carrington with his flashlight, he brings him down with a flying tackle. Carrington struggles to escape Henry's grasp, but Henry succeeds in leading him back into the storeroom. The storm noises have made their exclamations inaudible. HENRY (panting) Mac - get flying suits - hurry - MacAuliff runs out. CARRINGTON (also winded) If you please - Captain - you may release me now - HENRY (doing so) That was a pretty stupid move - for a genius. DYKES You'd have been frozen to death in five minutes! CARRINGTON (apologetically) Too much zeal, I'm afraid. Forgive me, gentlemen. CHAPMAN (peering into the night) Over there - I see something! HENRY Put out the light. Dykes snaps off the storeroom light. The four men gaze intently into the dark night. Henry turns on his flashlight. Skeely enters the storeroom. SKEELY (excitedly) Where is it? Is it really alive? Can it talk? Who else saw it beside Barnes? What are you doing? Is it out there? Speak to me, somebody! HENRY Shut up. (he listens and looks for another moment) They're still barking. CARRINGTON (speaking through numb lips - his voice shivery) If only the dogs follow it. We'll never find it otherwise. SKEELY (a howl of dismay) Don't tell me you've lost it - you bungling army boob. This is worse than Pearl Harbor! MacAuliff enters, carrying flight suits. MACAULIFF Here you are, Pat. HENRY Grab one, Eddie. CARRINGTON May I have one, Captain? SKEELY Me, too! HENRY (dressing hurriedly) Army personnel only. SKEELY (through his teeth) Wait till you see what I write about you! You'll shoot yourself! HENRY (zipping his suit up) Snap it up, boys. He grabs his flashlight, and runs out into the storm. MacAuliff and Dykes follow a second later. Skeely, Carrington, and Chapman remain staring after them. 32 EXT. STOREHOUSE The army officers, leaning against the iron wind, grope their way toward the barking dogs. Their flashlights are almost useless in the snow flurries raised by the gale. They stop and confer for a second, their words carrying no further than the ear they are shouted into. Henry points with his flashlight, and the trio alters course accordingly. Suddenly a flashlight beam picks up some moving forms. All three flashlights center on the activity, but snow flurries continue to intervene. Dimly, a struggle can be discerned. The officers move toward it. A sudden increase in the wind knocks them down. They continue toward the barking and struggling, crawling on their hands and knees. 33 MEDIUM SHOT OF DOG PACK FROM HENRY'S POINT OF VIEW The dogs are tearing at a figure in their midst. A sheet of flying snow blots out the scene. When it reappears, the figure is gone. Henry, MacAuliff, and Dykes crawl into the scene. Two dogs lie dead in the snow. A third is wounded so hideously that Dykes shoots it. Henry signals his pals to pick up the dead dogs. They each take one. Henry stops and examines the ground. He picks up two objects, looks around, then starts back to the camp. DISSOLVE TO: 34 INT. DR. CARRINGTON'S LABORATORY It is crowded with nearly all the members of the expedition. The scientists are ranged around Carrington's table. The others stand behind him. Carrington is bent over the table. Captain Henry, MacAuliff and Eddie are immediately around him. A bright beam of light is focused on the table center, hidden from our eyes as we come on the scene. The crowd around the table is silent and tense, as at some overwhelming dramatic performance. Nikki stands beside the doctor. She is dressed in pajamas and a woollen robe. All the others in the laboratory are also hastily dressed, some in bath robes and slippers, some in sweaters and work pants. Skeely's large bulk is crowded behind Captain Henry, peering over his shoulder. CARRINGTON (as he works) Can you describe what you saw, Captain? HENRY (quietly) The dogs had him down, tearing at him. MACAULIFF I saw him get up, with three dogs on his throat. HENRY The cold's blinding. I couldn't make out the action. But when we got there two of the dogs were dead. EDDIE They looked like they'd been through a chopper. Mince meat! HENRY I found the hand under one of them. They must have torn it off. SKEELY How could dogs tear off a hand? CARRINGTON (softly) This kind of a hand. He is bent over the object on the table, looking at it through a powerful lens. 35 TABLE TOP On it lies a hand and part of a forearm. The hand has ten stringy looking fingers, twice the human length. They are stiffened and resemble a slightly arced set of thin knives more than fingers. OLSON Sharp as razors, aren't they? CARRINGTON (studying the knife fingers) Yes - a sort of chitinous substance. SKEELY (tensely) Speak English - will you! CARRINGTON Something between a beetle's back and a rose thorn. SKEELY Thorn fingered, eh? CARRINGTON (trying to bend one of them) Amazingly strong. CHAPMAN They may be frozen. CARRINGTON I don't think so. SKEELY Well, we know one fact about him. He's dead now. CARRINGTON What is your opinion, Captain? HENRY I don't know. He stayed alive in a block of ice for twenty-four hours. MACAULIFF After I'd sunk a pick into his skull. HENRY And he got up - with twelve dogs on him. OLSON (bending over the table) That's blood on the arm, isn't it, Arthur? CARRINGTON Yes - but not his blood. OLSON From the dogs? Carrington has been working on the arm with a scalpel. CARRINGTON There's no blood in the arm. No animal tissue. Have a look at this under the microscope, George. He hands a bit of material to Dr. Auerback, who adjusts it under a microscope. CARRINGTON (his voice soft as he continues his examination) I doubt very much if it is dead. I doubt if it can die - as we understand dying. SKEELY It's bound to freeze to death outside. EDDIE It got along all right in a block of ice - for twenty-four hours. AUERBACK (from the microscope) No arterial structure indicated, Arthur. No nerve endings visible. Porous, unconnected cellular growth. CARRINGTON I imagined that. SKEELY Sounds like you're trying to describe a vegetable, doctor. AUERBACK I am. CARRINGTON (hunched over the hand, his eye peering through his lens) Are you getting all this, Nikki? NIKKI (who has been writing in her pad) Yes, doctor. CARRINGTON That's why the bullets fired into it by Corporal Barnes had no effect. They merely punchcd a few holes into some vegetable matter. MACAULIFF What about the green stuff I saw ooze out of its head? CARRINGTON There is some of it in the hand. I think we will find it has a sugar base. HENRY Like - plant sap? CARRINGTON Yes. SKEELY (excitedly) You mean - its some kind of a super carrot, doctor? CARRINGTON A carrot that can construct a ship beyond our terrestrial intelligence, of materials we have not yet created - and guide it sixty million miles or more through space. MACAULIFF But you don't think it has any feelings, eh? CARRINGTON It has an intelligence beyond ours - and possibly feelings equally refined. HENRY (softly) A vegetable with a brain - SKEELY An intellectual carrot! The mind boggles! CARRINGTON It shouldn't. Imagine how strange it would have seemed in the pliocene age to forecast that worms, fish, and lizards that crawled over the earth were going to evolve - into us. On the planet from which our visitor came, vegetable life underwent an evolution similar to that of our own animal life, which would explain the superiority of its brain. Its development was not handicapped by emotional or sexual factors. SKEELY Dr. Carrington, you're a man who's won the Nobel prize. You've received every kind of international kudos a scientist can attain. If you were for sale I could get a million bucks for you from any foreign government. I am not, therefor, I going to stick my neck out and say that you are stuffed absolutely clean full of wild blueberry muffins, but I promise you that my readers are going to think so. CARRINGTON (smiling) Not for long, Mr. Skeely. In fact, not even for a moment if they happen to know anything about the flora of their own planet. SKEELY You mean there are vegetables right here on earth that -- that can think? CARRINGTON A certain kind of thinking, yes. Did you ever hear of the Telegraph Vine? Or the Acanthus Century Plant? SKEELY Not recently. CARRINGTON The Century plant catches mice, bats, squirrels -- any mammals small enough to evade its privacy. It lures them with a bait of sweet syrup then it closes like a fist and feeds on the corpse of its catch. It is only a plant but its brain can obviously outwit a species far above it in the scale of minds as we measure them. SKEELY (scribbling) Thanks, doctor. And what's a Telegraph Vine? CARRINGTON A vine that has proven beyond doubt that it can signal to other vines of its species twenty or one hundred miles away. If an insect migration, for instance, is moving in a certain direction, it will devour the first vine but the second one, having been warned, will have altered its chemical structure so that the insects find it inedible. SKEELY (still scribbling) That's one for Ripley. CARRINGTON (smiling) There are hundreds of other examples. No, Mr. Skeely, intelligence in vegetable and plants is an old story on this planet of ours. Older even than the animal arrogance that has overlooked it. (to Auerbach) May I have your scalpel, George? (Auerback hands Carrington a surgical knife) The palm seems soft. (he cuts it open) OLSON (looking) Seed pods. CARRINGTON Yes - the neat and unconfused reproductive technique of vegetation. CHAPMAN No pain or pleasure as we know them. HENRY No heart. CARRINGTON None. Our superior in every way. LAURENZ The absence of ears of the creature might indicate that it has a hearing system superior to ours. REDDING Or that it is deaf. CARRINGTON It probably neither hears nor sees as we do - but receives magnetic impressions. VOORHESS We cen safely presume that the planet on which it lived is colder than ours and that its atmosphere is too thin to conduct sound waves. LAURENZ Or that there is any oxygen in its air content - a planet would need none. REDDING It's amazing how it was able to adjust itself to the vitally altered conditions of earth - and stay alive. LAURENZ It's mysteries will be explained when we - communicate with it. CARRINGTON (quietly) Perhaps - before. He looks at the seeds in his hands. LAURENZ You think those seeds are alive? CARRINGTON (quietly) That would be - too strange, don't you think? He frowns at Laurenz. LAURENZ (quickly) Absolutely. There are certain things which are - impossible. HENRY I think we're overlooking something. CARRINGTON What is that, Captain? HENRY What - it's doing. SKEELY Probably looking for another block of ice to hide in. A vegetable would head for cold storage...instinctively. Keep it from rotting. HENRY I don't think so. There's no reason for it to stay out in that storm if it can move. And I saw it move. VOORHEES It ran out into the cold. I think our surmise that it requires a cold temperature is correct. LAURENZ Obviously. That's why the saucer tried to land in our Polar regions. They corresponded to the conditions of its own planet. HENRY There might be another reason. Its passengers could have wanted to keep their arrival secret. EDDIE What's on your mind, Pat? HENRY I have an idea it's inside the camp. It headed into the storm because it smelled the dogs and was hungry. SKEELY (staring) Inside the camp! Gentlemen - what I would give for an interview! CARRINGTON I don't think it eats, Captain. There is no evidence of any animal digestive system. HENRY If it doesn't eat, it does something. (to the group) I'd like a half dozen men to go along with Lt. Dykes and me. We don't need guns. Knives, clubs and axes will be better. CARRINGTON I grant you it may have returned to the camp - and hid itself on the premises, Captain. But there's no reason to go after it - like an enemy. HENRY It didn't look friendly - in the snow outside, doctor. CARRINGTON (softly) It's a stranger in a strange land - with strange - unearthly features and attributes. The only crimes involved are those that man and nature have committed against it. It crashed in an air ship, was frozen in the ice, had its head split open by a pick, and was attacked by a pack of fierce dogs. I see no reason to give it a bad character, Captain. HENRY (grimly) It went after the dogs. I'm in charge of the search, doctor. And I'm going to look for it, my way. CARRINGTON (his voice rising) It would be criminal vandalism to injure the visitor further. We must find it - and treat it as our superior whose brain - if we can communicate with it - is full of unique and overwhelming knowledge. We must - (he breaks off and stares at the table) SKEELY (his eyes on the table) Holy Heaven! It's moving! EDDIE It's alive - look out! We see the hand moving on the table. Its knife fingers flex and unflex. The sliced palm tightens into a fist and opens again. Some of the watchers step away from the teble, a terror in them. Carrington remains bent over the hand. Captain Henry stays beside him. CARRINGTON (softly, as the hand moves) Nikki - NIKKI (faintly) Yes, doctor - CARRINGTON (dictating) At two forty-five the hand became alive. The temperature of the forearm showed a twenty degrees rise. He is studying a thermometer removed from the arm as he dictates. There is a hush. The only sound is that made by the knife fingers beating on the table. During the hush, Carrington takes the surgical scalpel and cuts his thumb. He holds the bleading thumb over the moving hand. His blood drops on the forearm. The hand's activity is increased. Its fingers move more quickly as they beat on the table top. Carrington continues his dictating. I believe the activity due to the fact that the organism when it's temperature rose was able to ingest the nourishment provided by the canine blood with which it was covered... 36 CORRIDOR LEADING FROM KITCHEN Six or seven supply rooms open on this corridor. A searching party led by Captain Henry is in the process of examining these rooms. Henry carries a Geiger counter with which he scans each door before opening it and sweeping it with his flashlight. Carrington, MacAuliff, Dykes, Laurenz, Voorhees, Stone and Chapman comprise the rest of the searching party. With the exception of Carrington and Skeely, who are unarmed, they carry an assortment of ice-axes, iron rods, shovels and other improvised weapons. Skeely carries a camera. STONE (as Henry searches) You sure you know how to use that camera, Skeely? SKEELY I ran one of these things on Iwo Jima. Never got out of focus once, during the entire bombardment. (he calls) Hey, Captain - HENRY What do you want? SKEELY If we catch up with our pal I want a couple of hundred feet of film...before anyone starts making a salad out of him. CARRINGTON (a touch sharply) No one has any intention of injuring him, Mr. Skeely. CHAPMAN And no chance of finding him I'd say. He'd never hide in the camp - not after the reception Barnes gave him. Henry has completed his inspection of the supply rooms. HENRY No dice in this end. Come on. He leads the way. DISSOLVE TO: 37 INTERIOR RADIO ROOM A short corridor leads to a windowless chamber that houses ths camp's generators. The party with Henry and his Geiger counter in the van, crosses the radio room. Hendrix looks up from his telegraphy. HENDRIX Looks like a lynching bee. What's up? MACAULIFF (kidding) We heard you got the Mars man hidden back there. HENDRIX (in alarm) I what! You mean it's - it's - CHAPMAN Mr. MacAuliff is being amusing. HENDRIX I don't want any part of that thing. In fact, I'd like to go home. 38 INTERIOR GENERATING ROOM Henry's flashlight probes its corners. HENRY'S VOICE Nothing. As he closes the door. DISSOLVE TO: 39 A SHADOWY HALLWAY Thw party moves along. As it reaches a doorway, Henry's geiger counter begins to click. HENRY Hold it! He moves toward the doorway. The clicking of the counter increases. HENRY It's in there! Eddie - Mac - CARRINGTON (with a small chuckle) No, Captain. That's the mineralogy lab. We've got radioactive isotopes in there. CHAPMAN Your Geigers reacting to a roomful of uranium ore samples. HENRY Let's check it anyway. Dykes and MacAuliff stand beside him as he pushes open the door and snaps on the light. 40 INTERIOR MINERALOGY LAB Save for the scientific paraphenalia that clutters it, it is empty. Henry switches off the light. DISSOLVE TO: 41 INTERIOR END OF CORRIDOR The party has halted by a closed door at the end of the hallway. HENRY (trying the door) It's locked. CHAPMAN I'm sorry - I forgot. I'll get the key. He hurries away. HENRY Nothing else was locked up. What's in here? CARRINGTON The greenhouse. We have to keep it locked. Ths Eskimos have a weakness for our strawberries. SKEELY (incredulously) Your what? CARRINGTON (smiling) Strawberries. VOORHEES We use artificial sunlight. It's quite a garden. We raise our own tomatoes, asparagus, lettuce. DYKES (sharply) Shut up a minute! CARRINGTON (quietly) What is it? DYKES (his ear at the door) There's something moving inside. There is a silence as everyone listens intently. Carrington puts his ear to the door. CARRINGTON (disappointed) Yes, I hear it. It's the ventilator. The fan needs oiling. The group relaxes. SKEELY (bitterly) We've been through every crevice of the camp. If it's not in there, we're cooked. Just think - we've lost a flying saucer and a man from Mars all in one day. What a bunch of butterfingers! Chapman enters. CHAPMAN (proffering the key) Here you are, Captain. Henry takes the key and opens the door. SKEELY (ruminatively, as Henry is opening the door) I wonder what they would have done to Columbus if he'd discovered America, and then lost it. Henry opens the door slowly. He aims his flashlight and snaps it on. 42 INT. GREENHOUSE Henry's flashlight illumines the greenhouse for several moments, playing over its plants and bushes. Henry switches on the artificial sunlight arcs. A queer glow suffuses the greenery. Henry enters, the others follow. They stand staring into the corners of the large room. It is empty and silent. CHAPMAN It's empty. HENRY Maybe. He starts forward to examine the spaces concealed by the shrubbery. Skeely and Carrington move with him. HENRY (stopping) Stay here, please. Near the door. SKEELY My, you're big and brave. What are you going to do, catch him all alone? HENRY I'm still waiting to see if he wants to catch me. Eddie - Mac - come along. The soldier trio makes a round of the hothouse. The others wait. 43 CLOSE SHOT OF CARRINGTON He is watching the moving flyers. Suddenly he sees something that brings a glint of excitement to his eye. He starts to speak, then reconsiders and changes the incipient remark into a cough. 44 MEDIUM SHOT GROUP AT DOOR VOORHEES (closest to Carrington) What's that, Arthur? CARRINGTON Nothing. I just noticed. The Mendelson molds are vitiated. We mustn't neglect them. Voorhees and Laurenz look at Carrington curiously. He shakes his head imperceptibly. They refrain from comment. Henry and his colleagues complete their round of the greenhouse. HENRY Well, that's it, I guess. SKEELY Yes, and isn't it dandy. We're certainly going to be a famous group. Like the Donner Party. HENRY (ignoring him) Dr. Chapman was right. Our pal is probably holed up in a snowbank. CHAPMAN (nodding) After all, he's lost a hand and had six bullet holes shot in him. Animal, vegetable or mineral, he must need a rest. The others laugh. Their mood is much lighter now, except for Skeely, who stares morosely at the floor. HENRY We'll start searching outside as soon as it's light. CHAPMAN We'd better do it in relays. A half hour is about all you can stand in that cold now. HENRY Good idea. Report to Lt. Dykes and he'll arrange a scedule for you. (He reaches for the light switch) Coming, gentlemen? CARRINGTON (smoothly) Not right away, Captain. Doctor Voorhees and Professor Laurenz and I want to do some emergency work on those molds. Goodnight, gentlemen. There is a chorus of goodnights as the others move out. Henry stands looking at Carrington for a moment. HENRY Kind of late to start work now, isn't it? CARRINGTON (laughing) It's easy to see you're no scientist, Captain Henry. Work is what we do when we want to relax. Henry continues to study him for another moment. HENRY (abruptly) I see. Goodnight. He goes out. Carrington quickly closes the door behind him. He bolts it. Laurenz and Voorhees watch him expectantly. Carrington turns and smiles at them brightly. CARRINGTON The MacCormick molds - look! He points. Laurenz and Voorhees regard the plants he indicates. CARRINGTON They're wilted, from cold. LAURENZ But it's warm in here. CARRINGTON (grinning happily) Isn't it? So what do you conclude? (without waiting for an answer he continues) Those molds would be in the direct path of a blast of icy air if that rear door were opened. Ten or twenty seconds of such an exposure, and they would wilt. I repeat, gentlemen, what do you conclude? VOORHEES (pointing) But that bolt hasn't been pulled. How could the door be opened? For answer Carrington strides to the rear door. Leaving the bolt still in "Shot" position, he turns the knob and pulls. The door opens. Voorhees and Laurenz move quickly to the door. The wind whistles about them as the three scientists examine the bolt. INSERT CLOSEUP OF BOLT It has been cleanly severed. VOORHEES' VOICE Filed clean through! BACK TO GROUP. Carrington closes the door. CARRINGTON (as he does so) Not filed, Andrew. Cut. LAURENZ (excitted) Yes. Of course. Those razor-like fingers on the hand! VOORHEES But the power - to cut through that steel - like butter - CARRINGTON (smiling happily) Incredible. Really incredible. LAURENZ (his eyes darting around the greenhouse) Then it's been in here. CARRINGTON (also scanning his surroundings) Beyond a doubt. VOORHEES What's that? LAURENZ Where? VOORHEES Stand here. See? (he points) The storage bin. See how the light glistens on it. Carrington crosses to a two and a half foot storage bin, and stares at it. 45 CLOSE SHOT - STORAGE BIN Its handle glistens strangely. 46 BACK TO GROUP Carrington touches the handle with his forefinger. It is coated with a viscous fluid. Carrington rubs it between his thumb and forefinger, then smells it. CARRINGTON A smear of sap - from the wounded arm. (indicating the bin) Pull it down, please. Laurenz and Voorhees take hold of the bin and start to lift it to the floor. It falls from their grasp. VOORHEES Look out! The bin crashes over on its side. A body topples out of it and crashes at their feat. It is the corpse of a dog. Carrington kneels down and examines it. CARRINGTON (feeling the dog) Not dead over an hour. (to Voorhees) See if there's any congealed blood in the bin, Andrew. LAURENZ (as Voorhees inspects the bin) Seems rather shrunken, doesn't it? CARRINGTON Its blood has been drained. VOORHEES The bin is clean. CARRINGTON (nodding) Now we know definitely the type of nourishment it requires. LAURENZ (gesturing at the dead dog) Why do you suppose it brought the dog in here? CARRINGTON We must try very hard to find an answer to that question. His eyes start moving around the greenhouse. VOORHEES Maybe the artificial sunlight attracted - LAURENZ (shaking his head) The light was off. CARRINGTON (tensely) That loam bed - number four. Does it strike you the earth has been disturbed? LAURENZ (eyeing the loam bin) Olson started some lichen there last week. VOORHEES That's right. The trio moves over to the loam bed. Carrington regards the loose earth. CARRINGTON (vibrantly) Gentlemen, our creature will come back here. Of that I am certain. LAURENZ What do you see, Arthur? CARRINGTON I'd rather not say - yet. But it will come back. VOORHEES Hadn't we better tell the others? CARRINGTON No. I think it better if Science, rather than the Army greeted it this time. (to Laurenz) Will you keep watch with me tonight, Andrews? (Laurenz nods. Carrington turns to Voorhees) Please bring us some sandwiches and coffee. Tell Doctor Auerback and Doctor Olson what we have found. Ask them to relieve us at eight in the morning. And ask them, please to confide in no one. Voorhees nods and departs as we DISSOLVE TO 47 INT. MAIN ROOM. CAMP It is eleven-thirty the following morning. A late breakfast is being served in the main living room. Outside the storm has not abated. It fills the sky, darkening the arctic noon. Henry and Dykes are eating. Mrs. Chapman sits nearby knitting. DYKES (staring out the window) Look at that, will you? It'll never let up! And we could have been in Edmonton - open air cafes. Moonlit gardens - MRS. CHAPMAN (placidly) Oh, we've had them worse than this. Three weeks is the longest they last. DYKES Three weeks! We ought to be growing our own fur by that time. The door opens and MacAuliff, Barnes and Ericson come in. HENRY Anything, Mac? MACAULIFF (removing his outer garments) Not a sign. We've poked into every snowbank within a mile. ERICSON (grinning) Barnes flushed a Polar bear. BARNES (bitterly) I sure did! DYKES (laughing) Scare you? BARNES Not after I saw it was only a bear. Hendrix enters from an interior door. He carries a sheaf of messages. HENDRIX (bitterly) I want a raise. Or I'm gonna strike. Sixteen hours straight receiving without stopping! HENRY Anything for me? HENDRIX (angrily) Just a few million words. What's the matter with that Fogarty fellow - got epilepsy? (he tosses a bundle of messages on the table) I haven't even had time to eat. He pours himself a cup of coffee. Dykes picks up the messages. DYKES Some of them are for Skeely. HENRY (eating) Skip them. Stick to Fogarty. DYKES (scanning the messages, reads from one after another) Fogarty to Henry. Preserve wreckage of saucer carefully. (he throws the paper down and picks up a second and reads) Same to same. Preserve corpse of occupant carefully. Allow no one to touch it until my arrival. Same to same. Forward detailed description of saucer - measure- ments, weight, general characteristics of corpse. Important. Fogarty to Henry. Why havent you answered? Answer immediately. Same to same - radio silence unnecessary. Reference message Fogarty to Henry. Acknowledge immediately. Acknowledge soonest. Fogarty to Henry. Awaiting report. Silence confusing. Same to same - acknowledge. Fogarty to Henry. Acknowledge. HENRY I get the general drift. He wants to hear from me. Skeely enters. He is rumpled, unshaved and still sleepy. SKEELY What you got there? HENDRIX (eating toast and gulping coffee) Some stuff for you. SKEELY (diving for the messages) For me? (he stares at them, his voice growing hoarse with excitement) They got part of my story! It went through! Listen. (reads) Verify garbled message regarding man from Mars. Authorize all expenses. Cable straight. Eldredge. (he looks up) That's the chief. (he reads) New, York Times Syndicate - Will pay ten thousand full story discovery flying saucer and Mars man. Want full de- tails. Answer collect. (he shuffles through the other messages) London - Paris - A.P. - R.K.O. - Life - Colliers - Saturday Evening Post - Marshall Field Museum - Denver - Chicago - New Orleans - They're all gone mad! (he looks up) People in the streets yelling for more news. Every man, woman and child in the U.S.A. has stopped working. (he wheels on Hendrix) Lookie, Ez - I've knocked out ten thousand words. Been typing all night. Get back and send 'em. HENDRIX (eating) Not me. SKEELY (yelling) Get on that key! HENDRIX (wearily) Afterwards. I'm going to bed first. SKEELY You can't go to bed. Listen - I'll split with you. It's a bonanza! I'll give you 25 percent of the take. HENDRIX (his eating done, wearily) Nothing doing! I'm out on my feet. And the stuff ain't going through anyway. Waste motion. SKEELY It'll go through! You keep send- ing! Ez, old man, they're mobbing the newspaper offices. They're hanging out of windows. This is a world emergency. You can't desert your post in an emergency - any more than you would if a ship was sinking? HENDRIX (starting to open the door, his back turned to it) A ship is sinking! And it's me. As he pulls the door open, we see a tall figure leanings against it. Hendrix, unaware of it, continues to open the door as he talks. HENDRIX (cont'd) I wouldn't stay up another hour for ten thousand dollars a minute. I'm out on my feet, I tell you. The tall figure slides in the doorway and comes crashing into the room at Hendrix' feet. It is Aligari, the botanist. His face is covered with blood. He is semi-conscious. Henry and Dykes rush to him. Henry grabs his wrist and feels for his pulse. SKEELY Who - Who's that? MRS. CHAPMAN Dr. Aligari. (to Henry) Is he - dead? HENRY No. (to Barnes) Get Dr. Chapman. (to Mrs. Chapman) Got any smelling salts? MRS. CHAPMAN Right here - in the washroom. She starts out of the room. HENRY Wait. (to MacAuliff) Go with her, Mac. MacAuliff follows her out. Aligari stirs and tries to sit up. HENRY Take it easy, Doctor. Stay where you are. Can you talk? ALIGARI (with difficulty) In the greenhouse - the thing - Dr. Olson - Auerback. HENRY What happened? ALIGARI I went in - to check the temper- ature - my back was turned - when Olson screamed - When I turned around - the thing - it cut my face - The blood blinded me - I fell down - I must have fainted. (Mrs. Chapman reappears. She hands Henry the salts. He holds them to Aligari's nostrils) Thank you ... When I came to, I saw Olson and Auerback - hanging upside down - Their throats were cut - I crawled out - and came here - Henry rises swiftly. HENRY Come on, Eddie. You too, Mac. The rest of you stay here - and stay together. He runs out. SKEELY I'm coming! I don't care what you say! He follows the others. 48 OUTSIDE GREENHOUSE DOOR. The door is shut. Henry, MacAuliff, Dykes and Skeely come down the corridor. They are carrying axes and guns. Henry approaches the door, then stops. He turns to MacAuliff. HENRY Mac, round up a detail and post it at the rear door of this hothouse. Don't go in - just take some timber and seal up the doorway! MACAULIFF Right. He runs down the hall. Almost before Henry has finished speaking, the door behind him has opened with lightning rapidity. Henry turns with almost equal speed, instantly raising his axe. The Thing appears for a split second in the doorway, only to be met with a crashing wallop from the flat of Henry's axe. The force of the blow propels the Thing back into the greenhouse. Henry seizes the doorknob and pulls the door shut. He turns the key in the lock. HENRY (to Dykes) Get the carpenter - on the double! Dykes runs out. SKEELY (tensely) We going in now? HENRY No. SKEELY What about Olson and Auerback? HENRY (snapping) Nothing about them! They're dead. SKEELY (producing a camera from his pocket) How about opening the door long enough for me to get one shot - just two seconds. HENRY I'll shoot the man who opens this door. SKEELY (grimacing) Well, that's a straight answers. What other plans have you got? HENRY If Mac gets to the rear door in time, we're going to keep that thing bottled up in there. SKEELY Suppose it starves? HENRY I'll let you do my crying for me. DISSOLVE TO: 49 MEDIUM SHOT AT DOOR OF GREENHOUSE The carpenter is driving home spikes in a heavy cross beam that bars the greenhouse door. Four similar bars have already been installed. Barnes and Ericson are holding the beam in position as the carpenter works. Skeely has left to resume his pestering of Hendrix the telegrapher. Henry is consulting with Chapman. HENRY You're sure there's no other way out? No trapdoor - or windows? CHAPMAN None. Only the front and back doors. HENRY The walls solid? CHAPMAN Corrigated iron. HENRY That thing's radio active. Could it maybe burn its way out? CHAPMAN I'd consider it extremely unlikely, but - He pauses. HENRY But what? CHAPMAN The thing itself is extremely unlikely. According to Doctor Aligari, it has already grown back its arm. (with a sudden emotion) Captain Henry - forgive me. I don't want to go against your orders but those two men in there were friends of mine. Close friends, for many years. Isn't there some way we can get their bodies out? I can't stand the thought of them hanging there - by their feet - and nothing being done for them! HENRY What can be done for them? Face the facts, Doctor. They're dead. Their throats were cut and they bled to death. Upside down, like in a slaughter house. Our job is to see that nobody else joins them. CHAPMAN (with a shudder) What a way to die. Professor Voorhees has come down the corridor. VOORHEES (quietly to Chapman) May I have a word with you, Fred? CHAPMAN (turning to him) Certainly. VOORHEES Privately. CHAPMAN Oh. (to Henry) Excuse me. Henry nods. Chapman accompanies Voorhees a few yards down the corridor. Voorhees starts to whisper. Henry watches them. VOORHEES (into Chapman's ear) Come to Carrington's lab as soon as you can - and don't let anyone know. CHAPMAN Right away. (turning back to Henry) Was there anything else, Captain? HENRY Yes. We're keeping a double guard - outside and in. Two hour shifts. I'll need eight volunteers. 50 INT. DR. CARRINGTON'S LABORATORY Dr. Carrington is at his desk. Nikki is beside him, note book in hand. Drs. Chapman, Voorhees, Laurenz and Wilson are in front of him. They are silent and alert as he talks. Carrington is tense and queerly exuberant. Exhaustion and excitement are in his face. CARRINGTON (softly and tensely) Two of our colleagues have died and a third is dying. Those are our losses - and the battle has only begun. There will be more losses. The creature X is more powerful, more intelligent than us. We are infants beside him. He regards us as soft, vulnerable earth worms important only for his nourishment. He has the same attitude toward us as we have toward a field of cabbages. LAURENZ (interrupting) You said you had news for us, Arthur. CARRINGTON I have. (he rises and smiles) We are infants, earthworms and also scientists. We have made gains. VOORHEES What have you found out? CARRINGTON (glowing and tense) A new world has come to devour us. Only science can conquer it. Our minds, gentlemen - the little muscle that thinks, observes, examines and finds answers. All other weapons will be powerless. (his eyes close. Weariness overcomes him. He mutters) I'm very tired. It's difficult to eat. (he presses his thumbs into his eyeballs) Will you read my notes, Miss Nicholson? LAURENZ You need some rest, Arthur. CARRINGTON (softly) No rest. Please read - NIKKI (reading from her note book) At 9 p.m. I placed the fifteen seeds taken from the severed hand of X in four inches of earth. I saturated the earth with two units of plasma taken from our blood bank. Nikki pauses, her face tense. CARRINGTON Please go on, Nikki. NIKKI (continuing to read) The condition of the dog found in the greenhouse indicated that blood was a primal factor in the cultivation of the seeds. At 2 a.m. the first sprouts appeared through the soil. I used another two units of plasma. At 4 a.m. the sprouts began to take on definite forms - and - She breaks off, her face strained, her voice faint. LAURENZ (tensely) They are still growing! CARRINGTON Five of them - have survived. Carrington rises and starts toward a screened in table. The others follow. Nikki remains motionless at the desk. 51 SCREENED IN TABLE A four foot box of earth is on its top. The men stand over it. Five small sprouts are budding through the soil. There is a moment of silence. CHAPMAN (softly) It reproduces itself - like a vegetable! WILSON (staring) They're growing! LAURENZ Alive! CARRINGTON Yes. The Geiger counter registered 6 point 1 radio activity from them an hour ago. He holds the counter over the sprouts. The men watch its dial. CHAPMAN (reading the dial) Nine point five. LAURENZ Thriving - The men speak in excited but controlled voices. WILSON (awed) Human plants! CARRINGTON (softly) Super human. VOORHEES (eagerly) We must nourish them carefully. My examination of the hand revealed a high glucose content and a chlorophyll base. I suggest a glucose injection. LAURENZ Glucose may be dangerous. CARRINGTON Yes. I think so. He's not using glucose in the greenhouse. WILSON That's why he killed - for blood. He's growing seeds there. What will we do - when these mature? CARRINGTON Study them. LAURENZ (quietly) Have you examined the roots, Arthur? CARRINGTON There are no roots. CHAPMAN Amazing! I think we ought to turn the violet rays on it. LAURENZ (testing with his fingers) No. The growth seems strongest where the earth is dampest. Any light might dry it up. VOORHEES How much plasma have we got? CARRINGTON I've moved all the units in here. Thirty- five. LAURENZ (softly) That may be enough. WILSON (looking at an instrument beside the earth box) What were you doing with that stethescope, Arthur? CARRINGTON (quietly) Listening to them. LAURENZ (looking at the buds through a magnifying glass) There doesn't seem to be any oscillation. CARRINGTON The sound doesn't come from any oscillation - but from something else. VOORHEES An animal sound! Impossible! Wilson puts the stethescope in his ears and holds the end of it over a bud. The others wait in silence. We listen with him. WILSON (removing the stethescope) Arthur's right. It's a hunger noise - like an infant. Nikki has appeared behind the screen. NIKKI May I talk to you, Arthur? CARRINGTON (quietly) Later. Would you please type up all my notes. (he looks at her intense face and then smiles at her, he turns to the men) Excuse me. (the scientists are bent over the earth box. They hold the Geiger counter over it and listen to its faint clicking. Dr. Voorhees listens as did Wilson through the stethescope. Carrington moves out from behind the screen with Nikki) What is it, Nikki? NIKKI I insist that you get some sleep, Arthur. CARRINGTON Later. NIKKI (insistent) You can't use your mind - if you're exhausted. CARRINGTON My mind's still perfectly clear. NIKKI It isn't. (he frowns at her) You're not thinking of what's happening in the greenhouse. You saw what one of them can do! Well, just imagine if there are a thousand, or a hundred thousand! CARRINGTON I have imagined it. NIKKI And you won't do anything? CARRINGTON I'm doing all that can be done, Nikki - discovering its secrets. NIKKI (tensely) I know! And that's quite wonderful. But what if that ship came here not just to visit the earth, but to conquer it! To start growing some kind of a horrible army. And turn the human race into - into food for it! And kill the whole world. CARRINGTON (quietly) There are many things threatening to kill our world, Nikki. New stars and comets shooting through space. Atmospheric changes. A sudden cooling of the sun. And even human wars - that may release deadly global gases. NIKKI But those are theories, Arthur! This is an enemy - near us - and - CARRINGTON (taking her arm) There are no enemies in science - There are only phenomena to study. We are studying one. NIKKI You're not afraid? CARRINGTON I'd be a traitor to human reason if I allowed my fears to destroy what has come to us - or let anyone else destroy it. (softly) I want you to believe in my way, Nikki - the way of the mind. NIKKI (nervously) I've admired you tremendously, Arthur - CARRINGTON (intensely) Not admiration - Faith. NIKKI You have it. (she smiles nervously) I'm so terrified I can barely walk. I'll - I'll totter off to my room and type your notes. CARRINGTON (softly) Thanks. (She starts away) DISSOLVE TO: 52 INT. NIKKI'S ROOM She is typing at her desk, her note book propped up in front of her. A sheaf of typewritten pages is beside her machine. The door opens. Captain Henry enters. HENRY (watching her type) Want to take a rest? NIKKI (without looking up) Can't. HENRY I'll rub your neck. It'll relax you. He comes behind her and massages her neck and shoulders gently. NIKKI Please, I can't concentrate - when you do that. HENRY Maybe you're concentrating on the wrong thing. She finishes the last line of typing, pulls the page out of the machine, puts it on a pile of copy. She covers the pile with a large book. NIKKI I'm bushed. (she smiles at him) That feels good. Please don't tire yourself. HENRY (massaging, and trying to get a look at the copy over her head) Couldn't. (casually) Have there been any accidents up here in the last two months? Anybody shot, stabbed or had an ulcer removed? NIKKI (covering the copy casually with another book) No. That what-is-it in the greenhouse is our first diversion. HENRY (smiling) I brought up thirty-five units of blood plasma two months ago. What's become of it? NIKKI Why nothing. It's here. HENRY I wondered why they're not using it on Dr. Aligari. They're giving him blood transfusions. No plasma. Two live donors. Any ideas about that? NIKKI (moving her neck and shoulders away) Thanks for the massage. You're really very good at it. HENRY It's just a sample. (firmly) Relax your neck muscles. (she does) That's fine. (he starts massaging her shoulders, speaking casually as he does) What's Carrington doing with thirty-five units of plasma, Nikki? NIKKI Ask him. HENRY I will. (gently) Just close your eyes - and float. It's good for you. NIKKI (wearily) I'm really exhausted. She closes her eyes, sighs and "floats." Henry makes a quiet sudden move toward the pile of copy she has hidden under the two books. The gesture catches Nikki by surprise. She stares for an instant unable to believe his perfidy and then leaps to her feet, full of outrage. NIKKI Give that back! It's private. You're not allowed to - ! Give that back or I'll - ! Oh, you're horrible, a cheap, underhanded army spy! She has flung herself at him, clawing for the papers in his hand. Her physical assault is too violent for Henry to ignore. He puts an end to it by sending a short right into her stomach. She doubles up with a groan. NIKKI You hit me! HENRY Only in the stomach. Won't leave any marks. (Nikki sinks into her chair, staring at him as he reads the copy. His voice grows quiet and serious) So that's it! Holy Ike - five of them! (he looks up from his reading and stares back at her, his voice curt) You deserved that punch! NIKKI (softly) I wanted to tell you. But I couldn't. I gave my word. I'm glad you - did what you did. I'm very glad. (she smiles wearily at him) You can finish the massage now - Pat. HENRY I've got a few other things to finish first, baby. He walks out. DISSOLVE TO: 53 INT. CARRINGTON'S LABORATORY The door opens. Captain Henry, Lt. Dykes, Dr. Redding and Dr. Ambrose enter. They look into a seemingly empty room. HENRY (calling) Dr. Carrington. (Carrington comes out from behind the screen) CARRINGTON I'm afraid I'm rather busy right now, Captain. Might I ask you to - HENRY (cutting in) I've learned that you found a dog in the hothouse - bled white by our Visitor. And you didn't report it. CARRINGTON I didn't consider it necessary. HENRY No? But it was necessary to let two friends of yours go in there and get killed! CARRINGTON (evenly) I did what you would have done. I put them there as guards. I was a guard myself. Their deaths were unavoidable. Whoever was in there would have been killed. HENRY I also understand you're doing a little gardening. Carrington remains silent. Voorhees and Laurenz emerge from behind the screen and stand at Carrington's side. HENRY You might have notified me - instead of letting me find it out from Miss Nicholson. (Carrington scowls at this bit of news. Henry adds sharply) Where are they? Carrington and his two cohorts are silent. They stand staring at Ambrose and Redding. Dykes has stepped behind the screen. DYKES (reappearing) This way to the nursery, Pat. Henry, Ambrose and Redding step behind the screen. 54 SCREENED IN TABLE Captain Henry and Lt. Dykes stare at the box of earth. Rigged up over it are four plasma containers out of which blood is dripping slowly. Carrington appears. Henry points at the plasma containers. HENRY (grimly) That's what your late colleagues are doing - in the greenhouse. This is a distinct improvement. AMBROSE (quietly) We have read your notes, Arthur. I think you should have consulted the rest of us. CARRINGTON (coldly) I have all the help I need. REDDING (his eyes on the sprouts in the earth box) I consider the situation extremely serious, Dr. Carrington. CARRINGTON (softly) Your opinion has not been asked, Dr. Redding. REDDING (quietly) It has - by Captain Henry. And I've given it to him. I'll repeat it to you. We're facing something unpredictably dangerous. The creature in the green-house is obviously multiplying itself - in this identical fashion. It will need more blood for its operations. It will make every effort to obtain what it needs. CARRINGTON It has been imprisoned and immobilized. REDDING We don't know its powers....or its resources. We can not be sure of our safety - or of something even more important - the world's safety. We have no knowledge of how much it can multiply. A thousand creatures - or ten thousand of the sort we've seen could - CARRINGTON (interrupting) I'm not interested in your fantasies, Dr. Redding. AMBROSE Redding's right. The thing has to be destroyed, Arthur, and its progeny along with it. CARRINGTON Never. HENRY (ignoring Carrington) What do you think is the best procedure, Dr. Redding? REDDING We'll analyze these things in the box first, and see what sort of gas or chemical has the quickest effect on them. And then use it in the greenhouse. AMBROSE A high electric voltage should be able to accomplish what we want. CARRINGTON (coldly) You're talking like a frightened school boy, Dr. Ambrose. AMBROSE (angrily) Two men have been killed! And there's more killing ahead. HENRY Electricity sounds good to me. We'll shoot it into the greenhouse and - CARRINGTON (interrupting angrily) I forbid - any destruction! LAURENZ It would be an outrage! VOORHEES (at the same time) A cowardly betrayal of science! HENRY (grimly) This isn't science! This is a military action against an enemy invader. Go ahead, gentlemen. Get MacAuliff, Lieutenant. (to Redding) Mr. MacAuliff will be in charge of the electrical operations. The door opens and the post's radio man, Ezra Hendrix enters. HENDRIX (excitedly) I got your message through, Dr. Carrington! And the answers are still coming. I had to take them in shorthand. (he starts reading) Fogarty to Henry. Carrington informs me Martian alive. You are directed to make every effort to keep it alive, and protect it against any injury. General MacLaren arriving tonight with fourteenth squadron - and full government personnel including Secretary of State. Chief of staff already here. Under no circumstances take action against Martian until our arrival at post soon as weather permits. Confirm instantly. (Hendrix looks up) There's one for you, Doctor. Fogarty to Carrington - give Henry all cooperation needed to insure survival of creature you describe. Army and science chief regard your captive most important in human history. CARRINGTON You have your orders, Captain Henry, and I have mine. I consider them sane and intelligent. HENDRIX I got to get back. That loon Skeely's got a story longer than the Bible he wants me to send. Henry starts with Hendrix for the door. EDDIE What do we do, Pat? HENRY We get on that radio and try changing the Army's mind. He walks out. DISSOLVE TO: 55 INT. ROOM OCCUPIED BY HENRY AND HIS CREW. 1 A.M. MacAuliff and Barnes are sleeping on cots. Captain Henry is preparing to lie down. He goes to the window and looks out at the wildly whirling snow. HENRY (muttering) That stinkin' wind! (he turns toward one of the cots) You think our plane's still in one piece, Mac? There is no answer from the sleeping MacAuliff. The door opens and Eddie comes in. He wears his flying suit. He carries a Kerosene hurricane light. EDDIE (wearily) Baby, am I bushed! That bitchy wind cuts you in half. (he hands Henry the lamp) Mind filling this up? Burned dry. You'll need it outside. Blacker than Fogarty's heart. (he starts removing his suit as they talk) Anything new? Henry starts filling the lamp out of a large kerosene can. HENRY (grimly-quoting) Fogarty to Henry. Your attitude inviting court martial. Fogarty to Henry. Your hysterics are unbecoming to officer - also black mark for entire air corps. EDDIE (wearily) That pook head! He thinks we're running a ministrel show. (he has lain down on the cot) When do I stand guard again? HENRY Four hours. EDDIE (snuggling into pillow) In that case, excuse me. (he sighs and mutters sleepily) Remember Guadalcanal - those nice warm nights? Henry has lighted the hurricane lamp. HENRY If this rotten weather would only quit for a minute - they can come in and court martial me all they like. Hendrix says it won't blow itself out for two more weeks. He was up here once with - A snore comes from Eddie and Captain Henry stops talking. He sits down on a cot to remove his shoes. There is a knock on the door. Henry goes to it and opens it. Nikki comes in. She is in a night robe and slippers. She carries a small toilet kit and a blanket. NIKKI (brightly) Have you got room? HENRY Come in. I was just going to bed. NIKKI Thought I'd join you - if you don't mind. HENRY Don't mind at all. NIKKI I brought my own blanket - if you have an extra cot. HENRY I think we can - arrange something. NIKKI (sitting down on a cot) This one's empty. HENRY It's mine. (she starts to get up) Perfectly all right - you can use it. He sits down beside her. NIKKI (nervously) You don't mind sleeping with one of the men. HENRY It's not my usual preference. NIKKI (laughing a little loudly) Mine either. HENRY (frowning) Shh. No sense in waking them up. They're very tired. NIKKI (solemnly) Sorry. (he puts his arm around her as she peers at the sleepers) I'll try not to disturb them. HENRY You can lie down, if you care to. NIKKI I can't. HENRY Why not? NIKKI I'm scared to death. The minute I lie down, I jump up. HENRY Maybe I can relax you, baby. NIKKI Please - no massages. HENRY Can't you think of me as something beside a masseur? NIKKI Yes. (she looks at him nervously) Please make love to me. HENRY (holding her) You're shaking. NIKKI I know. It'll take my mind off - what's making me shake - that what- is-it. HENRY (gently) You're very sweet. Perfect skin, perfect nose - everything perfect. NIKKI Thank you. (she stares at him and adds softly) Please go on. HENRY Your mind isn't on it. NIKKI Yes - it is. Honestly it is. You said I was perfect. HENRY If you lie down you'll stop shaking, baby. NIKKI I won't. HENRY Just try it. NIKKI You -- you can't make love to me if I'm lying down. HENRY Yes I can. It doesn't interfere at all. NIKKI Pat -- do you really love me? Or are you just talking because I asked you to? (Henry has turned his head toward a clicking noise coming from the direction of MacAuliff's bed. Nikki frowns at him) Now whose mind isn't on it? HENRY (looking at her) Darling. NIKKI (smiling nervously at him) I understand perfectly. HENRY What? NIKKI A room full of kibitzers and a monster floating around -- it's a little difficult kissing a girl under such conditions. HENRY (his ears cocked at the continuing clicking) You're wonderful. He kisses her. NIKKI (after the kiss) That's very -- relaxing. I feel much better. I'll -- I'll lie down, it you don't mind. She lies down on the cot. As she does, Henry stands up. She looks at him with some surprise. HENRY That clicking. Sounds like. No -- it couldn't be -- (he smiles tensely at the recumbent Nikki) Excuse me. (he goes to MacAuliff's bed and shakes him gently) Mac, Mac -- wake up. (MacAuliff opens his eyes) MACAULIFF What's the matter? HENRY (gesturing toward the clicking) Hear that? MacAuliff listens for a second, then sits up swiftly. MACAULIFF The counter! HENRY I thought so! MacAuliff jumps up and grabs at a duffle bag that lies at the foot of his bed. NIKKI What is it? HENRY The Geiger counter. NIKKI Why should it be clicking now? HENRY There's something moving around that's radio active. NIKKI Oh, no -- no! MacAuliff lifts the counter out of his duffle bag and stares at it. It continues to click, its rhythm accelerating slightly. Henry darts to the intercommunication panel at his desk. HENRY (pushing a button) Ericson! Ken! This is Pat. Come in -- quick! A moment's silence. ERICSON'S VOICE Ericson here -- HENRY (rapidly into speaker) Any trouble down there? ERICSON'S VOICE Not a thing, Pat. HENRY Who's on duty outside? ERICSON'S VOICE Dr. Ambrose and what's his name, the carpenter. HENRY Beat it aut there, as fast as you can. Check that rear door and call me back! ERICSON'S VOICE Will do. Henry turns to MacAuliff and Nikki who are staring fearfully at the counter. The clicking has continued to gain in volume and metre. MACAULIFF It's getting stronger. Henry grabs a pillow from the bed and an ice axe from his desk. He runs to the door, opens it and cautiously peers down the hall. MacAuliff and Nikki watch him tensely. HENRY (after a moment) Nothing. Not a sign -- Nikki gives a long sigh of relief. NIKKI My heart's pounding like a horse running away. MACAULIFF (shaking the counter) Suppose this thing's gone nuts? HENRY (dropping the pillow and ice axe) I sure hope so. Let me see it. (he takes the counter; the clicking is now quite rapid) It looks okay. There is a movement outside the window. No one in the room sees it. MACAULIFF Maybe Dr. Carrington is experimenting some more. NIKKI (hopefully) That's possible. Shall I call him? The intercom speaks. ERICSON'S VOICE Everything's in order outside, Pat. HENRY (into intercom) Thanks, Ken. He snaps the intercom shut. MACAULIFF (eyes glued on the counter) I sure don't get it. HENRY Call Carrington, Nikki. NIKKI (pressing a switch on the intercom) Dr. Carrington -- Dr. Carrington. This is Nikki, Arthur. A moment's pause, then Carrington's sleepy voice comes from the intercom. CARRINGTON'S VOICE Yes, Nikki? NIKKI I'm in Captain Henry's room. His Geiger counter is counting Geigers like mad. He wants to know if it might be picking up anything that you're doing. CARRINGTON'S VOICE No. What's the reading? MACAULIFF Eight point six. And going up. NIKKI (repeating into intercom) Eight point six. And going up. CARRINGTON'S VOICE I'll be right down. The intercom snaps off. Suddenly the Geiger counter starts purring like a rattlesnake. HENRY (his voice rising) Eddie! Barnes! Get up! (Dykes and Barnes sit up in alarm) Grab your guns -- axes are better -- Nikki, take this! (he seizes the mattress on his cot and pushes it at Nikki) Sit in the corner -- hold that over you! (to MacAuliff) Where's your tommy-gun? MACAULIFF Here! He pulls tommy-gun from under his bed and brandishes it. DYKES AND BARNES What's up? Where is it? A CRASH from the window is their answer. HENRY Pillows! Get those pillows in front of your faces! A second CRASH sends the entire window hurtling into the room. The Creature springs into their midst. GUNS ROAR. The Creature moves toward MacAuliff. His tommy-gun chatters at it point-blank. It strikes at the tommy-gun, knocking it out of MacAuliff's hands, and sending MacAuliff sprawling. The Creature jumps after MacAuliff. It is balked for a moment by Henry who strikes it with his ice axe. A bullet hits the light. Only the dim light of the kerosene lamp remains. The Creature whips its knifed hand at Henry's face. Henry partially blocks the blow with his pillow which shreds in the air. Henry staggers back against the wall. He almost knocks over the hurricane lamp. He picks it up and dashes it at the Creature. Flaming kerosene spatters over it. As it stands burning torch- like in the middle of the room Barnes moves forward and strikes a mighty blow with his axe. The blow misses. Instantly the Creature wheels and seizes Barnes by the throat. Barnes screams once. His scream gurgles away. Dykes, holding his entire cot in front of him as a shield, rushes forward followed by Henry. They smash at the monster which, still holding Barnes with one tentacle, retreats to a corner of the room. It is the corner in which Nikki has been crouching. She screams. The Creature whips its free talon at her and secures her by the arm. Still afire, it starts dragging its two victims toward the window. Nikki's screams fill the room. Once more Henry charges forward with his ice axe and sinks its pointed end into the Creature's head. The Creature stops, drops Nikki and lashes at Henry. This time its arced knife-fingers slash Henry's wrist. Henry drops the axe and falls back. Dykes, still shielded by his cot, has at the same time grabbed Nikki's ankle and pulled her away. MacAuliff has picked up the can containing the remainder of the kerosene. He throws it on the Creature. The blaze surges up. Parts of the room have caught fire. The Creature picks up Barnes and springs out the window into the storm. For a moment its motion through the night is etched in fire. Then the wind and snow extinguish the flames. The Creature disappears. Dykes moves quickly from Nikki to bend over Henry who is kneeling in silent agony, clutching his lacerated forearm. Dykes snaps on a flashlight. DYKES (panting) You all right, Pat? HENRY (with difficulty) Yeh. (he nods toward Nikki) How about her? DYKES Fainted. Her arms cut. I think she's all right, though. MACAULIFF (his fingers on Nikki's pulse) Yes, she's all right. HENRY Barnes - he died quick, I think. DYKES So do I. (he points his flashlight at the floor) That thing won't make much of a meal of the poor guy. Most of his blood's in here. There is a knock on the door. CARRINGTON'S VOICE It's Dr. Carrington. HENRY Come in. Dr. Carrington enters. Dykes' flashlight focuses on his face. CARRINGTON (blinking at the beam) I heard shots - what happened? HENRY Dr. Carrington, I want everyone in this camp to assemble in the radio room immediately. Fully dressed. Bring medical supplies, provisions, and every weapon we've got. CARRINGTON Your window - is it - was it the - ? HENRY It was. I'll give you all a full report in the radio room. Get going Doctor - you, too, Eddie. Round everybody up. Get 'em barricaded before it comes back! DISSOLVE TO: 56 INTERIOR RADIO ROOM - 2:30 A.M. Beyond the radio room is a short underground passage leading into the generator room. All the members of the expedition, save Henry, MacAuliff and Hendrix are in the radio room. Chapman is putting final touches on a bandage on Nikki's arm. Two workers are nailing shut the trap door that leads to the observation tower. Henry enters with Hendrix and MacAuliff following. HENDRIX (to Henry) ...not during the storm, Captain. But soon's it blows over I can get the transmitter out of your plane and rig up a two-way communication with Dutch Harbor. Henry nods. MacAuliff has taken two Geiger counters from a ruck-sack in the corner. He returns to Henry. HENRY (to MacAuliff) Got 'em? (as MacAuliff shows him the counters) Eddie! Dykes turns from where he has been supervising the workers at the trap door. HENRY I'm going to station you and Mac at each end of the corridor. Take a counter along. If it starts clicking, report back here on the double. DYKES (feelingly) You bet. HENRY I'll put Nikki on the intercom. She'll keep checking with you, so we'll know if you get taken by surprise. DYKES (wryly) That'll be a big help... (He goes out with MacAuliff) HENRY (to Nikki) Got that, Nikki? NIKKI Yes. Where's the intercom? HENRY (pointing) Over there. Hendrix'll show you. Nikki pulls a chair over to the intercom panel. Hendrix moves to show her the levers that will connect her with Dykes and MacAuliff. Skeely emerges from the generator room and crosses to Henry. SKEELY Hey, Ceptain, what's the sense of everybody huddling in here? Let's set some acetylene torches and hand grenades and stuff and rush the greenhouse. HENRY It isn't in the greenhouse. I just checked. CHAPMAN How did it get out, Captain? HENRY Burned its way out. There's a big hole in the wall. Still hot. SKEELY (incredulous) Burned its way through an iron wall? HENRY It's radio-active. CHAPMAN (solemnly) Probably can generate enough heat to burn its way through anything. NIKKI (into intercom) All right, Eddie? Over. EDDIE'S VOICE Nothing yet. NIKKI (into intercom) All right, Mac? Over. MACAULIFF'S VOICE All quiet here. At twenty second intervals, Nikki, Eddie and MacAuliff repeat the same ritual. SKEELY I still say we ought to corner that thing in the greenhouse. That's were it's growing its stuff -- it'll go back there -- ERICSON (growling) Corner it with what, you dumb joker? Insect powder? AMBROSE (coming up) I've got enough cable to reach the nursery, Captain. Suppose we electrocute it? CHAPMAN It might be immune to electricity. REDDING (coming up) It's not. I tried it, on one of those horrible sprouts. Carrington has been sitting nearby, his head in his hands. He looks up angrily. CARRINGTON You destroyed them! REDDING Only one. It disintegrated under five hundred volts and burnt to an ash. CARRINGTON I forbid you to do any more tampering! Our orders are clear. We are to wait -- HENRY (curtly) I'm giving the orders. Carrington looks at Henry for a moment, then rises and goes into the generator room. Henry ignores him. HENRY (to Redding) I think you've got something, Doctor. AMBROSE (eagerly) Shall I run the cable into the green- house? HENRY Our pal isn't going back there. AMBROSE But those things in the greenhouse are growing...They must need -- nourishment. REDDING (to Henry: protesting) You can't anticipate its moves. Its mind is of a different nature than ours. HENRY A mind at war is always the same -- whether it's hatched in Tokyo or Mars. We know the thing's objective. SKEELY What? HENRY (nodding at Ambrose) Nourishment. Blood, and all the blood in the camp is in this room. He'll be coming down the pike any minute now. As Henry speaks his eyes have been roving around the room. CHAPMAN Perhaps we'd be wiser to disperse -- HENRY He'd get us one at a time. SKEELY (eyeing Henry) So what do we do? HENRY We give him a welcome home party. (he points to the corridor that leads to the generator room) In that tunnel. And a great, big hotfoot. (he turns to Redding) Got any chicken wire - cattle fence wire -- any kind of wire webbing? REDDING Yes -- rolls of it. HENRY (to Ericson) Ken, take two men and help Doctor Redding bring the wire out. Lay it in that passage way. Then string it along the roof. SKEELY Like a fly trap! HENRY (to Ambrose, as Ken follows Redding out) Splice your cable to the webbing. And fix up an operating switch on a long wire - about thirty feet. How many volts can you give me? AMBROSE Over a thousand. HENRY That enough? AMBROSE I earnestly hope so. HENRY Got going, Doctor. Ambrose runs out. Nikki's exchanges with Dykes and MacAuliff have been continuing at regular intervals. Now Nikki turns to Hendrix. NIKKI Take over for me, please, Mr. Hendrix. Hendrix sits at the intercom and starts checking with the sentinels as Nikki goes to Henry. She pulls at his sleeve. Pat, don't you feel it? It's getting cold. HENRY (paying no attention) Everybody who's not working get back in the generator room. Make it snappy, please. NIKKI Pat, I tell you I'm getting cold. HENRY You sick? NIKKI No, you dunce. It's cold. The heat must be off. HENRY (calling to Chapman) What's the thermometer reading? CHAPMAN (glancing at a wall thermometer) Fifty-four. I thought it was getting chilly. SKEELY It sure is. CHAPMAN (still staring at the thermometer) It's going down fast. HENRY (placing his hand over a heat vent) There's no heat at all coming through the vents. CHAPMAN We've got three furnaces. They couldn't all break down at once. SKEELY (looking at the thermometer over Chapman's shoulder) Going down. Forty-nine! CHAPMAN Someone better go to the furnace room. HENRY No, Doctor. There's nothing wrong with the furnaces. NIKKI Must be, Henry. Why aren't they working? HENRY Because they've been turned off. By our visitor. SKEELY Holy Ike. He's gonna freeze us out! HENRY And come in after us when we're numb or dead with cold. SKEELY What a practical joker. Reminds me of General Rommel when we were "it." CHAPMAN (reading from the thermometer) Forty-five now. SKEELY And it's sixty below outside. Redding, Ericson and two other scientists have emerged from the storeroom with the wire rolls. They start to execute Henry's orders. HENRY (to Chapman) How many flying suits are there, Doctor? CHAPMAN Eight, counting yours. And one electric blanket. The telegraph instrument starts to chatter. HENDRIX (calling) Nikki. NIKKI Coming. She replaces Hendrix at the intercom panel. Hendrix starts taking down the telegraph message. HENRY (to Chapman) Leave me one for Nikki. Take the others in the generating room and tell the folks to take turns wearing 'em. Ten minute shifts. Chapman moves to obay. SKEELY Our friend's quite a boy. Figures all the angles. HENRY (staring at the wiring) Lucky thing we got Edison and Einstein on our side. SKEELY (quietly) Wonder if they're going to be enough. HENRY (equally quietly) I was wondering the exact same thing. ERICSON (working) My fingers are getting numb. SKEELY (walking up and down to warm himself) I remember once, in Accra, in equatorial Africa -- ERICSON Shut up. Nobody's listening. HENDRIX Message for you Captain. HENRY Hold it. (to Chapman who is returning for another load of flying suits) Got any rubber boots in that storeroom? CHAPMAN Plenty of them. HENRY Get us four pairs, will you. Chapman goes to the storeroom. SKEELY What're the boots for? HENRY So nobody gets burned accidentally when I turn the juice on. SKEELY (calling after Chapman) Make that five pair, Doctor! DYKES' VOICE (over intercom) It's coming! NIKKI (relaying the warning) Pat! It's coming! HENRY (to Nikki) Call Mac in! (to the wire workers) Almost finished? REDDING (working frantically) Another minute.. AMBROSE (calling from the other end of the corridor) All ready on this end! Henry has moved to the door. He opens it. MacAuliff and Dykes come running in. Henry shuts and bolts the door behind them. DYKES (panting) The counter's going. The reading's low, but it's going up. Oh, boy, it's cold! He hands the counter to Henry. Chapman has come out of the storeroom with the boots. Skeely takes a pair, and the others are dumped at the entrance of the passage-way. HENRY (jerking his head toward the generator room) Nikki - back there. Get going. (to the others) Get those boots on, boys. He starts to pull on a pair himself. Carrington comes out of the generator room. He looks at the cable hook-up Ambrose has made, then glances up quickly at the wire-web installed by Redding, etc. REDDING That does it. All set, Captain. HENRY Okay, everybody in the back room but Army personnel. Carrington strides up to Henry. His face is working emotionally. He is about to address Henry, when Hendrix speaks up. HENDRIX How about your message, Captain? HENRY Let's have it. HENDRIX (reading) MacLaren to Henry. Use every means to save lives of expedition. But take no steps against captive. Expect to relieve you in three days. Hold out well as you can. Your main objective is to keep creature alive until our arrival. Congress, President, Chiefs of Staff, all superiors consider survival of captive creature greatest triumph for our civilization. DYKES The biggest heroes are always back of the lines, eh? HENRY (grimly) Well - that's that. SKEELY (quietly) How does that affect your plans, Captain? HENRY Not at all. CARRINGTON (intensely) You can not ignore your orders, Captain! They come from sources that know more than you! Henry finishes donning his boots. He stands up, and glances coolly at Carrington. HENRY We'll discuss that some other time. (pointing to the rear door) Inside, folks. Carrington stands glaring at Henry. He makes an effort to control the fury in him. CARRINGTON (vibrantly) You're defying orders from your superiors, Captain Henry. You've been directed to preserve the life of this interplanetary creature at all costs. DYKES (from the thermometer) The temperature is now thirty above. SKEELY Perfect for ski-ing. CARRINGTON (tensely to Henry) You are an officer in the United States Army in charge of a military mission. You have received instructions from your general - and from every department of the government on how to proceed. HENRY It's no fun breaking orders, Doctor. But my duty - CARRINGTON (cutting in sharply) Your duty is to the Army you represent! HENRY (quietly) My first duty as a man is to the human race. There's an enemy of it coming after us. I'm going to kill it. Redding enters from the corridor. He hands Henry a switch on the end of a long wire. REDDING Here's your operating switch. HENRY Thanks. Redding glances curiously at Carrington and returns toward the rear room. Dykes is standing by the intercom panel. He pushes a button. A subdued squealing comes out of the communicator. HENRY (sharply) What's that? DYKES I've got the intercom open to the greenhouse. Listen to them. As he talks the room fills with an insistent mewing as if from a myriad of voices. HENRY Your friends sound hungry, Carrington. SKEELY (as the voices rise) They must be big boys now. DYKES The wild carrots are coming - ! CARRINGTON (his voice rising in anger) You're doing more than breaking Army orders, Captain! You're robbing the human mind! HENRY You can testify to that effect at my court martial, Doctor. CARRINGTON (tensely - and controlling himself again) A secret has come to us, greater than any secret ever revealed to science. It must not be destroyed! It must be studied - and learned. HENRY (quietly) I saw it, Carrington. It's not something to put under glass - and examine. And there are thousands more of them hatching. They'll reproduce like weeds. They'll tear the world apart. CARRINGTON That doesn't matter! HENRY (softly) It kind of matters to me. CARRINGTON (growing wilder) Knowledge is more important than life, Captain. We have only one excuse for existing - to think, to find out, to learn what is unknown. DYKES We haven't a chance to learn anything from that pookey Martian, except a quicker way to die, Doctor. HENRY I'm ordering you back, Carrington. CARRINGTON (full of a curious fury) It doesn't matter what happens to us! We're not animals. We're a brain that thinks! Nothing else counts, except our thinking. We've thought our way into nature. We've split the atom - DYKES Yeah, and that sure made the world happy, didn't it! The mewing out of the wall speaker increases. HENRY I've ordered you out, Carrington. CARRINGTON (wildly) We owe it to the brain of our species to stand here and die without destroying a source of wisdom! Captain, I beseech you. Science, government, the Army - civilization has given us orders. HENRY (grimly) They're wrong order. They come from people who don't know what they're talking about. SKEELY I'm with you there, Henry. In a pinch I always put my money on a little man - against all top brass. CARRINGTON (wildly to Henry) You set yourself above all human progress, above all science! HENRY (quietly) I set myself against an enemy, Carrington. MACAULIFF Come on, Doctor. You've said your piece. This is one time when science doesn't blow up the world ...just to see what makes it tick. DYKES (suddenly) The Geiger! He picks up the counter. It is clicking more rapidly. HENRY Inside, Carrington. Dykes seizes Carrington. The Doctor goes with him. CARRINGTON (from the door into the underground passage) You're fools! You'll never hurt it! It's wiser, stronger - DYKES Shut up - ! He pushes Carrington into the passage into the generator room. Nikki, Chapman and Hendrix follow. Dykes shuts the door behind them and then rejoins the group in the radio room. It consists of Henry, MacAuliff, Ericson, Skeely and Dykes. Henry turns and sees Skeely. HENRY Sorry, Skeely. These are front lines. No civilians allowed. SKEELY That does not include the Press, Captain. HENRY Get in with the others, Skeely. You don't belong here. SKEELY (grinning) I didn't belong at Alamein or Bouganville - or Okinawa. Just hung around as a kibitzer. I am also a very good obit writer. Ignore me, please. Henry grins and decides to ignore him. He turns to Dykes. HENRY You got the Geiger, Eddie. DYKES Yeah, no change. MACAULIFF The temperature is now twenty-two. HENRY Keep moving around. That'll help a little. ERICSON (trying to keep his voice casual) Excuse me, Pat, but wouldn't it be a better idea to wait at the other end of the tunnel. HENRY No, Ken. We receive in here. DYKES Any reason, Pat? HENRY Psychology. Our boy seems kind of smart. He's going to notice an empty room - and a lot of fence wire laid. And sit down to think it over - for a few hours. But if it finds us out here waiting, he'll chase us back into the trap. SKEELY Providing we are able to move. HENRY That's right. SKEELY Frozen bait, eh? MACAULIFF How can it get cold so quick? (to Dykes) You're turning blue. HENRY Keep moving, boys. They pace. ERICSON Must be zero. DYKES (from the thermometer) Was. Next stop five below. MACAULIFF Come, Mr. Martian - and get some nice Scotch blood - 110 proof. Nothin' like it for babies! ERICSON (pacing) Cut it out - ! MACAULIFF I never thought I'd be in a hurry to see that lad again. ERICSON (gesturing toward the intercom from which the mewing noises are still issuing - now in a sudden crescendo) Those things give me the fantods. Okay if I shut it off, Captain? SKEELY No, don't. I like the gooseflesh. Keeps me warm. There is a moment or two of silence. The men keep moving and swinging their arms. DYKES I don't hear the Geiger. HENRY It's going. ERICSON Faster? HENRY Two points. DYKES Then he's on his way! MACAULIFF Maybe. I got a worry. DYKES (to Henry, saluting like a courier) Report from the front, Captain. Brother MacAuliff has a worry. MACAULIFF It's no joke. ERICSON (tensely) Spill it! MACAULIFF What if it can read our minds? DYKES (pacing) It's going to be sore when it gets to you - a blank page. MACAULIFF (angrily) They're working on telepathy in this country ain't they? So they've probably got it on Mars, considerin' the superior type of carrots they produce. So it knows everything we're sayin' and thinking and it'll wait till we're froze stiff in our own trap before it - HENRY (sharply) It's coming closer. (the mewing has stopped. There is silence. The Geiger counter is heard clicking) Up two more points. DYKES (pats Henry on the back) A real strategist. You'll be a general yet. SKEELY Not a chance. Not enough fat in his head. ERICSON (staring at the counter in Henry's hand) It's standing still now. DYKES Getting its wind. HENRY Keep moving - SKEELY (as he paces) I remember the first electrocution I ever covered. Ruth Snyder and Judd Grey. I'll never forget how Madam Snyder bounced in the chair when they gave her her last permanent. We were all watching her eyes and - HENRY (sharply) Hold it! Skeely becomes silent. The quickened clicking of the Geiger fills the room. DYKES (softly) Thar she blows! HENRY (his voice precise) When it comes in, you get into the passage first, Skeely. (he points to the opened passage door) You next, Ken. Then Mac, then Eddie. Got that? (the men nod) Don't start falling back till its in the room and sees us. I'll carry the switch. Take care when I turn the juice on that you don't touch the walls. You'll get electrocuted if you do. MACAULIFF What if the thousand volts aren't enough, Pat? DYKES Five hundred burned one of the sprouts. MACAULIFF You can kill a baby with a fly swatter - you need a baseball bat for a man. How do we know it won't walk right through. HENRY (curtly) We don't know. But we'll find out. All set? DYKES (quietly) Yes, sir. The Geiger counter is now clicking loudly. Holding axes and hatchets in their gloved hands, the men take their positions as Captain Henry indicated. HENRY (quietly) If the voltage doesn't stop it, keep swinging at its arms. MACAULIFF (suddenly) It's outside! It's coming in! A creaking of wood comes from the doorway. SKEELY Yeah, we got a caller. HENRY Wait till it shows - before you move! At this moment the lights go out. SKEELY (in the dark) What the holy -- ! MACAULIFF (calling in the dark) The juice is off! ERICSON (bawling out in the dark) Put on the lights. The Geiger clicking and the mewing fill the darkness. The outline of the door begins to glow in the dark, as the Creature burns away at it. NIKKI'S VOICE (yelling) Pat!! Pat! Carrington's disconnected the generator! HENRY'S VOICE Mac! Come with me! Eddie - hold that thing back as long as you can! DYKES Roger - REDDING'S VOICE (calling down the passageway) Captain Henry - Watch out - Carrington's got a gun! We hear the sound of feet crashing against the wire webbing as Henry and MacAuliff run along the tunnel. The doorway's outline continues to glow more brightly. DISSOLVE TO: 57 INT. GENERATOR ROOM It is entirely dark. Henry's flashlight stabs into the room. It swivels around quickly, pausing briefly on Nikki's panicky face, flashing over the frightened faces of the others, then finding Carrington. Carrington stands with a gun in his hand, staring wildly. CARRINGTON (as the flashlight hits him) I'll shoot! I'll shoot if anyone touches that generator! Henry's response is to charge forward. He grabs the revolver with one hand, and hits Carrington with the other. Carrington falls unconscious, alongside the generators. Henry seizes Carrington's revolver. HENRY (as he retrieves the revolver) Mac! Redding! Get those generators connected! He darts out as Mac and Redding turn their flashlights on the generator and fall to work. DISSOLVE TO: 58 INT. RADIO ROOM The redly glowing door begins to fall inward. As it topples, Dykes' voice is heard. DYKES Never mind the guns. Use your axes! The Creature stands revealed in the doorway radioactivity causes it to shimmer weirdly in the dark. It pauses a moment in the doorway, then moves toward the little group in the mouth of the passagway. HENRY'S VOICE (in the dark) Fall back, fellows - Get going, Skeely! You nest, Ken! Move! The group retreats in order down the passageway. The Thing pauses at the entrance of the corridor. MACAULIFF'S VOICE (in the dark) All connected - Okay, Pat -- The tunnel lights begin to glow redly, revealing the Army group retreating over the fence wire. The Creature is advancing toward them, but has not yet entered the trapped tunnel. ERICSON It's connected! What're you waiting for, Pat? HENRY (coolly) I'm waiting to catch it in the middle of the tunnel, Ken. Take it easy, son. At this moment there comes the sound of a scuffling from the generator room. A figure bursts out into the tunnel, as we here a chorus of "Grab him," "Shut the door," "Hold him - he's crazy," etc. The figure is Carrington. He pushes by Henry, Dykes and the rest of the Army group, and runs the length of the corridor. He comes to a halt at the far end of the corridor, facing the Creature. Carrington, only a few feet away from the unearthly visitor, extends his arms in a pleading gesture. HENRY (during this) Grab him! Eddie! Stop him! DYKES Too late. Shall I go get him? HENRY (after a split second) No. No, Eddie, don't. Fall back. The army group continues to retreat. CARRINGTON (his face dimly visible in the refracted light of the Creature's phosphoresence) Listen to me - I'm your friend! Look, my hands are in the air - I have no weapons - I'm your friend - you must understand that. You're wiser than I - you must understand I'm trying to help you - Don't come any further. They'll kill you!! Look at me, I'm defenseless - you must see that I don't mean to hurt you - I want to know you - to help you - Believe me! You have a greater intelligence than anything on Earth - Use it - use it - look at me and know what I'm trying to tell you - I'm not your enemy - I'm a scientist - a scientist! The Creature has paused before Carrington's tirade as if studying him. Now, without haste, it lifts one arm, and flicks its hand at Carrington's throat. Carrington falls to the floor almost decapitated, his last words still gurgling in his throat. The Creature steps over Carrington's corpse and enters the tunnel. It advances five or six steps. HENRY (crying sharply) Watch out! Here we go! He presses the switch in his hand. A bombardment of huge sparks leaps from ceiling to floor. The Creature is caught in the lightning flashes. It stands motionless as the thousand volt bolts crack through it from head to foot. In front of it stand the five men - axes ready, and weirdly visible in the spitting light. The Creature begins to glow like a filament, then bursts into flame. It sinks to the ground. HENRY Don't move anybody! SKEELY (pointing a small camera) Keep that light going! I got him! I got him! The Creature's form melts in the flames. As it dwindles away, Henry ends the spark bombardment. The lights of the passage come up full. The men move toward the heap of ashes remaining of the Creature. HENRY (to Mac) Go tell them it's over - and to get the furnace going. As MacAuliff moves to obey, Chapman, Nikki and a number of the refugees come out of the generator room. NIKKI Dr. Carrington - what happened to him. HENRY (quietly) He's dead. SKEELY (to Henry. Kneeling over Carrington's remains) A clean sweep, Captain. Both monsters are dead. DISSOLVE 59 INT. RADIO ROOM 7 A.M. The wind is still blowing, the snow still swirling outside the tower windows. Hendrix sits exhausted at his radio sending panel. Skeely is hoarse and almost out on his feet with sleep. He drinks coffee. A coffee pot is boiling over on an electric stove beside him. Captain Henry sits on the cot bed. He is trying to stay awake. CHAPMAN (to Henry) Those pills taking hold? HENRY (foggily) I'll say. CHAPMAN Don't fight them. Relax. HENRY I've got to -- CHAPMAN That can all wait. First you have got to rest. We all do. He goes out. SKEELY (drinking coffee) She clear? HENDRIX Just a minute. (into Mike) Dutch Harbor, can you hear me? VOICE (back out of radio) Dutch Harbor - reception clear. SKEELY (excited and hoarse) I'm on! VOICE General Fogarty standing by for Captain Henry. HENRY (eyes closed) Coming -- I'm coming. Instead he sinks onto the cot bed. SKEELY (at the microphone) North Pole, November 15 - Ned Skeely reporting - VOICE (coming back) General Fogarty standing by for Captain Henry. SKEELY (into mike) Tell General Fogarty to read it in the papers. Flash. The world's greatest battle was fought and won today by the human race. Here at the top of the world a handful of American soldiers and civilians wiped out the first invasion from another planet. VOICE (over radio) Captain Henry - come in. General Fogarty standing by. As Skeely continues to broadcast, Nikki enters. She looks around sleepily. She sees Henry stretched out on the cot bed, goes to him and starts shaking him awake. But nothing will rouse him. Failing to bring Henry to wakefullness, Nikki smiles sleepily and stretches out in the cot beside him. She closes her eyes. Henry opens his eyes and looks at her foggily. He tries to embrace her but cannot. HENRY (drowsily) Untie me, honey. NIKKI You bet I will. Tomorrow. Henry sticks his nose into her neck and falls happily asleep. During this Skeely is broadcasting. SKEELY (answering voice) Stand by, all newspapers! Flash continued! This first skirmish for the possession of the earth by the creatures from space was won by the daring leadership of Captain Patrick Henry. Noah once saved the world with an ark of wood. Captain Henry performed a similar service for our planet with an arc of electricity. But, ladies and gentlemen of the globe - there is an enemy hovering over our heads - an enemy with an armada of flying saucers, and an army of super human and fantastic warriors. Every citizen of the world must become a sentinel watching the skies. Keep looking for the next flying saucer - watch the skies, watch everything over your head - throw a ring of watch towers around the earth - Keep looking - looking - looking - FADE OUT The End