PLASTIC MAN

                         ARGON

          The body is just another part of

          nature and ever since we gave up

          trees for central air, there has

          been nothing sacred about nature.

          Nature is the enemy, Mr. O'Brien,

          and science is our greatest weapon

          against her.

                         O'BRIEN

          You egomaniacs make me laugh.

          Nature's going to bury you like she

          buries everyone else.

Argon laughs.

                         ARGON

          Not anymore, Mr. O'Brien.  The

          nanobot has changed that.

                         SUSAN

          If you think I would ever give you

          the nanobot after this, you are

          deluding yourself.

                         ARGON

          You don't have to give it to us

          because Dr. Nebbleman can just cut

          it out of him.

                         O'BRIEN

          Ha!  Morons.  It's not even in me

          anymore.

Everyone reacts.

                         ARGON

          What?

Before O'Brien can say anything else, Susan slaps her hand

over his mouth.

                         NEBBLEMAN

          She could have given him something

          to stimulate his kidneys.

                         ARGON

          Dr. Nebbleman, take care of them.

Argon grabs the car phone while Nebbleman removes a loaded

syringe from a black case.

                         ARGON

          Mr. Sim I want you to return to Dr.

          Bright's.  I believe she is hiding

          something of ours there.

                         SUSAN

          No.

We see the Lincoln turn off the highway.

                         SUSAN

          Daniel, do something!

With eye blurring speed, O'Brien's arm rockets out as he

grabs for the needle.  Nebbleman screams as O'Brien's hand

molds over his own.

Poppy wheels on O'Brien as Nebbleman falls, screaming,

wrestling against his own hand.

Before she can raise the gun, Dr. Bright lunges, grappling

for control.

The GUN FIRES wildly.

                         ARGON

          No!

The BULLET RICOCHETS around the cabin before embedding in

the seat cushion in between Nebbleman's legs.

O'Brien pushes the hypo plunger down, squirting the

sedative in Nebbleman's face.  Nebbleman screams.

                         SUSAN

          Daniel, go!  I'll be all right!  Get

          the nanobot!

He nods, yanking the door handles but they are locked.

He glances quickly around the limo, then dives at the rear

seat, body thinning, flattening into the crack where the

seat meets the back --

Leaving Poppy clinging to his empty clothes, as he

disappears from the cabin.

Nebbleman can hardly catch his breath.

                         NEBBLEMAN

          Where did he go?

                         ARGON

          The trunk.

As soon as the words pass Argon's reptilian lips, there is

a CLICK and the TRUNK opens behind them.

                         ARGON

          Ott, shake him!

EXT.  LIMO

O'Brien stands and the limo begins to zig-zag hard on the

open expressway.

Argon smiles through the small rear window as O'Brien

tries to keep his balance.

                         O'BRIEN

          Here goes nothing.

O'Brien throws an arm at a passing truck going in the

opposite direction seizing hold of it --

Slinging himself like a rubber band --

Into the air, tucking his knees to his chest, bracing

himself.  He becomes --

A red comet, that crashes into an oncoming Cadillac caving

in its hood and rebounding into the air soaring over a row

of homes.

A rumpled heap, he lands heavily in a plot of backyard

bushes.

                         O'BRIEN

          Ow.

He stumbles to his feet, shaking away the cobwebs.

                         O'BRIEN

          Damn.

His teeth grit.  Muscles flex.

O'BRIEN'S POV

ROCKETS INTO the air --

SHOOTING STRAIGHT UP, RACING FORWARD BOUNDING OVER power

lines and rooftops.

INT.  LIMO

Order has been somewhat restored.

Poppy presses the barrel of her pistol into Dr. Bright's

midsection.

Dr. Nebbleman is still red-faced from the physical

exertion.  His glasses begin to fog and he cleans them

with his kerchief.

The PHONES RINGS.

                         NEBBLEMAN

          Yes?

                         SIM (V.O.)

          It's Sim.  We're almost there.

                         NEBBLEMAN

          Mr. Sim, watch out!  O'Brien escaped

          and could be on his way!

EXT.  APARTMENT BUILDING BACKYARD

Two small children are playing in their sandbox.

Suddenly, a red foot stomps down between them, the thin

leg stretching up into the sky.  It rocks forward and

pushes off and away.

The two kids stare at each other blankly.

EXT.  SUSAN BRIGHT'S BROWNSTONE

Sim and Doby head for the front door, Sim still on his

cellular phone.

                         SIM

          You want to tell me what I'm looking

          for?

                         NEBBLEMAN

          I've only been invited to her house

          once, but I know there is a basement

          lab that she uses for private

          research.

                         SIM (V.O.)

          Okay.

                         SUSAN

          You were never invited to my house.

                         NEBBLEMAN

          You're looking for a urine sample.

                         SIM (V.O.)

          Bingo.

EXT.  SUSAN BRIGHT'S BROWNSTONE

Sim stares toward the basement, when out of the corner of

his eye he notices --

                         NEBBLEMAN (V.O.)

          The fluid should be murky yellow in

          color and extremely viscous.

The beaker of lemonade.

INT.  CITY STREET

O'Brien grabs the top of a building and he vaults over as

though hopping a fence.

INT.  SUSAN BRIGHT'S BROWNSTONE

Sim inspects the beaker as if he might taste it.  He takes

a whiff.

                         SIM

          Wait a minute.  This ain't no

          lemonade.

INT.  LIMO

Susan glares at Nebbleman.

                         SIM (V.O.)

          What's it smell like?

                         NEBBLEMAN

          Smell?  Uh, something like

          methylcyanoacrylate.

                         SIM (V.O.)

          Like Crazy Glue?

                         NEBBLEMAN

          Yes.  That's it.  He's got it.  Oh

          God, he's got it!

EXT.  SUSAN BRIGHT'S BROWNSTONE

O'Brien watches from behind a light post as Sim and Doby

cross from Susan's walk to the Lincoln.

He slinks down among the row of parked cars and edges out

toward the street.

The black Lincoln starts TOWARD us getting bigger, FILLING

OUR VISION, then PASSES OVER --

And we see O'Brien clinging to the chassis like a rubbery

Max Cady.

EXT.  CALUMET CITY - DAY

The afternoon sun has started its descend over the

industrial landscape.  Tongues of exhaust flame lick up at

the orange popsicle sky.

EXT.  MAIN GATE

The black limousine eases through the gate against the

swell of media.

The steel garage DOOR RATTLES down like a modern

portcullis.

INT.  ARGON LABS

The barrel-shaped limo driver helps Argon into his

wheelchair.

                         POPPY

          Gently, Ott.  Gently.

                         ARGON

          Dr. Nebbleman, I want to know the

          moment the nanobot arrives.  The

          instant, understand?

                         NEBBLEMAN

          Of course, sir.

                         SUSAN

          Dr. Argon, I know you want to use

          the nanobot on yourself, but you

          mustn't.  The situation is critical

          right now.  The replicators are

          growing exponentially.  If we wait

          much longer it will be too late.

          You have to use the nanobot to stop

          the meltdown.

                         ARGON

          Dr. Bright, I don't have to do

          anything.

                         SUSAN

          But in another twenty-four hours the

          core meltdown will be beyond the

          stabilization period.  There will be

          no way to stop it.

                         ARGON

          To be brutally honest with you,

          Susan, as long as the nanobot does

          to me what it did to that idiot

          O'Brien, I don't give a rat's ass

          about what happens after that.

The sincerity of his smile unnerves her.

                         SUSAN

          You can't mean that.

                         ARGON

          Come with me, Susan.  I want to show

          you something.

INT.  ARGON'S OFFICE

The elevators open and Poppy, Argon and Susan get out.

                         ARGON

          Something to drink, Dr. Bright?

                         SUSAN

          No, thank you.

                         ARGON

          You'll forgive me but all the

          excitement has left me extremely

          parched.  Poppy?

Poppy gets him a Coca-Cola while Susan notices the statue

of Argon.

                         ARGON

          A monument to my past.  I much

          prefer the future.  Come.

INT.  CONSERVATORY

The moist air envelops them as they enter.

                         ARGON

          This is my garden.  Few people have

          seen it because it means so much to

          me.  I am hoping as a fellow

          scientist you can appreciate it.

It is a botanical nightmare.  Huge sealed tanks feature

bizarre plant-life bred and genetically engineered

indiscriminately, like a blind man pairing a sock drawer.

Susan moves onto the yellow brick lane, a look of horror

wrinkling her face.

                         ARGON

          Gardener?

A man in a green jump suit looks up.  This is the

GARDENER.  He is never without his red sprayer tank, slung

over his shoulder and is always wearing an old snouted gas

mask.

                         ARGON

          Would you excuse us?

He disappears as the three start down the path.

                         ARGON

          Every species, every organism is the

          only one of its kind, created

          through cross-breeding or chemical

          and radioactive mutation as well as

          genetic manipulation.

Inside atmospherically controlled tanks, life exists where

it should not.  Translucent palmy ferns bask beneath a

deadly drizzle of acid rain.  Crystalline cacti flourish

around the soft glow of a radioactive isotope.

                         ARGON

          I spend more time here than anywhere

          else, nurturing them, treating them,

          because they all require very

          special care.

He gazes into a sealed geranium at a single flower with

petals the color of a dead fish.  It is being fed drops of

photophorescent paste from tubes that hang like IVs.

                         ARGON

          Poppy calls them my children and I

          suppose that's how I feel.  That I

          have given birth to all of them, and

          there is nothing as precious or as

          beautiful as one's own children.

Poppy smiles at him as they stop in front of a tank where

seamonkey-like creatures titter and play inside their

toxic solarium.

                         ARGON

          We will always love most that which

          we create.  Don't you agree, Susan?

                         SUSAN

          Does that mean Oppenheimer loved the

          atomic bomb?

She can't believe that she just used an O'Brien line.

                         ARGON

          More than he would ever admit.  His

          child changed the world.  What could

          make a parent more proud than that?

INT.  ARGON LABS

The black Lincoln glides into the garage.

The door closes behind them and the car eases into the

parking place, the cement block in front of the car reads:

D.T. Sim; Chief of Security.

FROM UNDER the car we see the feet of Sim and Doby sweep

by then disappear as the two men enter the lobby of Argon

Tower.

O'Brien drops to the ground from the Lincoln's drive shaft

letting out a string of whispered expletives.

INT.  CONSERVATORY

Argon slurps from the Coca-Cola, watching Susan.

                         ARGON

          I brought you up here, Dr. Bright,

          because I want you to understand

          that we are on the path.  The only

          difference is that you are walking

          with your head down, afraid to look

          up, to see where the path is going.

                         SUSAN

          I suppose you are going to tell me

          where it is going.

                         ARGON

          I ask you what is the purpose of

          science?  What is the point of all

          our relentless exploration,

          investigation and experimentation?

          It is to understand a single

          physical phenomenon, or to

          understand them all?  To cure one

          disease, or to cure every disease?

          If science is simply a means, what

          then is the end?

His WHEELCHAIR CLICKS and HUMS toward her.

                         ARGON

          Look up.  Look above you, Susan, and

          tell me what you see.

She looks up through the glass roof of the conservatory at

the soot-stained sky.

                         SUSAN

          Pollution?

                         ARGON

          Do you know what I see?  I see man

          making his own clouds.  I see man

          coloring his own sky, and like this

          garden it is a site that makes my

          heart sing.

He licks his lips.