I am Legend

Christopher Collier. I was a theology major.

I minored in history--I took your class on

Ancient Conflicts. As a seminarian, I appreciated

your focus on moral issues in war.

What will they make of this, Professor?

The historians of the future? How will they

see the events of today? A victory or defeat?

You don't care to comment? You were always

quite eloquent in your opinions.

Neville looks in the direction of the room containing the humans. Christopher follows his gaze, comments...

CHRISTOPHER

"In every war, in every great struggle, we see

the sacrifice of innocents. Are their lives worth it?

If thousands will live, should we allow a handful

to die?" Your words, Professor, not mine.

Your questions. If I recall, you never provided

us an answer.

He turns back to Neville.

CHRISTOPHER

I was never ordained. As a priest:. But I have

a flock. A barbaric one, yes, but we are unified,

we are strong. Does it surprise you to see us as

such? As something more than monsters?

Neville remains quiet. Christopher reaches into his clothes and uses a damp rag to wash Neville's wounds.

CHRISTOPHER

Some of us are not without compassion.

Some of us saw Cortman's pursuit of your defeat

a pointless, selfish obsession. He wants you kept alive.

He always wanted you like this, don't you see?

He wants a trophy. A living symbol of his strength.

He'll bleed you, feed from you, have you father more

like yourself.

He lifts a container of gruel. Brings a spoonful to his lips, but Neville refuses to eat.

CHRISTOPHER

You're behaving like a child.

Christopher tries to force feed him, but Neville spits out the food and SNARLS at Christopher.

CHRISTOPHER

Fine... Have it your way. Soon, you'll be

begging for my kindness.

He departs down a staircase to the village.

CLOSE ON NEVILLE'S FACE

He waits until Christopher is gone. Looks below and sees the Hemocytes sleeping. And he opens his mouth, REVEALING...

The all-in-one tool.

His tongue and inner cheeks are scratched and bleeding, but he managed to keep it safe. All this time. Very carefully, he pushes it out onto his lips with his tongue then clenches it tight in his teeth. He maneuvers his hand through his bonds and extends his fingers...

He only has one chance. Takes a deep breath and spits out the tool. It falls... Nearly slips from his fingers, but he snares it between his second and third fingers. Twists it around until it's safe in his palm. By touch he finds the serrated edge and goes to work on his bonds.

INT. SUBTERRANEAN VILLAGE - TWO HOURS LATER - DAY

The Hemocytes are fast asleep. Communal slumber appears to be part of their regimen.

THE RAFTERS

Sweat dripping from his brow, Neville works diligently. His right hand already free, he releases the left. Using the bonds around his waist as a fulcrum, he leans over stretching his back as far as it can go, and cuts through the ropes around his legs and ankles. The serrated edge of the all-in-one tool is almost smooth from wear. Neville clenches it between his teeth and proceeds to wriggle out of the remaining bonds and barbed wire, causing the POLE to SWAY...

BELOW, where the pole is secured to the ground, the ROPES start to CREAK. A dozing Hemocyte sniffs the air, then returns to sleep.

ABOVE, Neville grips an overhead pipe and PULLS himself up, out of bondage. The ropes burn his skin and the barbed wire bites, but he makes it up, into the rafters. Lying atop a ventilation duct, he relaxes and breathes deeply. He peers over the side and looks below. Everyone asleep. His eyes stop on the CAVERNOUS CHAMBER where the humans are kept. Where Anna is kept.

He rolls away and slithers along the duct, away from the village. Must be quiet. Absolutely quiet. He moves onto a thick roll of electrical cables and... almost falls! He grabs a cable and PULLS HIMSELF UP to safety. Crawling on his hands and knees, he moves toward an entrance to a subway tunnel. Almost there...

And he slips. Neville braces himself, but must use one of his wounded FEET to do so. He HOWLS in silent pain.

And the tool falls from his mouth.

IT SAILS DOWN. WE FOLLOW IT as it LANDS inches away from the face of a HEMOCYTE CHILD. The little creature's EYES OPEN and find the odd piece of metal.

IN THE RAFTERS, Neville knows he must move quickly. He follows the cables, then drops to a concrete ledge. Although the souls of his feet are tender from the cuts, he must stand, he must walk. He takes a few genteel steps, then overcomes the pain and heads for the tunnel.

He stops when he SEES the HEMOCYTE CHILD before him. Just staring at him. She is afraid, yes, but her curiosity supersedes fear. The little Hemocyte girl cocks her head and her eyes find an open cut on Neville's torso. The blood. Like a father with a glass of warm milk, he dips a finger into the blood and offers it to the girl. She cautiously, hesitantly licks it up and of all things, smiles at Neville.

He looks at the girl's face. The innocence in her smile, the simplicity, the naturalness of her act. She's hungry. Neville gently touches her head.

NEVILLE

(whispers)

Go back to sleep, sweetheart.

She obeys. Neville watches as she returns to her flock.

INT. SUBWAY TUNNEL - DAY

Weak, battered, filthy, and barely clothed, Neville forces himself down the tunnel. A few RAYS OF LIGHT poke through from the surface, but they are GREY AND MISTY. WATER drips through the ceiling of the tunnel--it must be raining.

EXT. CITY STREET - DAY

A torrential downpour. In the middle of the water-slicked street, the ventilation grating to a subway shaft is punched up and out. NEVILLE crawls out to the surface and lies on his back, allowing the rain to wash over him. Freedom.

EXT COMPOUND - DAY

The sky is filled with THUNDERCLOUDS. Rain turns the earth into a blanket of mud. Neville plods through the muck, cold and wet, until he arrives at the site of his house. Stops when he sees what little remains...

A BLACK SHELL. Foundation and framework. Charred and crumbling. Debris, ash, and cinders litter the area. The rain creates a hissing cloud of steam and smoke.

Neville sloshes through the mud and shifts through debris, finding charred reminders of the past three years--the books, his paintings, CDs, the exhaustive videotapes. Now all a melted mass of paper, plastic, and metal.

He finds a pair of shoes and joyously covers his scarred, throbbing feet. Nearby, in a pile of cinders, is the frame for the photo of his wife and child. The glass cracked, the frame scorched, the picture itself burned away.

He moves down, into the foundation, into the BASEMENT. Most of the weapons are twisted and burned, a few are functional. He takes essentials--two handguns and a mini machine gun.

Searches for usable ammunition and thankfully finds a locker full untouched by fire. In a pile of ash, he discovers the COMBAT KNIFE and ankle sheath.

IN THE GARAGE, he finds shelter from the rain. The Land Rover is a junk heap, horribly wrecked by fallen timbers. He finds a long pipe and uses it as a crowbar to open the trunk. Inside is a pair of COVERALLS and, unscathed, an EMERGENCY KIT. He slips into the coveralls, opens the kit, and checks his supplies--freeze-dried food, a tool kit, medical supplies, a flashlight, and batteries. It's enough. Enough to start over.

He checks the sports car--wrecked. Next, the MOTORCYCLE. Thanks to the lucky placement of a fallen sheet of corrugated steel, it survived. He tosses off the metal and pulls out the bike. It's smoke-damaged, scorched, and a few of the hoses are melted, but it will work. He can get it to work.

EXT. COMPOUND - DAY - AN HOUR LATER

The RAIN still batters the earth's surface. THUNDER AND LIGHTNING coming in from the Pacific. Neville has fashioned a pair off makeshift saddlebags and a gun rack on the bike. He climbs aboard the motorcycle and tries to start it. No go the first time, but the second...

The bike's engine ROARS to life. He checks the gas gauge--a full tank. Enough to get

him... Where? Where Bob? Who knows? He plows through the mud...

EXT. STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO - VARIOUS - DAY

The bike SPEEDS through the abandoned metropolis. Neville's eyes are straight ahead.

No looking back.

EXT. GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE - DAY

Neville reaches the entrance to the bridge and pulls off onto a promontory--where tourists used to stop and take pictures. He comes to a stop, but keep the engine running. He looks down the length of the bridge, at the ocean, back at the city. His eyes find the LIGHTHOUSE where he set free the dog. The TUGBOAT at the end of the pier.

The ocean is rough, waves break on the shoreline. STORM CLOUDS gather in number and force. RAIN pounds down on him. Neville assesses it all. Everything. Past, present, future.

And knows what he must do.

EXT. ABANDONED CHEMICAL PLANT - DAY

Somewhere in an industrial section of the city.

INT. CHEMICAL PLANT - DAY

Neville walks down an aisle, machine gun in hand, flashlight searching the LARGE BINS to his left and right. Into three plastic Containers, he fills PHOSPHOR, SULFUR, and MAGNESIUM.

EXT. CONSTRUCTION SUPPLY YARD - DAY

Virtually picked clean.

INT. CONSTRUCTION SUPPLY YARD - DAY

Neville breaks into a small office. Searches until he finds PIPES, BLASTING CAPS and DEMOLITION EXPLOSIVES.

INT. SUBWAY SWITCHING YARD - DAY

An elephant's graveyard of SUBWAY TRAINS. Above, RAIN pours through the cracked and broken SKYLIGHT.

INT. SWITCHING YARD - CONTROL ROOM - DAY

In what used to be the "nerve center" for the city's Underground transit system, Neville scrutinizes a SERIES OF MAPS, all detailing the routes and layouts of the subway system. To his right is a MANUAL, flipped open to a page reading "EMERGENCY POWER SUPPLIES--START-UP PROCEDURES."

INT. SWITCHING YARD - GENERATOR ROOM - DAY

Neville primes lines, checks circuits, hits igniters. He reaches the final switch, says a prayer, and THROWS IT...

The yard lights up like a christmas tree.

INT. SUBWAY TRAIN - DAY

Neville sits in the motorman's compartment, reading another MANUAL, munching on freeze-dried food. He starts up the engine and miraculously, the motor comes to life.

INT. SWITCHING YARD - DAY

The LEAD CAR, towing THREE PASSENGER CARS, pulls onto the main track and comes to a stop.

INT. SWITCHING YARD - CONTROL ROOM - DUSK

Like a kid with his first model train set, Neville checks the maps and plots a course on the "big board" detailing the lines throughout the city. He throws a series of switches and the SOUND of rails and tracks being put in place REVERBERATES throughout the tunnels and yard.

INT. SUBWAY TRAIN

In the lead car, Neville mixes the CHEMICALS into the pipes and attaches the blasting caps. Once a half dozen pine bombs are complete, he checks and loads each of his guns.

INT. SWITCHING YARD

Neville steps into the yard and looks up, through the skylight... Night.

They'll be awake. And angry.

INT. SUBWAY TRAIN - NIGHT

Neville climbs into the motorman's compartment and lays out a MAP of the tunnel system.

A course plotted. He looks into the tunnel before him... Into the belly of the beast.

INT. SUBWAY TUNNEL - NIGHT

The TRAIN GROANS down the tracks. Rusting, creaking, it starts to breathe, remembering the rhythm of the rails...

INT. SUBWAY TRAIN - NIGHT

A look of grim determination on his face, Neville accelerates, further into the tunnel.

INT. hemocyte VILLAGE - NIGHT

The empty pole is lowered into the center of the village. A FURIOUS CORTMAN bellows orders to Eva and her warriors...

CORTMAN

FIND HIM!

A STRANGE SOUND- Everyone HEARS it. A SCREECHING. A RUMBLING. The walls of the village shake. Children run frightened to the shelter of their mothers' arms.

INT. VILLAGE - CAVERNOUS ROOM - NIGHT

Strapped down, in a weakened state, ANNA HEARS the SOUND, too. It's a familiar sound. No, it couldn't be...

INT. SUBWAY TUNNEL - NIGHT

The TRAIN ROARS down the tracks.

INT. SUBWAY TRAIN - NIGHT

Neville at the controls, pushing the machine forward.

INT. HEMOCYTE VILLAGE - NIGHT

Eva and a few Warriors run to the center TRACK. She presses her ear to the rail and cannot believe what she hears. She looks to Cortman with astonishment...

He knows what's coming...

CORTMAN

Neville.

INT. SUBWAY TRAIN - NIGHT

Neville peers through the motorman's window. There's the village, dead ahead. He HITS THE BRAKES...

INT. HEMOCYTE VILLAGE - NIGHT

The TRAIN BURSTS through a pile of debris, flattening a few Hemocyte warriors and SCREECHES to a stop. Thirty, fifty descend upon the lead car.

A passenger door HISSES open and out steps Neville. And his machine gun. He OPENS FIRE, cutting through the attackers. He HEAVES the first PIPE BOMB...

IT EXPLODES WITH WHITE LIGHT. Not a damaging blast, but the CHEMICALS BURN with a WHITE HOT INTENSITY. He throws another, and another, and another. Soon the center area is bathed in a BRILLIANT GLOW.

The light blinds the Hemocytes. They SCREECH and run for cover. More significantly, the sight of Neville terrifies them. For many of them, it's as if the Devil has been resurrected and he's come for retribution. Mothers lead children into the rafters, nurses and clerics pray and flee.

CORTMAN

NO! NO!

Eva and the Warriors will fight. If they could only see. Blindly, they move toward the train. Neville tosses a BOMB at the base of the stairs, clearing a path. He grabs two bombs and RUNS, firing the machine gun only when necessary. He throws a tackle into a Hemocyte Warrior, uses the butt of the gun on another, and makes it up the stairs.

INT. CAVERNOUS ROOM - NIGHT

Neville BURSTS into the space, brandishing his weapon. It's Nurses and Clerics in here, and they're petrified. They HISS and SCREECH, but they're not the fighting type.

Neville searches bed after bed. Children. old men, wrinkled women. Glassy-eyed, empty faces. And then he finds Anna. He kneels beside her bed and rips out the I.V.

Not completely drugged, her sad eyes find his and search for compassion, for understanding.

Neville pulls out the combat knife...

... and hurriedly cuts through her bonds.

NEVILLE

Can you walk?

ANNA

I think so...

He hands her a GUN.

NEVILLE

Take this.

Neville frees her brother. Anna takes Ethan in her arns and hugs him dearly. Neville frees another CHILD, and ANOTHER. They're somewhat conscious and stumble to their feet.

NEVILLE

We have to go.

MAN'S VOICE

Neville.

Neville turns, ready with the machine gun... It's Christopher. Neville hesitates. Finger on the trigger...

CHRISTOPHER

Take the children. The others are too

weak. You'll never make it.

TALONS emerge from Christopher's fingertips. And he SLICES the bonds of another child. Neville lowers the gun.

CHRISTOPHER

We shall have to find another way.

Neville, Anna, and Christopher free the children. About a dozen in total. HEMOCYTE WARRIORS appear at the door.

Neville sees them and ROLLS a PIPE BOMB right at them. It EXPLODES, sending them flying and flaming into the air. The room CATCHES FIRE. Neville lifts a WEAK CHILD into his arms and heads for the stairs. Anna urges the children to follow.

INT. HEMOCYTE VILLAGE - NIGHT

The area is still bathed in phosphorescent glow. Neville THROWS another BOMB, again clearing a path. He and Anna usher the children past BLINDED HEMOCYTES into the train.

INT. SUBWAY TRAIN - NIGHT

Neville and Anna lie the children on passenger seats in the second and third cars. When Neville opens the door to the third, he comes face-to-face with a HEMOCYTE WARRIOR.

Although unable to see, the creature fiercely latches onto Neville. The children SHRIEK. The machine gun falls from Neville's grasp and he struggles to reach a handgun in his belt. The Hemocyte raises his talons...

BLAM! Anna fells him with a single shot to the heart. Neville pushes the body out of the train and seals the doors. As Anna secures the children, Neville runs to the motorman's booth. As the glow from the bombs diminishes, Hemocytes storm the train. As their angry fists POUND against the windows, Neville gets the train the hell out of there.

INT. HEMOCYTE VILLAGE - NIGHT

A FIRE RAGES in the cavernous room. Christopher and a few others manage to flee... The HEMOCYTE CHILDREN huddle in the dark, terrified by the nightmare, hiding from the bogeyman.

INT. SUBWAY TUNNEL - NIGHT

The TRAIN ROARS away from the village.

INT. SUBWAY TRAIN - NIGHT

Anna makes her way to Neville and, weak, collapses. He catches her and sits her on a bench.

NEVILLE

How do you feel?

ANNA

I'll be fine.

NEVILLE

(re the children)

Are they okay?

She nods.