The Hollow Man

       We slowly push down a hallway panelled by Plexiglas

       chambers. Each chamber looks as if it s tailored for a

       specific animal, although no animals are visible.

       As we pass one habitat, something slams into the

       Plexiglas and begins barking. Another HOWL joins in. Then

       SCREECHING. Suddenly the hallway fills with a dozen

       animal cries. THUMP.

       THUMP.

       The Plexiglas on several chambers vibrates as if angry

       animals were slamming against it. But still, no animals

       are seen.

       Above each chamber, VIDEO SCREENS display THERMAL IMAGES

       revealing heat signatures of the various animals, but

       they remain invisible to the naked eye. MATT taps on a

       sheet of Plexiglas which seals off another seemingly

       empty cage.

                            MATT

                     Isabelle ...

       The woodchips on the floor shift and suddenly the

       Plexiglas steams up right in front of Matt s face. The

       Plexiglas begins to shake violently.

                            MATT (cont d)

                     Calm down baby. Calm down. It s

                     okay...

       Matt takes a pair of thermal goggles from his belt and

       pulls them down over his eyes.

       THERMAL POV - A rather large heat signature, ape-like in

       shape, rattles about the cage. Matt slowly unlatches the

       Plexiglas door and reaches inside.

                            MATT (cont d)

                     It s okay, baby. It s okay. I m not

                     going to hurt you. Come here.

       THERMAL POV - he reaches out to the creature. He grabs

       hold of it, firmly. Stroking it. The creature COOS. Matt

       reaches for a hypo and brings it up to the creature.

                            MATT (cont d)

                     Just hold still.

       Something clamps down on his hand, breaking his skin.

       Blood erupts in a bite pattern.

                            MATT (cont d)

                      Ow, shit.

       Matt drops the hypo and falls back. The cage door flies

       open and something runs out. Matt pulls himself up to see

       the heat signature running down the hallway. He turns

       around to see another heat signature coming at him. Matt

       pulls off his goggles to see Linda coming up the

       Corridor.

                            LINDA

                     You okay?

                            MATT

                     She bit me.

                            LINDA

                     Yeah. She s become a lot more

                     aggressive in the last few days.

       Linda takes the goggles from Matt.

                            LINDA (cont d)

                     Go take care of that bite. I ll get

                     her.

                            MATT

                     And give you a chance to pull ahead?

                     Never.

       Linda opens a lock-box at the end of the hallway and

       pulls out a two tranquilizer guns. She hands one to Matt.

       AROUND THE CORNER

       A slight distortion shimmers as something runs past us.

       We hear HOOTS and FOOTSTEPS.

       Looking down the shadowy corridor, we hear grunting and a

       haunting heavy breathing. The control door is closed

       though and something large and angry is throwing itself

       against it. We can t see anything.

       A few moments later, Linda and Matt round the corner,

       wearing goggles and leveling their pistols.

                            MATT

                             (ala Porky)

                     Shh. Be vewy, vewy quiet. I m hunting

                     simians.   heheheheh.

                            LINDA

                     Knock it off.

                             (soothing voice)

                     Isabelle!

       THERMAL POV - Dark hallway. Movement. A red shimmering

       heat signature. It comes running at Linda. HOWLING. Linda

       fires. A T-DART flies. Thwack... It stops in mid-air.

       Then falls. But it doesn t hit the floor. Instead, it

       stops inches above the ground.

       THERMAL POV - the heat signature lies in a heap at

       Linda s feet.

                            MATT

                     Good shootin , Tex.

                            LINDA

                     What s that make it?

                            MATT

                     I m still ahead. 6 to 5.

       Like a smug gunfighter, Linda blows imaginary smoke from

       the top of her tranquilizer gun.

                            LINDA

                     But I m catching up.

       INT. CORRIDOR - DAY

       The elevator doors open and Sebastian steps out. He s met

       by SARAH KENNEDY, early thirties, a fiery red-head.

                            SARAH

                     Can I have a word?

                            SEBASTIAN

                     Most normal people say good morning.

                            SARAH

                     Don t you think you should test the

                     protocol on the liver samples before

                     you inject Isabelle?

                            SEBASTIAN

                     How many tissue samples have we

                     successfully regressed? Hundreds,

                     right? How many have gone on to work

                     on the full system? None.

                            SARAH

                     That s beside the point.

                            SEBASTIAN

                     No, that is the point. I m not going

                     to waste six months of my life on an

                     outmoded testing procedure. This thing

                     works. I know it. I feel it.

       Linda comes down the corridor, listening in on the tail

       end of the conversation.

                            SARAH

                     Fine. You can mop up afterward.

                            SEBASTIAN

                     You think I m going to kill Isabelle?

                            SARAH

                     Kill? More like liquefy.

                            SEBASTIAN

                     Sarah, thank you for your opinion, but

                     I m the project leader. Understand?

       She says ...

                            SARAH

                     Yes, Sir.

       ... but somehow it feels like  Fuck you.  She storms off.

       Sebastian turns to Linda.

                            SEBASTIAN

                     How did you ever convince me to hire

                     her?

                            LINDA

                     You said you wanted the beat vet in

                     the country.

                            SEBASTIAN

                     Yeah, well she cares more about the

                     animals than the research.

                            LINDA

                     Maybe that s why she s so good.

       CUT TO:

       CLOSE ON: MATT as he shuts off the spinning cyclotron. As

       it s spinning slows to a halt, he pops the top and

       reaches in, removing...

       A GLOWING VIAL OF ORANGE LIQUID.

       Sebastian peers at the vial.

                            SEBASTIAN

                     Who da Man? You da Man.

                            MATT

                     As we pull out we see we are.

       INT. LABORATORY - DAY

       Almost feels like a dungeon. Think high-tech

       Frankenstein. Walls lined with video displays, technical

       readouts, bizarre medical equipment.

       On a table in the middle of the room, a sheet drapes over

       a humanoid form, strapped down at it s invisible limbs.

       The straps move slightly... ghostly. Wires lead from the

       body to lots of machinery.

                            MATT

                     Protocol is hot.

                            SEBASTIAN

                     Vitals?

       Sarah, checks over the various readouts ... heartbeat,

       blood pressure, the rest.

                            SARAH

                     Normal.

       CARTER ABBEY, the late thirties lab assistant, wheels in

       a cart of equipment. Linda taken a seat by the table and

       pushes aside the sheet.

                            BOOMING VOICE

                     THIS IS GOD. YOU ARE DISTURBING THE

                     NATURAL ORDER OF THINGS AND WILL BE

                     SEVERELY PUNISHED FOR ALL ETERNITY.

                     GOD HAS SPOKEN.

                            SEBASTIAN

                     How many times do I have to tell you,

                     Frank you aren t God.

                             (beat)

                     I am.

                            FRANK (LOUDSPEAKER)

                     Sorry, Boss. Forgot.

       Sebastian glance up at a glass booth overlooking the

       Laboratory floor. TWO PEOPLE in the booth.

                            SEBASTIAN

                     You guys ready to roll?

       INT. OBSERVATION BOOTH

       FRANK CHASE, early thirties, and tech expert JANICE

       WALTON, early twenties, man a small booth above the lab.

       They re dressed more like band roadies than scientists.

       The room is crammed with electronic and recording

       equipment. A handful of monitors display different images

       of the lab. Thermal and regular video. Another screen

       monitors vital signs.

                            FRANK

                     We are live and in color. On your

                     mark.

       Frank and Janice looks down on their colleagues.

       Sebastian nods their way.

                            SEBASTIAN

                     Okay. Roll  em.

                            JANICE

                     Okay. We are rolling record on videos

                     one through twelve.

       Frank hits a series of buttons and speaks into a

       microphone. Recording.

       INT. LABORATORY - DAY

       Frank s voice echoes through the chamber.

                            FRANK (V.O.)

                     Subject Isabelle Two. Currently in

                     phase shift... one hundred twenty six

                     days, eighteen hours.

                            LINDA

                     Testing De-Phase protocol. Injecting

                     serial protein Caine One Two Five.

       Linda removes a glowing vial of orange liquid from a

       centrifuge nearby.

                            MATT

                     Maybe if you stopped naming them after

                     yourself, you d have better luck.

                            SEBASTIAN

                     Why thank you, Dr. Kensington, for

                     that keen scientific observation. I ll

                     be sure to include it in my memoirs.

                            MATT

                     A whole mention? And I thought I was

                     just gonna be a footnote.

       Matt unwraps a hypodermic needle and jabs the needle into

       the vial, drawing up the colored liquid.

       INT. OBSERVATION BOOTH

                            MATT

                     Okay.

       Frank and Janice monitor Isabelle s vitals.

       INT. LABORATORY - DAY

       Tension in the air.

                            SEBASTIAN

                             (to Linda)

                     Ready.

       She wraps a bungee cord around nothing and pulls it

       tight. She then takes some dye and sprays it. A surface

       appears, floating beneath the restraints. It sheens in

       the light as Linda searches for a vein. She slaps the

       surface several times. A small bulge appears, like a

       vein.

                            LINDA

                     Propped.

                            MATT

                     Let s make some history.

       Matt lowers the hypo to the vein. But Sebastian takes the

       hypo from Matt s hand.

                            SEBASTIAN

                     Nice try, Sparky.

       Matt relinquishes the needle.

                            LINDA

                     Come on, Isabelle. You can do this.

       Sebastian lowers the hypo. The skin bonds and gives. The

       needle remains in sight after it slips through the

       visible surface. Matt presses down on the hypo plunger,

       releasing a dye into his bloodstream. The gold liquid

       twists into a long snaking tube up and down the limb.

       It s the shape of a vein. The liquid begins to react.

       Small flashes of light blip up and down the strand of

       color. Ba-bump.. ba-bump... the heartbeat starts to speed

       up.

                            SARAH

                     Elevated heartbeat.

       INT. OBSERVATION BOOTH

       Janice analyzes the screens.

                            JANICE

                     We re still in the green.

                            FRANK

                     Confirmed. Vitals still in the normal

                     range.

       INT. LABORATORY

       The glowing liquid turns from gold to red as the complex

       webbing of a bloodstream appears.

                            MATT

                     It s reacting.

       Spreading out from the bloodstream, soon becomes

       visible.. the shadow of a skeletal system.

                            SEBASTIAN

                     Do you see this?

                            LINDA

                     It s working. It s actually working.

       Matt pulls the sheet back. Muscles are beginning to

       appear. And eyeballs. Frightened eyeballs.

                            SARAH

                     Heart rate s up. She s scared.

       Sarah soothes her.

                            SARAH (cont d)

                     It's okay, baby. It's okay.

                            SEBASTIAN

                     Subject began manifesting almost

                     Immediately. Protocol is reacting

                     quickly.

       Isabelle starts to struggle against her restraints. She

       begins to howl.

                            LINDA

                     Subject may be in pain or extreme

                     discomfort.

                            SARAH

                     Goddamnit. Blood pressure elevating.

                     Brain activity going through the roof.

       The brain appears, seemingly growing from the inside out.

       The shape of a large half-formed monkey grows from the

       inside out. A SKULL APPEARS howling in pain, in horror.

                            SARAH (cont d)

                     We ve got a problem.

                            SEBASTIAN

                     What? What problem!

       Sarah checks her monitors.