|
Part V - The Matrix
[scene cut]
[focus on Kael's very calm face in the plug-in chair, his eyes close, zoom in so that his closed eyes cover screen. His eyes open to reveal the liquid-silver pupils, and as the camera zooms out we see his scar and the construct (all white)]
Kael: (Deep breath in.. pause.. out) Operator?
Tank: What do you need?
Kael: A favorable Omen.
Tank: Would you like that in a 9mm, or .45?
[Kael smiles and turns to reveal the crew picking up weapons off two black tables, now present off to the side. Kael is wearing black military-style cargo pants, a black short-sleeved turtleneck undershirt, a military cargo vest, zipped up, but with a very low collar (about center-chest), and a more-than full length sleeveless black leather trench coat. His short hair is barely spiked, and his off-centered ponytail is bound in some elaborate metal mesh pattern, all the way down to his shoulder blades (longer than on the Neb.). Trinity approaches Kael while loading up her weapons]
Trinity: No one's ever killed an Agent before, Kael, and it's not for lack of trying. We don't even know if they can be killed.
Kael: They live by the rules of the Martix, if they imitate humans, then they must live as humans live, die as humans die.
Trinity: You're sure of that?
Apoc: (standing close enough to hear, cocks his black sawed-off shotgun) sure enough.
[scene change]
[Camera now shows Apoc, Switch, Kael, and Trinity coming up out of the basement of what appears to be an abandoned pet store. It is winter, and the sidewalks are appropriately salted, with just touches of dark snow. Apoc is in the lead, with Switch covering the rear. Once they get up the stairs, they all climb into a black van, Apoc driving, Trinity in shotgun. After being the last to get in, Kael faces out of the van's back door and slides it shut, the black/ gloss movement then transitions into the lower portion of a passing Elevated Metro-rail car as the camera pans down to show the van parked outside of a decrepit looking building, the door just closing as a slip of black leather whooshes inside]
[scene changes to show large vintage theatre, mostly green-tinted w/ faded maroon/red fabric on all the seats and curtains. The stage is mostly clear, with various scenes cluttering the back, and an otherwise open black wood floor. The theatre is huge and overly ornate, with several aisles, including one large one down the center, and with twin balconies on either side. As the camera stays stationary, the 4 are seen walking down the center aisle, they walk up to center stage, where they stop]
[Kael pulls out his cell phone]
Tank: Operator
Kael: Tank, where's our target?
Tank: Mouse is tracking it. Appears they know our ride- Agent Nguyen's been dispatched to investigate the van. Currently he's on Callaghan, but he'll be on top of you in 4 minutes.
Kael: I don't want him coming here cautiously. Suggested point of intercept?
Tank: yeah- Callaghan and 11th. Two blocks north and a block east. We'll make sure he doesn't make the light, but you're going to want to hurry. He'll be the anal retentive guy driving a black sedan.
Kael: copy that. (closes phone)
Kael: (to Apoc and Switch) Ok, take your positions, and I'll be back with our guest. (to Trinity) Shouldn't you be back at the hardline?
Trinity: I'll watch the back door for now.
Kael: (nods head slightly) Very well. The hunt begins.
[as Keal says this last line, the camera is on him from the floor's pov. While speaking, he reaches toward the floor, and pulls on some type of latch out of view of the camera, then the camera view is obscured as he opens some door on the floor, leaving the screen black.]
[this black is then zoomed out, to reveal a scene change. It is the back of Kael's black leather trench coat, and as we zoom out, we see him stepping off the curb into the street.The camera swings to the left, showing a bright red stoplight in the dim winter evening, the street name reads "11th St." The camera then swings back to a point behind Kael, showing the black sedan with opaque windows he is approaching as it sits in traffic. Kael walks directly up to it, hangs back in the blind spot, then moves forward casually with his back to the car. He steps slightly away from the car while spinning around to face the passenger-side window and slipping his right hand behind his back. Camera changes to Kael's POV, and for a second, his own reflection is mirrored in the glass of the passenger window showing him, with trench coat still swirling, pulling a submachine gun from his waist and facing the reflective window. The reflection is shattered as he looses several bursts from the gun into the driver's compartment]
[The camera drops a few feet to about waist level, so the entire driver's compartment can now be seen, but all that is revealed is a thoroughly shot-up seat and dashboard, and an open door, with the seatbelt still swinging from the driver's exit. Kael drops his submachine gun on the pavement, rips something out of his vest w/ his left hand, and tosses the almost-cylindrical black object into the car, as he turns and flees, black leather cloak trailing him quickly.]
[Camera pos. is now on the opposite side of the street, looking straight at the car, with Kael in the middle. Agent Nguyen stands up from behind the sedan's trunk, weapon raised, and starts firing, Kael ducks and keeps running past the camera. Agent Nguyen quickly flicks his head in the direction of the car's cab, then shoves the car with both hands, sending it skidding into the intersection, where the grenade blows it to pieces. Agent Nguyen then begins giving chase]
[Kael runs down a long, sparsely populated urban neighborhood in the early afternoon. He is taking very long strides, almost as if cross-country skiing across the asphalt. most of a block behind him, Agent Nguyen follows running like a textbook human. The Agent gets off 2 shots before Kael ducks around the next corner. The camera stays positioned on that corner, following the Agent until he comes around it, then the angles changes to show the Agent surveying the scene. There is no sign of Kael, until the Agent sees a shadow moving along the road near the next intersession. He looks up, and just barely sees the swish of Kael's leather coat flicker between the steel Garters. Kael has taken the chase up to the Elevated Railway]
Agent Nguyen: (stoneface) Whatever Goes up...
[camera shows Kael sprinting along the tracks, jumping from crossbar to crossbar at an insane pace. Not breaking stride, he pulls his cell from inside his coat.]
Tank: (voice over)Operator.
Kael: Where is he?
[scene change to Neb core, shows Tank in his operator chair, Mouse studying an encoded screen, and Cypher looking at a map overlay of Kael's route]
Tank: He's...
Mouse: Wha.. guys.. what does that mean? (pointing at a line of code)
[Cypher comes over to look]
Cypher: I've never seen that sequence before. It's a command, a... some kind of override.
[cut back to Kael, still running, hopping to other side of Elevated track]
Tank: (voice over] I dunno. Cypher says it might be a new command.
Kael: To do what?
Cypher: (cutting into the conversation) I don't know, and that's the problem. Abort mission.
Kael: We need to know what the new guy can do.
[shortly ahead of him, a metro train comes around the corner, headed toward Kael and obviously going faster than usual, with sparks flying from its wheels. he turns to jump off the track, but when he looks over again, time slows, and the camera fast zooms to reveal Agent Nguyen sitting in the driver's seat. Camera change to Kael's bewildered face]
Kael: in amazement, How'd..
Kael: (into phone) The new trick is a good one.
[as Kael shoves his phone back into his pocket, staring down the approaching train, we hear Cypher saying, "Kael, Abort, there's no way..." then Kael closes the phone]
[Kael stands erect, waiting for the train, but he doesn't have to stand long. The train bears closer and closer, then Kael lunges toward it head on, screaming as he goes. the camera shows them approaching eachother at increadible speed, then when they are about to collide, Kael jumps forward, beginning his ascent over the train]
[camera switches to the middle of the train, even with the top of the iron metro. Kael lands, hard, but steadies himself. Way behind him, at the front of the train, we see the agent punch a hole in the roof of his compartment, and then leap out, coming very close to Kael as he lands]
[Kael sets into an offensive posture, as does the agent. There is a tense pause, then Kael takes a step back, and stands upright]
Kael: My stop
[Kael crouches and leaps off the side of the train, camera goes with him, he grips onto the vertical pole of a street sign, which the camera shows to be for Pine street, swings around in and lands in a run down the narrow Pine st, the decrepit Morrison Theatre's facade can be seen at the end of the block]
[Kael runs past the 50's style ticket booth, and into the theatre, no sign of the Agent]
[camera position is just over Apoc's left shoulder, as he stands in the balcony left of the stage, looking down at the entrance of the center aisle. As Kael enters he flashes a look across the theatre and Switch comes into focus on the balcony opposite Apoc, holding a large machine gun on v-legs, then the camera and Apoc swing their vision back to the door from which Kael entered a second ago, and from the edge of the screen, we see and hear Apoc cock the shot gun.]
[camera switches to following behind Kael as he sprints down the main aisle, and vaults up onto the stage, slidding feet first down the middle, until he suddenly drops out of view. Camera switches to show a dark, cramped little crawl way, the stage's trap door compartment, where Kael lands, slams his back against the wall, then fluidly pulls two more handguns from his back waist as he spins 180 degrees and sticks his upper body and both guns out of the trap door compartment.]
[Camera is now near Kael's pov, actually looking down the barrel of one of his weapons. The camera zooms in on the entrance as we see the agent sprinting through the doorway, the screen explodes in a flash of light, while the camera zooms back in to reveal the aforementioned gun firing, and the agent very casually dodging as he sprints down the aisles]
[the camera cuts to show Apoc now following the Agent down the aisle with his shotgun, not firing, but aiming, until-]
[camera zooms from Apoc in on the agent, shows him running for a split second, then the chair behind and in front of the agent explode in puffs of wood and cotton as two loud shotgun charges are heard. The agent stops running just as the second chair explodes in front of him, and then looks up toward the camera, and Apoc]
[camera view switches momentarily to show Apoc throw the shotgun off the balcony and duck down, (to get his bigger gun). The agent points his gun toward Apoc, then snaps his head over the other direction, Camera swivels (must be quick) to show Switch just begin unleashing round after round from her heavy machine gun down at the Agent]
[camera switches back to Apoc, and from his vantage we watch as both he and Switch pour hundreds of rounds into the area the Agent should be standing in. For his part, the agent is doing ultra-fast-bendy motion, apparently avoiding any critical hits.]
[camera switches again to Kael's gun pov, and through the cross hairs we can see one point of the agent which appears to be stationary (this must be made evident, not quite sure the best way to ensure the clarity of this point). Time slows just a very little bit, and the camera zooms in on this one point (probably about mid-waist), then zooms back out as time returns to normal. Then the gun begins flashing and ejecting brass.]
[Bullet time: The camera jumps back to show Kael and his two gun's just beginning to eject brass, then the camera centers on Kael's bullets as the camera traverses from Kael's side to Apoc's. As the camera gets closer to Apoc, time begins to speed up steadily. (The effect should show bullet time when at Kael's side, and normal time when beside Apoc, probably want the slowness to last more than 1Ú2 way, though.) From Apoc's point of view we still see him and Switch showering the dodging Agent with bullets, but when Kael's bullets are due to arrive, though we can no longer see them, the agent abruptly stops dodging, and is thrown backwards, out of the firing zone. The Agent lands in the aisle, and lies motionless]
[As the Camera is beside Apoc, we hear him utter some statement of disbelief, awe, whatever in Spanish]
[camera changes to show Kael, still looking down the aisle at the fallen Agent. Then his phone Rings]
Kael: Yeah? (into phone)
Tank: You guys gotta get out of there. That same code is running again.. I'm not sure what it does, but... Get out, get out now!
Kael: What is it?
[camera change to Switch's face]
Switch: (look of horror) Holy-
[camera change to show what Switch is looking at, shows Agent laying on ground, now shaking with the green electric discharge, then revealing a short elderly man with a thick white beard, lying in the aisle with blood soaking the center of his baggy overalls. Camera flashes to show switch looking down, then looking directly across the theatre. Camera changes to behind Switch so that we see Apoc looking back at her.]
Kael : (loudly) Time to Go.
[Apoc and Switch both proceed to jump/slide out of the balconies onto the stage, where Kael back flips out of the trap door, all three proceed to run toward the back exit The camera is close to Kael's back, when we hear a gunshot somewhere. Time slows as Kael dodges his head to the side, and in bullet time a shot passes within inches of his head. Time speeds up, Kael's head jumps back to its original position, and we seen the bullet put a pock mark in the wall ahead of him. Kael looks back, and the camera switches to show Agent Nguyen standing at the top of the Aisle, his gun straight in front of him. Kael turns and keeps running]
Kael: (to Apoc and Switch ahead of him) Run.
[trinity looks up from her post at the back door as the trio near]
Trinity: What happened?
Kael: Plan B.
Trinity: (violent head nod) Shit. (serious) let's go.
[all four exit, Kael in the back]
[outside they see their van impaled and lifted in the air by a forklift, continue running past it. Another chase scene, this one shorter, and eventually, Kael hangs back to fire a few shots, Trinity, Apoc, and Switch duck around a corner, then the agent comes into sight, Kael looks down the alley where the other three went, continues running, not making the turn.]
[Camera shows the three running down some other alley, when Trinity looks back]
Trinity: Wait! Where's Kael.
Apoc: In the hands of God (preferably in Spanish).
[Apoc grabs her shoulder, all three keep running, Switch w/ weapon on point]
[camea shows Kael running/ dodging, etc. pulls out cellphone]
Tank: Operator
Kael: Scotty, beam my fucking ass up!
Tank: ok, there's a hardline at Randolf and Lake, 1 block over, behind the Chinese place, over the wall, end of the alley, you're home.
Kael: (throws away phone) I'm allergic to Chinese [[more dodging, bullets, etc.]]
[Chase continues past brick buildings, behind Chinese restaurant (show restraunters them throwing out the leftovers, whatever), then Kael comes to what is a considerably tall wall. Kael looks back, sees agent round corner, jumps to the side wall, bounces to the opposite side wall, then jumps w/ summersault over main wall, lands and rolls, pulling his last gun as he lands. Camera view is from just over and behind Kael's shoulder]
[camera sees Agent come over wall, as if he just hopped a puddle, Kael fires as the Agent falls, but as the agent is about to land (very near Kael) Nguyen kicks away the gun, the camera shows it skittering off toward the open end of the alley, and finally coming to rest with a soft clink against something.. glass.]
[the agent, now standing over Kael, reaches into his vest and pulls out his gun, but before he can fire, Kael arches his back, and in slow, but not bullet time, back-flips to a standing position, knocking the gun out of the agent's hand with one foot, and landing a blow to his chin with the other. At the end of the alley, just around the corner, we hear the phone ring. The two stand there, looking at each other at a terribly close range]
[cut to shot of Morpheus, Cypher, Mouse, and Tank watching the Matrix screen as Dozer unplugs Trinity. Apoc and Switch still lie restfully on their beds, plugged in.]
Mouse: (chewing on fingernails) What's he doing?
Cyher: Oh shit!
Morpheus: (solemly, remorsefully, and just above a sad whisper) He's not the One.
[camera cuts back to Agent Nguyen and Kael. Kael gets in the first good hits, then Agent Nguyen starts tossing him around. Kael is thrown into one wall of the narrow alley, the hurled into the other. While up against the wall, Kael plants one foot against the wall, lifts, and does a spinning roundhouse knocking the agent against the wall they jumped earlier. Kael, now facing the Agents back, gives a full force hit into the back of the Agent's head, which makes a good sized dent in the wall. The Agent stays motionless for a split second, then spins around, arms flailing as he turns, knocking Kael to the ground.]
[cut back to show entire Neb. Crew watching monitors in horror]
Morpheus: (frustrated w/ Kael's stubborn determination, his calm beginning to fade) Run, Kael!
[cut back to alley. Kael sweeps agents legs and he goes down, Kael looks down the alley, phone still ringing, and starts to run. Doesn't get far before agent runs up and clubs him in the back, knocking him down, but again, he comes up fast and swinging]
[cut to Nebuchadnezzar]
Cypher: (moving away from screens) Tank, load me in.
Morpheus: (grabs Cypher by the shoulders) No. While you're loading in, he can't get out.
Cypher: And while I'm out here, I can't help him.
Morpheus: (sounding cold, but looking sad) He knew the risks.
Cypher: Bullshit! He didn't know the risks when you shoved that fucking red pill at him, and he didn't know the risks here. I owe it to him, We owe it to him-
Morpheus: Stand Down, Cypher.
Cypher: (ignoring Morpheus) Tank, load me up.
Dozer: (steps between Cypher and the beds) Not today Cypher.
Cypher: I.. I can't believe.. (starting to tear up with frustration) You fucking prick assholes- it's Kael!
[cut back to alley, Kael is getting pummeled, but manages to get in a few shots, steadily working closer to the phone as he takes his hits. Finally, next to the phone booth, Kael lands a solid hit, knocking the agent down, and around 180 degrees clockwise. Kael turns to reach for the phone, as the camera shows in just slightly slower-then-normal speed, the agent continues the turn Kael's hit started him on, sweeping out with his left hand, he catches and twists Kael's left arm around behing him (think, mean police grip), making an audible cracking sounds as it locks in place. At the same instant the Agents right hand sweeps far away on the ground, and for a flash of the camera we see him grab Kael's discarded handgun]
[the camera is from the vantage of directly next to the phone, we see Kael, his back arched, reaching as far as he can with his right arm for the phone, with the agent's face now directly to the right of his own.]
[camera cuts to show Cypher, now restrained by the shoulders by Dozer, lurch forward]
Cypher: (screaming) No!
[cut back to same shot as before, Phone point of view, and suddenly, a red geyser erupts from Kael's middle chest. His reflective metal eyes stay on the phone, as the Agent gently lowers him to the ground. Camera is stationary as we watch the Agent stand up, eject the clip and drop the gun on Kael's body, then reach into his breast pocket to pull out a pristine set of sunglasses. The agent approaches the still ringing phone, and lifts the receiver to his ear. Now the camera switches to a vantage slightly lower, looking up at the agent]
Agent Nguyen: (looking directly ahead) You are not all that Evolves.
[Agent Nguyen sets the phone back in its holder (which is the current POV) so that as he sets down the phone, the screen goes black with a single point of dim light. This light holds for an instant, flares briefly, then fades to total blackness]
Trinity Voice: (quietly, reverently) What do we do now?
Morpheus Voice: We learn from the example he set, and we keep looking for the One that can finish what Kael started.
Cypher: Lambs to the slaughter...
END
Back to Intro >
|
|