INNERSPACE

INT. HIGH TECH EXPERIMENT AREA

The LEADER is surprised.

LEADER

What's this?

INT 5

They're further along

than we thought.

CU - an empty beaker on a pad surrounded by exotic

equipment.

INT 5

...Looks almost ready to go.

A WALKIE-TALKIE SQUAWKS.

W/T (V.O.)

...response to door alarm...

LEADER

Time to go...(looks at the

beaker) It doesn't matter.

We have the PEM.

They turn and exit the room. As they do, the LEADER

notices Joe aimlessly examining the wall of equipment nearby.

Joe is really stoned...He's fooling with a control panel, flicking

switches on and off. He notices the INTRUDERS. Caught, he tries

to make the best of it. He smooths his hair, spins and comes

to a half-assed kind of attention. As he turns, he knocks some wildly

expensive piece of equipment to the floor. Joe grimaces and

straightens his tie, making it much worse. The LEADER comes close

to him, stares at him, thoughtfully. Joe blinks back, trying to

clear his head in case speaking is required...The leader looks at

the smashed equipment. Joe looks at it guiltily. The Radio SQUAWKS.

The Leader decides. Abruptly, he kicks the equipment

out of his way. It smashes against the back wall. Joe winces...the

Leader turns and stalks out of the room. Joe holds his attention

position for a moment, like a good scout, then seems

to find himself lost and alone in a room full of strange

equipment.

MAIN ROOM

OTHER INTRUDERS finish taking apart the equipment.

The LEADER addresses the crowd, a James Mason-ish

air about him.

LEADER

We must be off. Goodbye.

TECHS

Goodbye...Goodbye...

They all wish them goodbye...smiles and laughter

all around. The one who struggled steps forward.

He struggles again...

TECH 3

Who....are...you?

INTRUDER 5 just laughs, but the LEADER turns back to TECH 3.

LEADER

I'm ...your mother.

CLOSE UP - TECH 3

Stunned and confused...He shakes his head and blinks rapidly.

He rubs his eyes.

TECH 3'S POV

Before his eyes, the IMAGE OF THE LEADER shrinks down

and transforms itself into that of a grey haired old lady.

TECH 3 - can't believe it.

TECH 3

Mom...what are you doing here?

LEADER

Leaving, now go to sleep.

...all of you.

Some of them do. The INTRUDERS step back through

the door. The TECHS look at each other blankly. Then they look

at the ceiling ...the walls...their shoes, anything. In the video

monitoring section, others watch the INTRUDERS leave on SCREENS...Their

faces register nothing. The LEADER pauses...A final

command...

LEADER

Give me the surveillance camera videotapes.

The video tech does.

INT LAB - HOURS LATER

FRANTIC - Crawling with security people.

The scene of the crime. No clues. No leads. A Security

Man, FINNEGAN, interrogates the techs...

FINNEGAN

...Well who did it look like?

Tech 3 squirms in his seat...embarrassed...humiliated.

He doesn't answer..The interrogator stands over him,

intimidating. Finally, defiantly, the tech states the ludicrous.

TECH 2

My mother.

INT. CONTROL ROOM

COLIN walks up to the CHIEF DETECTIVE. He shrugs. In B.G.

through a glass partition...and on TV monitors, other security

men question other techs.

FINNEGAN

Who'd it look like to you?

TECH 1

My dog.

COLIN turns to the detective.

FINNEGAN

Mass hypnosis. Short term memory loss.

Some kind of hallucinogenic gas...

MYER

Kind of stuff the army's been working on.

COLIN

Surveillance Cameras?

FINNEGAN

They took the tapes.

COLIN

You have nothing...

FINNEGAN

We don't even know where

to start. What about these people?

What do we do with them?

He indicates glass wall through which they can see the

bystanders, including Joe, being questioned one at a time..

Joe looks a little queasy. He burps...an uneasy stomach.

COLIN

We'll have to let them go.

FINNEGAN

Surveilliance on them all.

COLIN looks uncomfortable at the thought. Tech 2 steps through a

door and catches his eye. He excuses himself as the FINNEGAN

turns back to study his suspects in the window.

INT. LAB. - TECH 2 is panicked. He speaks quietly, intensely.

TECH 2

The P.E.M. It's gone...

They must have it.

COLIN

How did they know? No one knew.

TECH 2

Whoever has it, can leapfrog

generations of technology.

We gotta get it back.

TECH 3

Screw the PEM...What about Al...

TECH 2

Poor bastard.

AL - IN THE POD

fighting for his life. The pod is slammed and buffeted. Al

struggles with the controls as the POD tumbles..

AL

Come in, control...Do you read me?

Come in...damn!

He flips frantically through the controls.

AL

Okay guys, what's going on?

Who turned out the lights?

He tries one system, then the other.

AL

This wasn't in the plan.

Then it dawns on him: he may be in big trouble.

AL (resigned, professional)

Damn...10:03...Something's gone wrong.

Experiencing extreme turbulence. Unable

to control the capsule.. Appear to be

tumbling. Exterior envirnment dark.

Lost radio contact. Cause...unknown.

Power failure?.. maybe...an earthquake.

HE THROWS A SWITCH: SUCCESS! LIGHT FLICKERS ACROSS HIS FACE.

AL

Wait a minute...Got power...Going

to external floods....Holy...Shit!!!

THE POD - A different LAND...Turbulent, convulsive ...alive. THE

POD seems to drop through an enormous tunnel...like a marble in a

sewer. It churns in a mass of liquid. Semi-solid forms SLAM

against the housing and rush on. They are enormous forms...

balls, discs, rods...chains...They swirl in the ebb, then drop

away before us...WE TUMBLE, GLANCE OFF A WALL, SPIN TO SEE A NEW

WAVE DESCEND UPON US... AND . Al sets his thrusters at full

forward for maximum manoueverability in the flow and powers

through the vortexes...His voice is tight with effort, concern.

AL

Where in the....YEAOOOW!!!

THE BOTTOM DROPS AWAY. An abyss opens up before him.

THE POD - plunges through the hole and FALLS...FALLS...FALLS

INTO a smoking churning cavern. It hits the surface of something,

plunges through into the darker depths...of a ROARING, GROANING,

BUBBLING INFERNO....

INSIDE - AL has browned out from the impact. He now comes

around...dazed. He is once more in darkness...The dark masses

block his floodlights, throwing weird shadows...He switches over

to infrared imaging...

Infrared imaging displays THE ENVIRNMENT on his cockpit glass in

a HEADS-UP-DISPLAY.

AL

CHRIS, if this is one of your jokes....

SAN FRANCISCO. EXT. STREET - A WORKING-CLASS NEIGHBORHOOD -

A UNITED SYSTEMS TECHNOLOGY VAN pulls up.

INT. VAN - THE FINNEGAN DRIVES. JOE SITS CONFUSED in the

passenger seat.

FINNEGAN

Now remember, your short term

memory may have been affected.

JOE

What?

FINNEGAN

Your memory.

JOE

What about it?

FINNEGAN

It may have been affected.

JOE

Oh.

FINNEGAN

You may not remember things.

JOE

What things?

FINNEGAN

I don't know...the last couple

of hours...last few days.

JOE

Oh...that's okay.

FINNEGAN

When you do...

JOE

Do what?

FINNEGAN

When you remember...

JOE

Remember what?

FINNEGAN

Anything....You call us

right away. You got that?

JOE

Yeah. If I remember anything...

I call ...you

FINNEGAN

Right.

JOE

Who...are you?

FINNEGAN

Sergeant Finnegan. Name's

right there on the card. Are

you sure you're alright?

JOE

How do I look?

FINNEGAN

Fine. You look fine.

JOE

Thanks.

FINNEGAN

Well...

JOE

Well what?

FINNEGAN

We're here.

JOE

Here?

FINNEGAN

Home. Your home. The address

on your form.

JOE

Oh.

FINNEGAN

Don't you want to get out?

JOE

Oh....Sure.

FINNEGAN

Why don't you lie down until

you feel better.

JOE

I feel fine.

FINNEGAN

You'll feel better

JOE

I will?

FINNEGAN

Look, we'll bring your car home.

just take it easy until the effects

wear off. You need anything,

just call this number.

He offers him a card. Joe turns away.

FINNEGAN

Joe.

JOE

What?

FINNEGAN

Take the card.

JOE

Oh yeah, thanks...

The van pulls away. Joe turns, looks up at his apartment house,

seems to forget what he's doing...and wanders off down the

street. He acts strangely. There's an odd whistling in his ear.

INT. AL IN THE POD - INFRARED IMAGING - shows where he is...A

vast submarine cavern. He moves forward, swinging the POD in an

arc through the churning waters. He turns to his computers and

sensors for an answer.

MONITORS. - A diagram appears. A wire-frame representation of

Al's envirnment...

AL

What the hell is this?

He programs the computer to manipulate the image. The computer

program turns it inside out; gives it an external, omniscient POV

and we understand: It's a man. The pinpoint representing the POD

is in the stomach.