ARMAGEDDON Story by Jonathan Hensleigh Written by Robert Roy Pool FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY Converted to PDF by ScreenTalk™ Online http://www.screentalk.org FADE IN Blackness. Then a hint of green becomes EARTH. It lies across an expanse of space. Richly colored. Fertile. A GIGANTIC ASTEROID cuts into frame, Burning into EARTH'S ATMOSPHERE and striking down in the currant area of Guzumel, Mexico. VOICE An impact equivalent to ten thousand nuclear weapons detonating simultaneously. A HUGE DINOSAUR FOOT steps down hard and is VAPORIZED with a deafening ROAR. VOICE One hundred trillion tons of dirt and rock hurled into the atmosphere. EARTH, seen from space, is rocked with an IMMENSE SHOCKWAVE. A SHEET OF DEBRIS washes across the North and South Hemispheres. VOICE A blanket of dust the sun is powerless to penetrate. For five thousand years our world is robbed of light as a nuclear winter falls. In that darkness, a civilisation is removed from existence. EARTH is now completely entombed in a dark, cold hell. Letters push towards us-- "A R M A G E D D O N" MILLION YEARS LATER EARTH, reflected off the face of ASTRONAUT PETE SHELBY'S HELMET. It appears close enough to touch. Shelby, attached to SHUTTLE ATLANTIS BY LIFELINE, struggles to replace a piece of the shuttle's operational arm. SHELBY (with radio squawking) Houston, I can't get this thing to work... EXT. N.A.S.A. - MISSION CONTROL - DAY In a hub of computers and tracking equipment, we find DAN GOLDEN, former Astronaut from Apollo 8 (first crew to orbit the Moon) and now N.A.S.A's second-in-command. Golden is watching Shelby on a SERIES OF VIDEO SCREENS. 2. FLIGHT DIRECTOR WALTER CLARK sits with rows of N.A.S.A Techs. Golden stands over him, arms on the back o his chair. CLARK Atlantis, what's the problem? SHELBY (V.O.) It just isn't working. Any suggestions? CLARKE Hang on Pete. We'll figure something out for you. Golden taps Clark and sits down. GOLDEN (to Shelby) We got the top scientific minds in the world working on this. (a slight smile) Try "whacking" the thing. SHELBY Okay, Houston, commence whacking. Selby begins Whacking the satellite with his glove. The SATELLITE comes n-line, lights up like a Christmas tree. A HORRIFYING RUMBLING SOUND. SHOTGUN LIKE PELLETS assault the satellite. SHRAPNEL rips into it's delicate gold skin. The satellite EXPLODES. Shelby's lifeline breaks; he spins off, suit leaking from twenty punctures. INT. SHUTTLE ATLANTIS COMMANDER JAMES TURNER turns to his left. GENERAL "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?" EXT. SHUTTLE ATLANTIS STOTGUN LIKE PELLETS shred through Atlantis' N.A.S.A. logo, peeling the shuttle down to her ribs. FIERY EXPLOSION. EXT. SPACE CLOSE ON SHELBY as he twirls away from Atlantis. His helmet is fogging. He gasps for air, wretching, his eyelids leaking blood. He tries to form words: SHELBY Ple...he...me.... 3. Shelby's SHOULDER-CAM angle spins end-over-end... INT. N.A.S.A - MISSION CONTROL MONITORS go dead. N.A.S.A. TECHNICIAN #1 All systems crashing! N.A.S.A. TECHNICIAN #2 Massive failure. We lost them. Utter silence. Utter desolation. DOLLY IN ON GOLDEN'S FACE. Utter disbelief. INT. WKU MOUNTIAN OBSERVATORY - NIGHT THEO and PEARL (at telescope), and JIMBO (at the console), 20's, are star-gazing. Astronomy books, Starbucks cups, etc.,spread all over. Nine Inch Nails plays on the radio. These three could land a date if only they would lose the road flares (plaid shirts, glasses) that signal the painful fact that they are die-hard science nerds THEO'S POV - THROUGH WKU TELESCOPE - Far off in space is a dusty, murky swarm of matter - something resembling a FLOATING EXPLOSION. JIMBO When are we going to let N.A.S.A in on what we've found? THEO We don't even know what we have yet. Comet, asteroid - it could be anything up there. And don't be so eager to red flag N.A.S.A. They don't call us when they discover anything. JIMBO Yeah, but this is their sandbox were playing in. THEO This is our discovery. We're going to hold a press conference. We're going to be famous. SPACEWATCH'll name this thing after us. Job offers are going to fly in from all the big companies. J.P.L., that think tank up at M.I.T., hell even N.A.S.A. 'll be chasing us. PEARL I'm going on Oprah, Larry King, Letterman... 4. JIMBO Hell with them, I'm going on Howard Stern.... PEARL (concentrating) This things really acting up tonight. We should find out if anyone else knows about this. THEO How? JIMBO (matter of factly) Call N.A.S.A THEO And say what? "Hi, we're a couple astronomer geeks who found something really bitchin; floatin' in space." You can't just call N.A.S.A. It's like calling the White House. Besides, you'll never get the number. JIMBO I have the number. I got it from "Mega monster." PEARL Who? JIMBO He's some super-hacker, I went to high school with. Guy's totally wired into every encrypted government installation. THEO He's also an ex-con. JIMBO They never proved he shut down the power in those seven states. Theo grabs the phone. INT. HOUSTON TEXAS - JOHNSON SPACE CENTER - NIGHT Golden and his crew, devastated and exhausted, search for answers. We cut around the room. CLARK What the hell was that? TECHNICIAN 1 Space junk? 5. TECHNICIAN 2 Too big, too much. It took out the whole shuttle. CLARK The press is going to want answers. What are we going to say? GOLDEN Nothing. Not until we know what happened. INTERCUT - N.A.S.A. MISSION CONTROL/WKU OBSERVATORY INT. N.A.S.A. - MISSION CONTROL Two N.A.S.A. techs, FLIP and SKIP, looking very haggard, furiously typing numbers into the circulator. The phone RINGS, Flip answers. JIMBO (whispers to Pearl & Theo) I got mission control....! FLIP Yeah, Mission Control. JIMBO (into phone) Uhh hi, I'm an astronomer in Kentucky, and I was wondering if you guys had seen some strange activity in the southern middle quadrant of the asteroid belt between Antares Major and Epsilom Scorpio.... FLIP Who is this? JIMBO My name? Uhh....Louis Lipshitz... FLIP This is a restricted line. How did you get it? Where are you? JIMBO Lexington... Massachusetts. FLIP Can you tell me the exact co- ordinates..? THEO Hang up! Hang up now! 6. Jimbo hangs up the phone. THEO Lexington.. uhh...Massachusettes. Idiot. I told you not to call them. EXT. MANHATTAN ISLAND - SUNRISE Establishing. The sun rises over the Brooklyn Bridge. EXT. MANHATTAN - MADISON AVENUE - EARLY MORNING LITTLE GUY, still yawning, exits an apartment with a Jack Russell terrier on a long RETRACTABLE LEASH. TERRIER'S POV as the little dog attacks the city, looking for a place to relieve himself. The Man stops in front of a "Crazy Eddie's" T.V. store. Floor-to-ceiling T.V.'s in the window broadcasting E.S.P.N.'s "Morning Exercise Show" with hot women SWEATING. The Jack Russell strains on the leash to a FIRE HYDRANT. A SHOE is next to the hydrant, connected to a HUGE SAMOAN GUY watching the pelvic thrusting on T.V. The dog lifts his leg and pees, hitting both hydrant and shoe. The huge Samoan guy kicks the dog. The dog YELPS. LITTLE GUY You kick my dog again and I'll go nuclear on you. The T.V. images BLINK and STATIC. A massive SONIC BOOM emanates directly above. The huge Samoan guy looks up as--- A ROCK, the size of a basketball, strikes him and EXPLODES into the pavement, spewing sparks and concrete, throwing PEDESTRIANS to the sidewalk. INT. "CRAZY EDDIE'S" T.V. STORE FIFTY T.V.s are BLOWN across the showroom floor. SALESMEN and CUSTOMERS dive to the floor, SCREAMING. EXT. MANHATTAN - "CRAZY EDDIES" Little guy, lying on the sidewalk, recovers. His DOG LEASH runs from the leash grip into a 10 FOOT CRATER in the sidewalk. The huge Samoan guy's LEGS protrude. LITTLE GUY Samson? PEDESTRIAN Somebody call 9-1-1! INSIDE THE CRATER - THE JACK RUSSELL dangles by the leash. Embedded in the hole 30 feet below is A SMOKING, RED HOT OBJECT. 7. INT. N.O.R.A.D. - CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN The U.S.'s Early Warning Air Defence. Two U.S.A.F RADAR TECHNICIANS are hunched over radar screens. RADAR TECH 1 I got one, two, three boggies...the whole board's lighting up! The RADAR TECH 2 hits a KLAXON, stabs phone line buttons. EXT. MANHATTAN - MORNING Traffic is ground to a halt. CAMERA MOVES into a cab. STU, the Cabbie, with an ASIAN TOURIST, who's craning his neck out the window. ASIAN TOURIST What's the problem? STU Could be a couple of things: shootin', stabbin', dead guy (shrugs) Well, it's Friday, payday. Could be a jumper. A projectile the size of a dump truck SCREAMS through the sky and blasts through three huge buildings. More projectiles explode in the intersection. Cars get thrown everywhere. Stu's cab slams upside down into JOHNNY'S BAR. ONE BLOCK DOWN. THE ENTIRE TOP FIVE STORIES -- A sheared section topples and hits the street below. Bricks, mortar and gargoyles everywhere. EXT. WASHINGTON D.C. - PENTAGON - DAY Establishing, over which we hear RINGING PHONES. EXT. PENTAGON - GENERAL TEMPLE'S OFFICE - DAY Chaos in the corridors. GENERAL TEMPLE, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a man of stature, bursts out of his office, met by his SECRETARY. SECRETARY We're getting reports as far away as Greenland and parts of Mexico! TEMPLE Get me Dan Goldman on the secure phone. Temple enters his office and picks up a secure phone. 8. INT. MISSION CONTROL - INSIDE THE GLASS-ENCASED ROOM Golden enters the room and sits down. Technician Flip hands him a secure phone. Golden sinks into his chair. In the b.g., VIDEO MONITORS show twenty live feeds from T.V. stations across the country. TEMPLE (V.O.) Can you go secure? GOLDEN (Presses a button on the phone) I am secure. Go ahead, General. He listens...WE HEAR the distinct gargled voice of a secure line. GOLDEN When? TEMPLE (V.O.) shuttle. INTERCUT - GOLDEN / TEMPLE INT. PENTAGON - GENERAL TEMPLE'S OFFICE - DAY Temple paces in his office. TEMPLE I'm going to brief the President. What's going on here, Dan? Why didn't we have warning? GOLDEN Tell the president it's called "budget cuts." We don't have enough telescopes to track the skies. TEMPLE Is it over? GOLDEN I don't know. We'll figure it out. (hangs up) INT. MISSION CONTROL - INSIDE THE GLASS-ENCASED ROOM Flip enters the room. Skip writes notes.... GOLDEN (to Skip and Flip) Fly a team up to New York. Contact every Space Watch facility in the (MORE) 9. GOLDEN (CONT'D) world. We gotta find what part of the sky this is coming from. SKIP I'll call J.P.L. and get the Hubble telescope on it. GOLDEN Did we find who made the phone call last night? FLIP The F.B.I.'s on it. INT. KENTUCKY - DORMITORY ROOM Theo is sleeping. The door is RAMMED in. Two F.B.I. AGENTS ROAR into the room, overwhelming him. EXT. KENTUCKY - COLLEGE CAMPUS Pearl and Jimbo are walking across campus. TWO BLACK SEDANS pull up. The kids increase their pace.The sedans SKID to a stop. F.B.I. AGENTS spring from the cars, cuff them and CUT TO : MANHATTAN - JOHNNY'S - DAY Stu's upside down cab, in front of Johnny's. A tow truck removes dented cars from the trashed intersection. Career drunks, FRANK, FRED and WILLIE, stand in the threshold looking out at the devastated intersection. Stu sits on top of his cab, Listening to the guys: FRANK This city sucks... FRED What the hell was it? WILLIE They're sayin' it's space rocks. STU Rocks from space, my ass. That, my friends, was the work of the big Saddam. That was big-ass Iraqi missiles INT. MANHATTAN - SUBWAY - DAY F.B.I. AGENTS and N.A.S.A. SCIENTISTS examine a CHUNK OF ASTEROID, still smouldering, which has ripped through the roof and floor of a subway car.