REVERSE, as they barrel OVER CAMERA toward a lone civilian ship... an ugly
but very sophisticated deep-sea drilling support ship, the BENTHIC EXPLORER.
It is a twin-hulled monstrosity with a central opening in its deck, around
which crouch enormous cranes, winches and other arcane equipment.
The first Sea King settles onto the helipad, disgorging a contingent of Naval
officers, technicians, and a squad of armed seamen. A pantomime in the
rotorwash, we see the Benthic Petroleum "company man" KIRKHILL greeting
COMMODORE DEMARCO, the on-scene commander.
INT. BENTHIC EXPLORER/BRIDGE -- DAY 17
The bridge is state-of-the-art, with computers and sophisticated navigation
and communications gear, looking like mission control with its bank of video
monitors. The Drilling Operations Supervisor, LELAND MCBRIDE, and BENDIX,
the crew chief, watch the invaders swarming the deck below.
MCBRIDE
Does not look good at all.
TIGHT ON VIDEO SCREEN (MINUTES LATER) showing divers working in total
blackness around some sort of installation on the bottom of the ocean. They
move through the harsh floodlights in dreamlike slow motion, looking like
space-suited figures with their helmets and umbilical hoses.
DEMARCO (V.O.)
No light from the surface. How deep are they?
MCBRIDE (V.O.)
Seventeen hundred feet.
WIDER, showing the Navy contingent crowding the control room. DeMarco is
hardcore military, brusque and efficient. Kirkhill is a small man with
pinched features, wearing a shirt and tie, which on a drill ship means
company man and/or dickhead.
DEMARCO
I need them to go to over two thousand.
KIRKHILL
They can do it.
(to McBride)
Get Brigman on the line.
CUT TO:
EXT. UNDERWATER -- DAY (TOTAL DARKNESS) 18
1700 FEET BELOW. A submersible oil-drilling platform, DEEPCORE II, an island
of light in the vast blackness. Its main framework connects two "tri-
modules" consisting of three cylinders each. These contain living and work
areas in a pressurized environment. An umbilical cable, thick as a man's
thigh, runs up from the oil rig into the darkness, to the Benthic Explorer
at the surface. In a bubble-like dome port window we see the rig foreman, or
"toolpusher," BUD BRIGMAN. He's talking (via headset) with two divers
working outside... 'CATFISH' DE VRIES, AND LEW 'BIRD-DOG' FINLER.
BUD
Hey, you guys are milking that job.
CATFISH
(Kentucky drawl)
That's cause we love freezin' our butts off out
here sooo much, boss.
OMITTED 19
INT. DRILL ROOM 20
Bud turns from the window and crosses the drill floor. The working heart of
the rig. THUNDEROUS MECHANICAL ROAR. The drill crew, in hardhats and mud-
plastered overalls, tend the massive spinning turn-table in the center of the
chamber. The semi-automated system requires only five men to operate. The
others are LUPTON MCWHIRTER, DWIGHT PERRY, JAMMER WILLIS, and TOMMY RAY
DIETZ. Bud hears his names called above the din by Jammer, a massive
roughneck/diver who stands a good head taller than the rest.
JAMMER
(yelling)
Bud! Hippy's on the bitch-box. It's a call
from topside. That new company man.
BUD
Kirkhill? That guy doesn't know his butt from
a rathole. Hey, Perry!
One of the roustabouts, a wiry Texan, turns to him.
BUD
Do me a favor and square away the mud hose and
those cable slings. This place is starting to
look like my apartment.
Perry chuckles and sets to the task cheerfully. Bud EXITS, ducking his head
through a low watertight hatch.
INT. CORRIDOR/TOOLPUSHER'S OFFICE 21
Bud tromps down the narrow corridor, his work boots gonging on steel.
P.A. (HIPPY'S VOICE)
BUD, PICK UP THE TOPSIDE LINE URGENT.
BUD
I'm coming. Keep your pantyhose on.
He enters his office, a tiny cubicle with stacks of paperwork, dust-
gathering tech manuals and waterstained Penthouse fold-outs. He picks up the
phone... punches down a line.
BUD
Brigman here. Kirkhill? What's going on?
(pause)
I am calm. I'm a calm person. Is there some
reason why I shouldn't be calm?
HOLD ON Bud's expression, darkening, as he listens.
INT. CORRIDOR/CONTROL MODULE 22
The control module is a long narrow cabin like the inside of a Winnebago,
packed with instrumentation. At the end is a small bay with multiple
viewports. Outside, at a 'Christmas tree' pipe installation, a lone diver
can be seen welding. He is accompanied by a large submersible, FLATBED, and
by a Remotely Operated Vehicle, or ROV, call LITTLE GEEK. Little Geek is an
underwater robot which operated on the end of a cable-like control TETHER.
It has a single video 'eye' in front, by which the operator pilots the little
machine. The rig's ROV pilots is ALLEN 'HIPPY' CARNES, who stands by the
window twiddling his joysticks and drinking coffee. His pet white rat,
BEANY, crawls contentedly around his shoulders. The door BANGS OPEN.
Hippy jumps, slops his coffee. Bud strides in. Not calm.
BUD
Son of a bitch.
He kicks a chair out of the way and slams his palm down on a switch marked
DIVER RECALL. A SIREN, blasting through the water from a big hydrophone
loudspeaker.
BUD
All divers. Drop what you're doing. Everybody
out of the pool.
EXT. DEEPCORE/CHRISTMAS TREE A22
Flatbed's pilot, LISA 'ONE NIGHT' STANDING, can be clearly seen behind a
bubble canopy. She is a no-nonsense lady who holds her own in the mostly
male environment by being one of the best submersible drivers in the
business. She controls a hydraulic manipulator arm, assisting the diver,
ARLISS 'SONNY' DAWSON, in his work. Little Geek hovers around them like a
tiny helicopter. One Night moves the Flatbed arm to Sonny and hands him the
pipe.
ONE NIGHT
Here you go, hon'.
SONNY
Just in time, sugar.
They react to Bud's recall, looking toward him up in the control module.
ONE NIGHT
Dammit, we just got out here.
SONNY
There was a time when I would have asked why.
One Night makes a grab for his butt with the manipulator claw, which he
narrowly avoids.
CUT TO:
EXT. DEEPCORE/UNDER SUB-BAY 23
Flatbed moves underneath the rig, a few feet above the seafloor, with Sonny
riding on its top deck. It passes under a lit opening and rises toward the
surface of the water in the chamber above. Little Geek follows like an
obedient dog.
INT. SUB-BAY/MOONPOOL 24
The opening is called the moonpool, and Deepcore's submersibles are launched
through it. From inside the sub-bay it looks just like a swimming pool.
Flatbed surfaces, nearly filling it. The chamber also contains CAB ONE, a
similar submersible. Jammer, Perry, and some of the other drill-room boys
are helping the divers out of the water. The water at this depth is only
about six degrees above freezing, and these folks are cold and prune-
fingered. Finler pulls off his demand-helmet, revealing a round, boyish
face.
FINLER
What's goin' on? How come we got recalled?
SONNY
Hell is I know.
One Night jumps 'ashore' from Flatbed's broad deck and joins them. Catfish
is unzipping his bulky dry-suit.
CATFISH
Just follow standard procedure, will ya...
flog the dog till somebody tells us what's
happening.
JAMMER
Hey, Catfish, I'll sell you my October Penthouse
for twenty bucks.
ONE NIGHT
Save you money, darlin'... the pages are all
stuck together by now.
Bud enters, approaching the group.
JAMMER
What's goin' on,
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