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7.8 磅 0 2 Cell FADE IN: A SPECK OF DUST Grains of sand dance in the wind. As we glide over a VAST DESERT, the speck of dust becomes a HORSE AND RIDER. CATHERINE YOUNG straddles the beautiful black animal, her
INDICATOR LIGHT flashes on.
HENRY
There's a touch-sensitive microchip
implanted in her hand. If
she becomes
frightened, disoriented, or simply wants
to end the session, she signals us to
abort.
Catherine presses again and the red light shuts off.
MIRIAM
Although none of what she experiences is
real, she can be tricked into thinking
it is. The mind is awfully
gullible, so
she needs to monitor herself.
Catherine and Stargher are suspended from the ceiling. Henry
types and the lights dim to a more somber, tranquil level.
Various screens flicker to life, displaying the vital signs
of
both "feed" and receive."
Miriam initiates the injection
program.
MIRIAM (CONT'D)
Catherine? I'm about to
start. If you
want me to wait, or...
CATHERINE
No. No.
IN THE PROCEDURE ROOM, we see chemicals mix with her blood,
then feed the IV. AT THE
CONSOLE, as Henry types furiously
at the computer keyboard, Novak asks Miriam:
NOVAK
You said she has a "gift."
Overhearing, Henry interrupts, pointing at a section of
Catherine's "mind map."
HENRY
Not a gift. A highly
evolved area in
her cerebral cortex, that's all.
A
genetic fluke.
MIRIAM
Catherine has a tremendous capacity for
empathy.
(clarifies)
When we started, there were a number of
test subjects - other therapists - who
acted as "receivers."
All they did was
observe and report. Nothing
more. But
Catherine, she had the ability to feel
what was happening. She
understood.
And the patient responded.
Edward
engaged her in dialogue, took her
places, showed her things.
He knew she
cared.
A hopeful, solemn Novak gazes through the window, watching
Catherine's body as it becomes parallel to Stargher's...
IN THE PROCEDURE ROOM, Catherine takes a deep breath and as
the drugs take effect, feels herself losing consciousness.
She glances at Stargher, a man who tortures and kills women,
then looks up as the CLOTH MASK descends from the ceiling.
MIRIAM (O.S.) (CONT'D)
Intravenous administration complete.
HENRY (O.S.)
Initiating
connection.
We follow fibrous wires running from Catherine's mask to
Stargher's. Their blood
mixing with chemicals in the IV-like
containers. The computer
system humming.
HENRY
(O.S.) (CONT'D)
Transfer begins 1100 hours, 34 minutes,
12 seconds.
Catherine's eye focuses on the mask. As it comes closer, we
see the lining is laced with thread-like wires and microchips
forming hyper-miniature circuit boards. Catherine's eye
blinks. The mask covers her
face. Catherine's eye shuts.
Vision fades.
Darkness. A faint light. Microscopic veins
in the eyelid
become wires connected to chips.
And we're
MOVING, into the circuitry.
ENTRANCE ONE
INT. STARGHER'S WORLD
The pattern of the electronics grows into something more
organic, textured, concrete.
Evolving into a world.
Black
and shadow-filled, it resembles a labyrinthine complex of
vertical walls with cubicle like rooms carved deep into its
core.
Our journey into this bleak, grim place continues and we
occasionally glimpse brief images of a boy's baptism.
INTERCUT with this journey are sections of cloudy blackness
and fragmented visions of CATHERINE connected to the
apparatus, face masked, DESCENDING
into this world.
There is an abrupt SHIFT from still images to regular motion
and we find ourselves gliding over a tidepool filled with
tiny fish and tadpoles. At
water's edge, lying on rough,
pebble-strewn ground, is a HAND.
Catherine's hand. We sense
MOVEMENT, but she remains still.
From the darkness comes a DOG.
Black in color and
featureless, it sniffs Catherine, dismisses her, and meanders
into a cubicle opposite her, disappearing from view. After a
moment of odd quiet, a DROP OF BLOOD hits the mask and we
follow Catherine's hand as it moves to the cloth and removes
it from her own face.
IN MACROSCOPIC SUPER SLOW-MOTIONS, another BLOOD DROPLET
sails 64 into the air and comes crashing down, hitting a RED
ANT, catapulting it onto what looks like a tree, but is just
a TWIG. As the insect
scurries away, MORE DROPS pound the
earth, splatter against "twig trees," and explode into pools
of stagnant water...
As we begin to realize that this miniature landscape is the
world into which Catherine descended.
She sits up, shivering, and breathes deeply, acclimating to
her surroundings. The
"floor" is covered with filth, ash,
pebbles, and insects. Water
is present in many forms,
puddles, moisture,
dripping ceilings.
Eyes focusing, queasy, not fully "awake," Catherine notices
the crimson stain on the cloth mask and the blood droplets
showering the air. She
turns and finds the source.
THE BLACK DOG stands in the opposite room next to a tub full
of BLOOD, shaking himself dry after his "bath." Satisfied,
the animal stops and trots away.
Still adjusting to this
nightmarish realm, Catherine at first doesn't hear it, but
then realizes that somewhere, a child is CRYING. She looks
around, then through a crack in the "floor," briefly catches
sight of a BOY beneath her, on a level lower than hers. As
he disappears into corridor ending in "nothing," we PULL BACK
to show a MASSIVE LANDSCAPE of blocks, cubicles, crawlspace,
walls, stairs, and ladders.
Leading everywhere and nowhere.
Catherine spots the boy as he crawls into a specific "room."
Shortly after, a LIGHT comes on within the cubicle and she
moves to it. We feel as
though we're looking at a series of
interlocked tenement rooms, some walls of which have been
torn away to expose rooms within, rooms with no windows or
doors. Following a path of
fragile steps, Catherine makes
her way to the LIGHTED ROOM and enters.
INT. STARGHER'S WORLD - LIGHTED ROOM
A mottled HORSE stands with its head down, nose kissing the
floor, allowing the BOY to caress its neck. This sweet
animal is an incrongruous vision in this hellish world and
Catherine approaches with respect.
CATHERINE
Hello?
The frightened child retreats into a corner of the
claustrophobic room, but the horse does not startle.
Surprisingly - to the boy - the horse takes an affectionate
step toward Catherine, inviting her to take over. Catherine
allows the mare to smell her, then vigorously scratches along
the mane and shoulder, much to the horse's delight.
CATHERINE
(CONT'D)
Yeah, you like that, don't you?
She can see the boy hiding in the corner, stealing glances at
her from the shadows.
CATHERINE (CONT'D)
Is your name Carl?
The boy - YOUNG STARGHER - is startled and intrigued by the
question - How did she know that?! - but says nothing.
CATHERINE (CONT'D)
Another
little boy I know, he has a
horse, too.
The boy reacts to an unusual SOUND coming from the CEILING.
CATHERINE (CONT'D)
His name's Edward. The boy,
not the
horse...
The boy takes a few steps toward her, out of the shadows, but
he seems more concerned about something in the ceiling than
"connecting" with Catherine. Very anxiously, he looks at the
wall behind Catherine and watches an old wind-up kitchen
TIMER click down.
CATHERINE (CONT'D)
What's the matter, Carl?
Again, a sharp SOUND from the ceiling.
CATHERINE (CONT'D)
What's wro---?
Young Stargher RUNS at her and SHOVES her hard! Catherine
FALLS BACK just as EIGHT SHEETS OF GLASS drop from the
ceiling! Like oversize
razor blades, they slice the horse
into four clean sections.
They separate and compact the
quadrants until four glass-contained sections of dissected
horse stand within the room.
Catherine SCREAMS, but the mare
barely acknowledged what happened.
Betraying no emotion, the
boy runs. The shaken
Catherine takes a moment to collect
herself, then gives chase.
INT. STARGHER'S WORLD - THE LABYRINTH
Young Stargher knows his way around the landscape, but
Catherine has difficulty simply keeping him in sight. She
runs, climbs and crawls.
Until she's utterly lost and
disoriented. Tired and
having difficulty breathing, she
drops to her knees and "cools down." She hears a NOISE
nearby, gets to her feet, and finds a GEARED MECHANISM
connected to some kind of SHUTTERED DOOR composed of an
almost metallic-looking
glass. Curious yet cautious, she
examines the nearby walls, floor, and ceiling for any signs
of "traps" akin to the glass blades. Finding none, she pulls
the mechanism and quickly steps back.
The shutter opens and Catherine knows there's something alive
in the tiny cubicle beyond.
She retreats into shadow,
hiding. Released from the
chamber is a WOMAN. As she moves
out of a darkness, we see VICTIM ONE.
Ghostly pale and adorned in eerie fetish garb, she appears to
"sense" the presence of a stranger, targets Catherine in the
shadows, and ATTACKS!
Catherine's had enough and moves to press the implant, BUT
THE VICTIM IS ALREADY THERE!
She brutally grabs Catherine, THROWS her against the wall and
SMACKS her head against it.
Catherine drops to the floor
like a rag doll.
Victim One hefts Catherine onto her shoulder and with great
purpose, carries her deep into the labyrinth, toward the
core. Passing in and out of
consciousness, between darkness
and light, a dazed Catherine is taken on a "tour" of
Stargher's world. Passing
mausoleum-like chambers filled
with IMAGES of unspeakable horror and/or disturbing
intensity. At one of the
rooms, we think we see Young
Stargher silently observing...
Sitting of standing in individual cubicles are STARGHER'S
OTHER VICTIMS (TWO thru SIX), each woman resembling the
grotesque porcelain dolls glimpsed in the cubbyholes in
Stargher's basement. Dressed
by a fetishistic sadist (Nine
Inch Nails meets the Brides of Dracula), they resemble bored
housewives, barely acknowledging the new member of the
"harem."
INT.
STARGHER'S WORLD - THE CORE
VICTIM ONE
drops Catherine in the center of the room and, job
done, crawls away.
Groggy, feeling sick, Catherine sits up. Unbeknownst to her,
she is sitting at the base of a pedestal with her back to the
kind of
THRONE. And someone is there. In the dim pool of
light above the pedestal, we see a MAN rise from the throne.
The wall behind him is covered in BLOOD RED CLOTH, and as he
descends, we realize it is a CAPE connected to EIGHT METAL
RINGS pierced through the flesh of his back. In a fluid
motion, waves of red give way to harshly textured concrete as
the man reaches the floor.
Catherine knows he is there.
Unable to stop
herself, she turns. And sees the
terrifying
face of STARGHER. But no
the same Stargher.
This is STARGHER KING.
STARGHER KING
(primitive, guttural)
Where you come from priddy thing?
In a split second, Catherine presses the implant on her hand.
INT. CAMPBELL CENTER - CONFERENCE ROOM - DAY
Apparently capable of staying awake if properly caffeinated,
Novak sits cross-legged on the floor, shoes off, analyzing
RECENT PHOTOS AND DOCUMENTS sent to him via courier.
Ignoring a snoring Ramsey napping on a nearby cot, Novak
looks at blow-ups from the videos, blueprints of Stargher's
house, detailed shots of the basement, and a draftsman's
conceptual drawing of the cell itself.
HENRY (V.O.)
Gentlemen?
Novak looks at an
INTERCOM SPEAKER.
HENRY (V.O.) (CONT'D)
She's back.
Novak doesn't wait for his just-stirring partner and moves.
INT. CAMPBELL CENTER - LABORATORY
As he enters, Novak sees a concerned Henry checking a print
out of the procedure.
NOVAK
What happened?
HENRY
Must've been rather unusual.
Noting Novak's confusion, Henry points to a CENTRAL MONITOR
resembling a futuristic V.U. meter, gradiated in sections of
white, yellow, orange, and red.
HENRY (CONT'D)
(re: white/yellow area)
If her neural activity stays within this
range, I know she's self-cognitive.
(clarifies)
As if she were having a dream, but she
knows she's dreaming. She
can "wake up"
any time she wants to...
As Ramsey joins them, Novak nods, understanding, but his eyes
are on Catherine, who's just coming back to consciousness.
HENRY (CONT'D)
(re: orange section)
However, if her level of involvement is
rather intense, as it was just now, she
can perceive things as true.
It's
difficult to keep perspective.
As Novak lingers on that question, Ramsey gestures at the red
section.
RAMSEY
What happens here?
HENRY
We don't talk about that.
NOVAK
What happens?
HENRY
Well, Theoretically, while she's inside.
If she came to believe that Stargher's
world is her world, her mind has the
power to convince the body that anything
done
to it is, um, actually done.
