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PART 8
EXT. ELLIS ISLAND - NIGHT
An aerial shot showing us the whole of the event.
Security of every kind covers every inch of the island.
Helicopters are coming in at the rate of about one every minute
to deliver dignitaries and their families from all over the globe.
EXT. ELLIS ISLAND - BRIDGE TO NEW JERSEY - NIGHT
A steady flow of limos pour onto the island over a simple two-lane
bridge from New Jersey.
A NEWSCASTER IN THE FOREGROUND.
NEWSCASTER
With the ceremonies beginning shortly, it looks as though the last
of the dignitaries have landed at Newark and Teterboro airports
and will be arriving momentarily. It would seem the United Nations
has had their wish tonight. There doesn¨ªt seem to be an
empty seat in the house.
EXT. BATTERY PARK - NIGHT
The pier of the Ferry to Liberty Island.
A great many families have come to watch curiously the going on.
EXT. MANHATTAN HARBOR - NIGHT
The harbor is filled with police and Coast Guard vessels
watching the water closely.
INT. NEW YORK CITY APARTMENTS/VARIOUS - NIGHT
A series of shots showing the many folks gathering to watch the
historic event on television.
In some of these apartments, Ellis and Liberty islands can be
seen from their windows in the distance.
INT. SECURITY CONTROL CENTER - NIGHT
The OPERATING COMMANDER monitors the countless video
screens that display nearly every crevice of Ellis Island as well
as other parts of New York Harbor as well as the network news feeds
of the event...
EXT. ELLIS ISLAND - MAIN ENTRANCE - NIGHT
The front of the Great Hall of Ellis Island, where once
immigrants poured into the new world by the millions.
A huge military band off to one side plays music from the
different countries to help with the milling about and shaking of
hands.
The PRESIDENT himself is in the crowd, meeting and greeting, a
mob of Secret Service always right there. Follow him into:
INT. ELLIS ISLAND - MAIN HALL
A YASSAR ARAFAT TYPE, who we will call Yassir Arafat,
comes up to the President and smiles.
The President introduces his WIFE AND CHILD as more
delegates approach.
The two men LAUGH and then HUG to the flashing of a
million bulbs.
Smattering of ass-kissy applause. Arafat and the President wave
to press and the like.
EXT. OBSERVATION DECK - ELSEWHERE - NIGHT
We are looking down on what APPEARS TO BE a deserted part of the
island. Away from the action.
PAN ACROSS THE EDGE OF THE ISLAND
Every fifty feet or so, uniformed Secret Service agents keep tight
watch on the island.
ANGLE ON:
One Secret Service guy in particular.
PUSH IN FROM ABOVE - We realize we are pushing in
unusually fast, as though we are falling.
WHAM. A sickening crunch.
Toad lands on top of the Secret Service guy. We have
been watching from his P.O.V. The Secret Service man is
tumbled into a heap. A real frog rabbits O.S.
Toad looks around quietly, listens... THEN LEAPS out of
frame. Hold on the body of the Secret Service guy.
LONG PAUSE.
ANOTHER SICKENING CRUNCH OFF SCREEN.
EXT. LIBERTY ISLAND - NIGHT
Two Secret Service guys approach one another. One is holding a
smoke, the other is producing a lighter. Just as his smoke is about
to hit the flame, the flame dodges to one side. He moves the smoke
to follow it, and the flame dodges the other way.
The guy with the smoke looks at the guy with the lighter as if
to say ¨¬knock it off.? The guy with the lighter shrugs
as:
THE FLAME INSTANTLY GROWS TO A RAGING INTENSITY, ENGULFING THEM.
As they are incinerated and their ashes fall to the ground, Pyro
climbs into view from the seawall below, dripping wet.
He has come dressed to make trouble tonight. Strapped to his back
is an impressive looking flame thrower. A three tanker.
EXT. SEAWALL - NIGHT
A Coast Guard boat crawls into view just off shore. A Secret Service
man in the foreground waves to the boat as it passes by.
EXT. COAST GUARD BOAT DECK - NIGHT
A thirty footer. Fast and sturdy.
The PILOT OF THE BOAT, a man in his late forties, waves
back.
EXT. SEAWALL - NIGHT
As the Secret Service guy waves, he jolts upright, his face contorting
in impossible pain. Slowly, he is lifted off the ground.
EXT. COAST GUARD BOAT DECK - NIGHT
PILOT¨ªS P.O.V.
Sabretooth holds the last Secret Service man aloft, impaled on
his claws. He waves now, the body swaying this way and that before
he casually throws it to the ground.
The Pilot turns to the wheel of the boat as he MORPHS INTO MYSTIQUE
and turns the boat toward the island.
EXT. BOTTOM OF THE SEAWALL - BOAT - NIGHT
Man-made rocky shore. The boat bumps and grinds on the rock. Sabretooth
jumps down to the deck and meets Magneto coming up from below. They
nod to one another and walk toward the front of the boat. On the
deck is something covered with a tarp. Sabretooth pulls back the
tarp to reveal Logan, still unconscious from the drug.
ANOTHER, MUCH LARGER OBJECT is on the back of the boat under another
tarp, but we cannot see what it is.
Magneto steps off the boat and looks up -- up at someplace we
cannot yet see.
EXT. ELLIS ISLAND - GREAT HALL - NIGHT
The dignitaries take their seats as the ceremony commences.
INT. X-JET - NIGHT
Cyclops pilots the plane as Manhattan comes into view.
They bank to the south. Cyclops checks his monitors.
CYCLOPS
Radar Stealth Mode checks out. All right, there¨ªll be
less security north of the George Washington Bridge. I¨ªm
taking her down.
JEAN
Into the Hudson?
CYCLOPS
(smiles)
Uh-huh.
EXT. HUDSON RIVER - NIGHT
The X-Jet slows to a hover. It¨ªs Harrier Jet engines
tilt back until they are vertical to the water. The engines cycle
down and the plane lowers until it is hovering a few feet off the
surface.
INT. X-JET - NIGHT
CYCLOPS
V.T.O.L. off.
EXT. HUDSON RIVER - NIGHT
The Jet¨ªs engines cut and the plane splashes down into
the water. It floats there for a moment and then sinks below the
surface.
EXT. BELOW RIVER SURFACE - NIGHT
As the X-Jet sinks, the hatches close off and the wings retract
to transform the plane into a submarine. The engines pull tight
to the body of the craft and begin to propel it forward.
EXT. HUDSON RIVER - NIGHT
AERIAL VIEW: The water ripples as the submersed aircraft
passes under the bridge and into the harbor.
INT. SMALL ROOM - NIGHT
C.U. on Logan. He wakes. His arms are cuffed behind his
back. He is delirious and weakened from the drug.
He looks around and sees that he is in an oddly shaped room with
barely enough space for him and Magneto, who smiles at him in the
half darkness.
LOGAN
(very weak)
Where am I?
MAGNETO
You¨ªre backstage at the encore of creation.
He looks at his watch.
MAGNETO (cont¨ªd)
Three minutes to curtain.
LOGAN
What are you going to do?
MAGNETO
In the road to survival, there is always sacrifice Logan. We are
the future... not them. We must protect ourselves. After tonight,
when the leaders of the world return home -- They will return as
brothers, as mutants... and our cause will be theirs. This is survival,
I know you understand that, Logan... or is it Wolverine?
He steps out of the hatch and closes it.
EXT. LIBERTY ISLAND - NIGHT
Magneto who looks down. From atop what, we cannot tell.
Magneto comes to stand on a railing outside from his high
perch, overlooking the island. From here we pull out to reveal at
last where he is.
HE IS NOT ON ELLIS ISLAND AT ALL
Instead, he stands on the catwalk around the torch of the Statue
of Liberty, about a mile away. He has his back to it¨ªs
gold translucent flame, looking over at the activity on Ellis Island,
hearing the band and inhaling the cool evening breeze.
MAGNETO
Give me your tired, your poor...
And he turns to the bright lights of Manhattan and it¨ªs
millions of inhabitants.
MAGNETO (cont¨ªd)
... Your huddled masses.
He brings a radio to his lips.
MAGNETO (cont¨ªd)
Lights.
EXT. POWER STATION - NIGHT
Sabretooth is tearing the padlocks off of the generator shed that
powers the island.
INT. POWER STATION - NIGHT
Sabretooth grabs a hold of a fuse lever marked ¨¬Liberty
Display Lights? and pulls it down. Turning it off.
INT. TORCH - NIGHT
Logan is now in darkness. He frantically pulls on his binds. No
use.
INT. X-JET - NIGHT
Cyclops is monitoring the area above-water on a video screen.
JEAN
(points to the monitor)
The lights on the Statue of Liberty
are off.
STORM
Beast said that he would have to take a high vantage point.
Cyclops, motioning to an open area of water next to Liberty Island.
CYCLOPS
Let¨ªs dock over there.
Cyclops pulls a lever. The X-Jet begins to surface.
CYCLOPS (cont¨ªd)
Storm, give us some cover.
INT. APARTMENTS/VARIOUS - NIGHT
Televisions all over the city show the Statue sitting dark to
countless curious viewers.
INT. X-JET - NIGHT
The water level outside the X-Jet lowers as the plane surfaces.
EXT. X-JET - NIGHT
The plane rises until it is nearly flush with the surface of the
water -- Not a hundred yards from an obvious Coast Guard cutter.
Out the jet¨ªs window, the Statue rises away into the fog
that is now rolling in over the Harbor.
INT. SECURITY CONTROL CENTER - NIGHT
ANGLE ON:
The OPERATIONS COMMANDER raises a radio to his mouth.
OPERATION COMMANDER
Liberty One, Liberty One, this is Horizon, do you copy.
AN AGENT¨ªS VOICE RESPONDS.
AGENT¨ªS VOICE
Go, Horizon.
OPERATION COMMANDER
(on radio)
Liberty, what¨ªs the situation with the lights, over?
EXT. LIBERTY ISLAND - NIGHT
IT IS MYSTIQUE. The lower part of her face and the whole
her neck are that of a stocky man.
MYSTIQUE/AGENT¨ªS VOICE
Uhhh, Horizon, we¨ªve seem to have had a shutdown at the
generator, we¨ªre five by five. There now, checking it
out. Everything is fine other-wise.
OPERATION COMMANDER
(on radio)
Roger Liberty one. Horizon out.
She MORPHS back into her full self and smiles.
MYSTIQUE
Darling... We¨ªre clear.
EXT. SEAWALL - NIGHT
Jean, Cyclops, Storm and Rogue step off the wing tip of the X-Jet
onto the island. They climb over the fog encased seawall and stand
staring up at the Statue and the desolate island.
EXT. TORCH - NIGHT
Magneto takes this moment in the darkness to point his hands and
all of his concentration on the bottom of the torch.
The air RIPPLES with magnetic energy as -- the cap-like end piece
of the torch begins to vibrate, metal groans, twists...
WITH A CRACK OF METAL, it comes free, dropping to the
ground.
INT. TORCH - NIGHT
Logan stares down through the hollow torch as the cap falls away
into the fog.
EXT. STATUE - BOTTOM - NIGHT
The foursome are deciding how to proceed.
CYCLOPS
We should check out operations, see if the Secret Service is still
around.
Storm is surveying the layout of the island. She looks up at the
Statue.
STORM
LOOK OUT.
They all look up. The cap of the torch is SCREAMING DOWN
towards them out of the sky. It crashes down as they leap out of
the way.
CYCLOPS
I¨ªm going to assume that means that the Secret Service
is out of
commission. Jean, can you raise me up there?
JEAN
It¨ªs too far.
CYCLOPS
(assessing the situation)
Storm, Rogue, -- you take the south entrance. (pointing to the main
entrance) Jean and I will go in here.
Storm and Rogue start for the south entrance.
CYCLOPS (cont¨ªd)
(to Storm and Rogue)
I¨ªll see you both soon.
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