revolution on the planet of the apes
issue 1: THE END OF THE WORLD
by joseph o'brien for SALGOOD SAM
page 1-
1- Through a WEB BROADCAST WINDOW (like a Quicktime or Windows Media Viewer, only not so copyright infringing). We're close on the face of CAESAR from the closing moments of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, in the throes of his riot-inducing speech. Maybe there's some kind of pixelation or interference, something to suggest that this is an amateur recording.
caesar
Where there is fire, there is SMOKE.
(2)
And in that smoke, from this day forward, my people will crouch and conspire.
(3)
And PLOT. And PLAN.
(4)
For the inevitable day of man's DOWNFALL. And we shall build our own cities. And we shall found our own armies. Our own religion. Our own DYNASTY!
(5)
And that day is upon you NOW!
2- CHRIS LEUNG, an Asian teen, nerdy (but not TOO nerdy -- this is our target audience you're representing here), hunched in front of his computer, face lit by its ghostly glow. As much detail around his desk area as you can stand -- stacks of empty coke cans, computer manuals, video game boxes. Very messy kid, and not one who gets out much.
bALLOON
(from off-panel)
Chris! Dinner! Now!
3- Small panel. Same broadcast window, only now the image inside is a threatening message: THIS SITE HAS BEEN TERMINATED FOR ACTIVITY IN CONTRAVENTION TO THE AMERICAN MEDIA ACT.
4- The living room/kitchen of the Leung household. A typical inner city setup, not exactly cramped, but far from spacious.
CHRIS'S MOM is making dinner. His DAD is watching TV. We can just make out the broadcast, the CGI talking head ANNIE of AMERICA'S NEWS NETWORK.
Chris is entering from the door to his bedroom.
tv
-- a minor ape-related disturbance in the San Diego zone, Media Undersecretary Nora Rhodes assures us that the situation is well in hand.
chris
"Well in hand". It's CRAZY in San Diego.
DAD
Everyone knows that pirate broadcast's a total HOAX.
chRIS
Says who?
DAD
The TV.
Page 2-
1- Chris and Dad. The TV between them. On the screen is the face of NORA RHODES, someone we're going to get to know very well in just a few pages.
Mom's visible in the kitchen beyond. The window over her shoulder is dark.
chrIS
Dad, I told you, that's what the government WANTS you to believe.
dad
Everyone knows apes can't talk.
mOM
I don't want you spending so much time on that computer.
tv
The situation has been contained.
2- Same angle. Chris and Dad are a bit more heated. Mom's turned toward the window. A BRIGHT LIGHT beams through it.
chRIS
That's exactly what they WANT you to think!
dad
What reason would they have to lie?
MOM
Oh my --
tv
Coming up, the season premiere of "BJ And The Bear: Reloaded".
3- Same angle as an out of control HUMVEE SMASHES through the kitchen wall, sending a storm of debris flying in all directions. Mom's airborne in the background, brutally knocked aside. We might be able to make out a WILD CHIMPANZEE attacking the driver inside the cab, but it's not the focus of the shot. Chris is diving for cover ahead of the Hummer's path of total destruction. Dad's falling back out of panel. The TV's tumbling away.
4- Small panel. Chris on the floor. His face is crisscrossed with tiny glass lacerations. Blood runs from both nostrils. He's looking up and toward:
Page 3-
1- Splash. Worm's-eye from Chris's perspective, through the gaping hole out onto the street where his kitchen used to be. A NAKED GORILLA stands on the neck of a fallen soldier, a burning U.S. flag clutched in one massive simian fist.
Overturned vehicles, running humans and enraged MONKEYS visible in the glow of raging fires behind it. Total chaos. The world turned upside down.
TITLES AND CREDITS run beneath this happy image:
REVOLUTION ON THE PLANET OF THE APES
PART ONE: THE END OF THE WORLD
TY TEMPLETON - co-plots & edits JOE O'BRIEN - co-plots & script SALGOOD SAM - art
2- Small panel. Chris, lying on the ground, slipping into unconsciousness. The TV on its side behind him, still on, the smiling face of Annie still staring blankly.
annie
-- the President's office assures us that the situation is completely under control.
PaGE 4-
1- The Earth from space. Maybe the borders are a bit hazy, since this is a dream Caesar is having.
2- Same size panel. The Earth BLOWING UP.
caPTION
I dreamt the end of the world. The ground cracking like an eggshell. The sky burning. The oceans boiling away.
(2)
And I knew somehow it wasn't a dream at all. It was a memory.
(3)
My father's memory.
3- Caesar wakes up screaming.
cAESAR
FATHER!
4- Another angle. A bit more of the bedroom -- it looks like Caesar's taken over Governor Breck's quarters. Caesar is sitting up in bed. His ape-mate LISA asleep next to him.
Page 5-
1- Caesar on the balcony, overlooking the ruin of downtown San Diego (the futuristic 1972 version, that is). Smoke still curls up from a handful of ruined buildings, the wreckage of Caesar's first revolutionary night.
captION
I never knew my father. His name was Cornelius. He was a scientist. The man who raised me told me my father was kind. Gentle.
(2)
He was murdered. By THEM.
2- From ground level looking up at Caesar's balcony. A passing patrol of GORILLAS in torn red jumpsuits glance up at Caesar as he shouts into the night sky:
caeSAR
LOUSY HUMAN BASTARDS!!
3- Lisa stands behind Caesar, a comforting paw on one shoulder.
caeSAR
Lisa . . .
(2)
I know you can understand my words. What I wouldn't give to hear you speak your own.
(3)
To hear you tell me . . .
4- Caesar embraces Lisa.
caeSAR
"Everything is going to be all right."
page 6-
1- Caesar, fully dressed, strides down a bunker-styled corridor. With him is MACDONALD, (played in Conquest by Hari Rhodes).
macdonald
Governor Breck is demanding to see you.
cAESAR
Governor Breck may DEMAND all he likes. He'll rot in his cell until I decide otherwise.
MACDONALD
And WHEN will you decide otherwise?
CAESAR
When the time is right.
2- Reverse, peering down the corridor from around a corner. Caesar and MacDonald stride toward a large archway leading out to bright blue sky beyond. In foreground, hidden in the shadows, the ragged form of DR. BRYCE EVANS, is pressed against the wall, listening. He looks like Bruce Willis halfway through Die Hard. But, y'know, with a tattered labcoat.
MACDONALD
And when will that be, Caesar? You've had your revolution. What are you going to do? These apes were trained to be servants, not SOLDIERS. What do you think you can accomplish?
CAESAR
All that separates them from me is PURPOSE, Mr. MacDonald. And purpose is what I will give them.
3- Wide angle bird's eye view overlooking the balcony onto which Caesar and MacDonald have just emerged and down into a large open square below. Filled with rows and rows of APES -- chimps, gorillas and a few orangutans -- in corresponding red, green and gold jumpsuits. Arranged in rough Nuremberg-like formation, rifles thrust high into the sky. Not perfectly organized, but close enough to be scary. They're apes, so they're overacheiving by a million percent just by showing up.
MACDONALD
My GOD!
CAESAR
The revolution --
4- Caesar.
CAESAR
-- has only just begun.
Page 7-
1- The White House, the view almost blocked by a wall of protesters holding picket signs emblazoned with slogans like GO HUMAN NOT APE and NEVER SEND A MONKEY TO DO A MAN'S JOB.
CAPTION
This PIRATE BROADCAST is everywhere.
caPTION
Credibility leakage has been contained. The situation is under control --
2- Inside the Oval Office. Full briefing for PRESIDENT ARTHUR TRUNDY, 50s.
Seated around the room are several GENERALS and PEOPLE IN SUITS -- men, women, you choose. Among them are DEFENSE SECRETARY SPARKS and APE MANAGEMENT INC. DIRECTOR CULLEY, 40s. Standing dead center, facing the President, is Nora Rhodes, the Media Secretary seen on TV at the beginning.
NOTE TO Max: we might even want to include a gorilla servant pouring water into glasses here -- just part of the background. In fact, wherever possible, we should portray apes as a fully integrated slave class in the background of this society, so common they're almost invisible. This revolution's coming from within the society; let's show the within as texture.
pRESIDENT TRUNDY
Don't try and HANDLE me, Rhodes. I stopped watching TV the day we rolled the FCC into Homeland Security.
defense secretary sparks
None of which changes the fact that we've got an ape problem --
NORA
PHRASING, Secretary Sparks . . .
defense secretary sparks
Fine. Ape MANAGEMENT ISSUE.
3- Favouring President Trundy. Culley in b.g.
PRESIDENT TRUNDY
What we've got is ten blocks of VERY sensitive West Coast real estate under control of a goddam talking MONKEY.
director culley
CHIMPANZEE, sir.
PRESIDENT TRUNDY
Can it Culley! Ape Management's really dropped the ball this time. Not just San Diego. Riots in Newark, St. Paul, Bakersfield --
4- Nora addresses the President. Everyone else looks to the next page.
nORA
MINOR incidents, sir. It's all being downplayed.
ofF-PANEL BALLOON
Downplay all you like, Ms. Rhodes . . .
Page 8-
1- Coming through the doors into the Oval Office is DR. KARL REICH. Confined to a wheelchair and hooked up to high-tech miniature life support system. Sort of a pseudo-Strangelove figure, though we don't want to push it quite that far over the top.
Reich
I doubt your carefully-chosen EUPHEMISMS will save us from what lies ahead.
nora
Dr. Reich, you are not cleared for this briefing!
Reich
I am cleared for whatever I WISH.
2- The President rises to greet Reich. Nora has stayed put, half-blocking Reich's view of the President.
preSIDENT TRUNDY
This is an unexpected pleasure.
Reich
Not at all, Mr. President. I imagine your handlers have been dreading my appearance the moment this began.
PRESIDENT TRUNDY
Not sure I understand.
Reich
And that is the entire problem.
3- Three shot. The President, Nora and Reich. Nora's fuming.
nORA
Dr. Reich has NO official standing in this administration. His theories were DISCREDITED --
Reich
A masterful character assassination. My congratulations to your network.
4- Favouring Nora.
nORA
I don't like your insinuation.
Reich
You'll like what I've come to say even less.
preSIDENT TRUNDY
What is this about, Doctor?
5- Reich.
Reich
The END of the WORLD.
(2)
To understand the end we must first begin at the BEGINNING. With the apes CORNELIUS and ZIRA. And with their child . . .
(3)
With CAESAR.
Page 9-
So, on these next few pages we're going to get to see something no human being has dared imagine before: Roddy McDowall kicking ass.
Let's keep in mind that Caesar's a CHIMPANZEE, and as such isn't going to fight like a man in a rubber monkey masks. We're free of the physical constraints of the films. Let's do something with that.
1- Caesar walks amongst the gorillas, inspecting the ranks. MacDonald walks alongside.
caPTION
Cornelius and Zira were recovered from the wreckage of Colonel Taylor's spacecraft. The ship's Hasslein Drive enabled it to travel not just through space, but TIME.
cAPTION
When the vessel RETURNED, it's internal clock indicated a journey of some two thousand YEARS.
2- A chunk of masonry the size of two fists strikes MacDonald in the back of the head, sending him toppling forward.
CAPTION
The discovery that they could speak was shocking. But what they said terrified us to our core.
CAPTION
The future. A great conflict. Apes rising in defiance of their human masters. A battle whose ultimate result was total ARMAGEDDON.
3- MacDonald lies curled on the ground. Caesar crouches over him, still reacting. Several gorillas -- clutching more broken chunks of concrete in their paws -- have broken ranks, led by an obvious ALPHA MALE GORILLA, who's postured challengingly. They've closed the path behind Caesar and MacDonald, effectively trapping them.
caPTION
At the time of their escape, Zira was PREGNANT with Cornelius' child. If this child was Caesar -- and I believe that he is -- then he was conceived in the far future, but born in our present.
4- Caesar, teeth bared, enraged.
CAPTION
Caesar is unlike any ape we have ever seen.
caeSAR
NO!
Page 10-
1- Caesar leaps high into the air, closing the distance between the Alpha Male Gorilla and himself.
CAPTION
Much of his gestation, the fundamental formation of his brain, took place while travelling backward through time.
caPTION
It is reasonable to suggest he may perceive time in a totally unique way.
caeSAR
IT WILL NOT BE THIS WAY!
2- Caesar lands atop the Alpha Male, toppling him, hands and feet clutching the big gorilla's head and chest. The other gorillas have backed off, making space.
CAPTION
Past, future, action, reaction, the mechanisms of causality, may mean nothing to such a mind.
CAESAR
WE WILL HAVE ORDER!
3- Caesar and the Alpha Gorilla struggle. Despite the size difference, Caesar hasn't lost the upper hand.
CAPTION
He may approach every choice as merely a path to a predetermined outcome.
CAESAR
WE SHALL HAVE LAW!
4- Caesar bites the ear off the Alpha Gorilla, tearing it away from the screaming simian's head. Blood sprays through the air between them.
5- Caesar clutches the chunk of masonry that hit MacDonald, ready to strike the deathblow. The fallen Alpha Male lies before him, clutching his head in pain. The other apes surround him, their eyes downcast. There's no question who leads them.
caeSAR
BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY!
page 11-
1- Caesar lets the chunk of masonry slip from his paw.
2- Big panel. Caesar stands triumphant, his face and chest covered in blood.
If the angle's right, maybe we can catch a bit of Bryce on a rooftop high above the square, peering down through a pair of binoculars.
CAPTION
Imagine it, to know one's ultimate destiny from birth.
CAPTION
What dreams he must dream.
caeSAR
And the first law shall be . . .
(2)
APE SHALL NEVER KILL APE!!
3- Bryce watches through his binoculars, the action in the square below reflected in the lens.
bryce
Hail Caesar . . .
caption
You're telling me he can see the future?
page 12-
1- Back at the Oval Office.
reich
No, I think he IS the future.
nORA
This is exactly the sort of TECHNOBABBLE the scientific community's been spouting --
pRESIDENT TRUNDY
I concur. Doctor, he's just one talking ape. Just a FREAK OF NATURE.
2- Reich.
reICH
Call him what you wish, Mr. President.
(2)
He is only the BEGINNING.
(And now Ty kills me for breaking a scene mid-page, but it all connects.)
3- Establish HASSLEIN AIR FORCE BASE. Night.
caPTION
Hasslein Air Force Base, Groom Lake.
ofF-PANEL BALLOON
No Aldo! NO!
4- We're now in the office of Colonel Challis at Hasslein AFB. ALDO, a servant gorilla in regulation red jumpsuit, cowers in front of AIR FORCE COLONEL CHALLIS, standing up behind his desk, his finger on the intercom button of his phone. Aldo's mop and overturned bucket on the floor in front of him, surrounded by an expanding puddle of murky water.
colonel challis
I've had it with you, you stupid ape! This was the last time!
(2)
Get me Dr. Constantine . . .
5- Close on Aldo's terrified face as he hears the words:
OFF-PANEL BALLOON
Tell him I've got another volunteer for his little MEAT MARKET.
page 13-
1- Aldo's shoved through a set of doors marked AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY by two SOLDIERS armed with cattle prods. Both have M-16s strapped over their backs.
soldier 1
Doc FRANKENSTEIN must really be getting low if their pulling in recruits from the cleaning staff.
soldier 2
Didn't he used to mop our barracks? What's his name? Aldo?
SOLDIER 1
I dunno . . .
2- The soldiers prod a sullen Aldo down a corridor lined with the bodies of dead vivisected apes piled onto gurneys.
SOLDIER 1
They all look the same to me.
soldIER 2
Don't be too scared little monkey, whatever your name is . . .
3- The trio approach another steel security door, this one marked SPECIAL PROJECTS DIVISION - LAB 44.
SOLDIER 2
You won't be here much longer.
solDIER 1
This place gives me the creeps.
SOLDIER 2
Why's that?
page 14-
1- Big panel. The soldiers bring Aldo into LAB 44. This is a money shot. We're looking at rows of gorillas, maybe a dozen, more if you feel like drawing them, strapped into metal chairs, their ankles and wrists secured. This is an animal rights activist's worst nightmare.
The tops of the gorilla's skulls have been opened, exposing their brains. Squidlike networks of wires curl out of the apes' exposed lobes and into a grid hanging above like the skeleton of a drop ceiling. The grid leads to a central hub at the center of the room, where we find DR. CONSTANTINE, Head of Special Projects.
dR. CONSTANTINE
Straight through here please.
2- Constantine sizes Aldo up. There's an empty chair set aside just for Aldo.
dr. CONSTANTINE
If you could just strap him in please . . .
alDO
. . .
page 15-
1- Constantine's turned away. The soldiers are studying the restraints on the chair. Aldo eyes Soldier 1's M-16, strapped to his back, momentarily exposed to the ape.
alDO
No . . .
solDIER 2
What'd you . . .
2- Soldier 2's turned just in time to see Aldo tear the M-16 from Soldier 1's back.
soLDIER 2
. . . say?
alDO
No!
3- Aldo swings the butt of the M-16 like a club, snapping Soldier 2's head back at a fatal angle. Soldier 1's scrambling for his sidearm. Constantine's spinning, reacting with horror.
soLDIER 1
Jesus Christ!
ALDO
No!
4- The bloody butt of the M-16 buries itself in Soldier 1's collapsing face, sending bones shards and teeth spraying out like shrapnel.
ofF-PANEL BALLOON
NO!
5- Constantine cowers before the blood splattered Aldo. Aldo holds the M-16 over his head in primitive triumph.
dr. CONSTANTINE
Please . . . no . . .
page 16-
1- Aldo brings the M-16 down hard below panel, smashing Constantine's skull and sending up a gory spray of blood and brains.
aldo
No!
2- Closer. Aldo brings it down again.
alDO
NO!!
3- Closer. And again. More blood, more brains.
ALDO
NO!!!
4- And again. Nothing but Aldo's face, mad with rage.
ALDO
NO!!!!
TO BE CONTINUED
END OF ISSUE ONE