F A L
L I N G S
T A R
by
A.E. Stewart
No portion of this script may be performed, reproduced, or
used by any means, or quoted or published in any medium without the prior
written consent of Gentleman Loser Films.
1 EXT. FIELD OF STARS
Looking
up at the night sky, to a deep field of stars.
DISSOLVE
TO:
Further
back. Steel lines obscure the vision. A series of dissolves takes us further
back. The lines are steel girders, holding up sheets of glass providing the
roof for an enormous TRAIN STATION.
DISSOLVE
TO:
2 INT. TRAIN STATION - NIGHT
ANNA,
a young woman, looking upwards at the sky, in the middle floor of the way
station, from behind.
CUT
TO:
We
gaze down on her face. Looking skyward.
CUT
TO:
2a INT. TRAIN STATION - NIGHT
Anna
waits on a platform for a train to appear.
The
train comes thundering in, a blur of noise and speed.
CUT
TO:
3 EXT. EARTH’S ORBIT
Slowly,
a large TUGBOAT spaceship rumbles past, matching the train’s direction and
angle.
The
camera pans down as the ship passes by, down on a blue Earth and the blackness
beyond.
CUT
TO:
4 INT. TUGBOAT - CONTROL ROOM
A
ramshackle, retrofitted, claustrophobic control room. Panels and video displays
take up every available space, and seats and controls jut out at odd, opposing
angles. No up, no down.
Anna
sits at one control panel. Dark hair tied back, pulled taught across her face.
She is somewhat younger looking and wears loose, functional clothing, full of
straps and clips to which are attached various tools and hooks.
PETROVSK,
the Tugboat pilot, sits at a main control. His seat overlooks unwieldly looking
controls and excessive video panels crammed with instrumentation. Slightly
balding, he is attached by some sort of wiring to the ship itself.
BRANDT,
Anna’s partner, floats behind them, checking some sort of display against a
wall. He is tall and wiry, with dark hair and wolfish features.
Petrovsk
turns to his display screen and adjusts. One by one, faces in different rooms
appear in windowed boxes on his screen. He addresses the monitors.
CUT
TO:
4a INT. TUGBOAT - CONTROL ROOM - PETROVSK’S SEAT
PETROVSK
Gentlemen, today’s auction promises to be interesting - in a
manner far greater than you might be accustomed to. Today, we are not pillaging
antique communications satellites. Today, we make history.
CUT
TO:
4b INT. TUGBOAT - CONTROL ROOM - AUCTIONEER’S DISPLAY
Rack
focus on Petrovsk turning to the monitors and a slow zoom to the display. Names
and faces in cities around the world: The Gagarin Cosmonaut Center, The Gates
Industrial Design Museum, The Babbage Heritage Institute, Marius Nodwelder,
private collector, Cape Canaveral Theme Parks, Ltd., The Ballard Institute of
Spatial - Temporal Psychopathology.
PETROVSK
(cont.)
Many years ago, a Cosmonaut from the Eastern European Space
Agency was stranded aboard a small space station. While in orbit, the
government of the nation from whence he came toppled. And as all eyes turned to
Earth, he was forgotten. As his government struggled to fund military
operations and survive a coup, they didn’t have the resources, time, or money
to retrieve him. For two years he orbited, alive, running out of oxygen
filters, food, and water to maintain the station and his life. In the ensuing chaos
on Earth, he was lost and forgotten. Today, my crewmen will board his station
and while you watch on your video feeds, retrieve equipment, uniforms,
technology, and paraphernalia representing the unique history of man in space.
Invaluable.. And as such, bidding starts at 5 million ACU’s. As we near the
station, I will keep you informed of our progress. Wait for my call.
Petrovsk
punches a button which clears all the faces from his screen.
CUT
TO:
4c INT. TUGBOAT - ANNA’S STATION
Anna
peers out a small, square window into space. She sees the station, a speck of
white against the infinite black.
CUT
TO:
5 INT. TRAIN - NIGHT
Anna
peers out her window, gazing at the landscape rushing by, lit blue by late
summer’s dusk.
She
reaches for her oversize, black case. Fingers the clasps, and opens.
She
peeks inside.
Close
on her eyes now. Something abstract reflected in there.
She
closes the case again. She slams down on one latch…
CUT
TO:
6a INT. TUGBOAT - HANGAR
And
in one other instant she slams down a clip which holds her helmet in place.
She
is in a small, curved chamber. At both ends are large mechanical doors.
She
punches controls on a panel. The white ambient glow of her surroundings turns
to sharp, iridescent red.
She
opens her mouth…
Breathes
deep.
We
hear it through the hiss of her suit’s oxygen controls.
And
a rush of air outside her as the airlock purges all oxygen as she floats still,
arms outraised.
The
doors at the end of the chamber slide open, a glimpse into the vastness beyond
and…
CUT
TO:
7 EXT. SMALL TRAIN STATION - NIGHT
Hiss
of air and sharp mechanical noise as the sliding door on the train opens and
she emerges. She walks across a mostly deserted, spartan train station, all
dark greys and concrete, towards the doors outside.
She
stops and looks at an enormous red LED display reading the time.
CUT
TO:
8 INT. SUBORBITAL SALVAGE UNIT
A
time display, running down.
Anna
is locked into a device which envelops her heavily protected space suit. Clamps
hold her down and an array of controls suspend themselves on thin wires all
around her peripheral vision. The glass of her shielded helmet reflect the
array of displays and information being projected at her.
The
slow rasp of her breath is one of the only sounds we hear. She seems
comfortable and filled with purpose - she is part of the machine.
ANNA
Brandt, you out there?
BRANDT
(Over
radio)
On your three. Look right and look sharp.
Anna
looks right.
ANNA
I see you.
BRANDT
You don’t sound too good. This is gonna be a cinch. I think
five years of doing this is enough practice.
ANNA
Today’s different.
BRANDT
How so?
ANNA
This is first act of grave robbing ever committed in space.
This ain’t a pickup job. We’re going to a tomb.
BRANDT
Don’t worry about it. The sterility of those old stations,
though pretty bad, and the lack of heat, should keep our Cosmonaut frozen solid
and undecayed. You won’t even smell him, you know. I mean, come on. In two
millenia of human history no one’s proved ghosts exist on Earth, and I believe
that means space is no damn different. Nothing out here but us orbital rejects
and big, floating rocks.
ANNA
I’m telling you, this is different.
BRANDT
Clear Comms. Start punching your burn. We’re getting close.
ANNA
This is different…
CUT
TO:
9 EXT. SPACE - SUBORBITAL SALVAGE UNIT
The
insect like curve of her small, one man spaceship, propelling through the
darkness towards the station, even larger now. The SSU passes us by, another
off its right side, and the burn begins. Two single white lights shoot from
rear jets, flooding the screen.
CUT
TO:
10 EXT. OUTSIDE TRAIN STATION - NIGHT
The
lights of a passing taxi fills our vision, then subsides. Anna stands on a
curbside, waiting. She looks down the street one way, then the other, and
strolls through a quiet summer night past old houses, mostly with their lights
off. Another taxi begins to pass by, and she reaches her arm upwards to hail
it…
CUT
TO:
11 INT. SSU
Anna
contorts her arm, contained in some feedback mechanism.
Outside
the SSU, through Anna’s eyes, we see a robotic arm mimicking the motions of her
arm. It clamps down on a battered steel handle on the space station. And she
pulls.
CUT
TO:
12 INT. SPACE STATION
Darkness.
Then leaks of light as the door is ripped off the station. Flotsam stirs in the
arclight of Anna’s SSU.
Into
the small outer chamber glides in Anna, an arclight integrated into her helmet
providing dim light.
Her
eyes alight on a scrawled message, painted in glossy red across the interior
door of the airlock… Cyrillic letters. Anna translates.
ANNA
“Here lies me. Yuri Petrovich. I fell from Earth. My people
and government died with me. May I fall like a star someday, back to Earth.”
PETROVSK
(V.O.)
Gentlemen, our cameras relay to you the first message from
our fallen comrade. What awaits us inside? Did he go insane? Did he commit
suicide? What words lie in his private log, a reverie of loss and homesickness
for a vanishing nationality? Soon a select buyer shall know… I see a bid for…
CUT
TO:
13 INT. TAXI - NIGHT
TAXI
DRIVER
400 zlotys.
CUT
TO:
14 EXT. AVENUE - NIGHT
The
taxi pulls away from Anna on the curbside.
She
walks down the street.
She
approaches a withered Victorian house. Stands on the stoop. She rings the
doorbell.
A
light comes on above her…
CUT
TO:
15 INT. SPACE STATION
As
light fills our vision, fluorescent photofloods inset to the walls of a large
chamber burst into life.
Anna
floats in zero g. Apprehensive.
Large
portholes line the walls, offering a view of Earth below.
Lined
across the walls is a makeshift collage - daubed paint and thick glops of glue
hanging like spidery threads floating in zero gravity. Bolted down are
insignia, flags, papers, seals, and daubs of paint, running into each other,
each one a bright and fervent depiction of cities and places on Earth. Names go
with the pictures.
Where
I had my first kiss - a tree lined grove. Smeared greys give us the feeling of
rain.
Moscow
in winter - a barrage of white and architecture… Streaks of humanity in vivid
colors rushing by.
New
York at night - an orbital view - a field of bright pinpoints.
And
on and on…
Chaos
and love.
A
collage of loss and of being homesick.
Anna’s
breath grows louder and louder. Fills our ears as the only sound.
Set
in the middle of the room, a pedestal. Tied to it with flexible nylon cords,
hanging upwards, floating as a midpoint to the room, is his log.
Anna’s
hands lunge and she begins to read.
CUT
TO:
16 INT. TUGBOAT - PETROVSK’S STATION
Petrovsk,
eyes and mouth wide open. Staring at the image relayed from the camera inset in
Anna’s helmet.
PETROVSK
My god. Anna get out of there. Bidding is going through the
roof. Art museums are logging on.
ANNA
No. I have something to do.
BRANDT
This isn’t like you, Anna. Get out of there.
ANNA
No.
BRANDT
Is this the Anna I know?
CUT
TO:
17 EXT. VICTORIAN HOUSE - DOORSTEP - NIGHT
A
middle aged woman, peers at Anna.
ANNA
No. You don’t know me. It’s about your father.
The
woman lets Anna in. She closes the door. Anna looks down at the black case.
CUT
TO:
18 INT. SPACE STATION - COLLAGE CHAMBER
Anna
looks up from the log at the door at the far end of the chamber. More Cyrillic
lettering.
ANNA
“Here lies my body.
I died cold and lonely. Please do not gaze upon me. If an angel finds
me, bring me grace and fire and send me back to Earth, in the form of a falling
star.”
CUT
TO:
She
rips open a nylon webbing attached to her back and begins tearing the collage
from the walls, placing it into her salvage net.
Last
to go is the log, which she unhooks from its tether.
She
kicks against the wall and swims through air towards the airlock hatch.
CUT
TO:
19 EXT. SPACE - OUTSIDE STATION
Anna’s
vehicle holds steady just outside the airlock door by a robotic arm. Brandt’s
vehicle is nearby, patched by cables and robotic arms into the electrics of the
station.
Anna
awkwardly reaches into the SSU’s cockpit.
ANNA
Brandt, break free NOW!
CUT
TO:
20 INT. TUGBOAT - PETROVSK’S STATION
Petrovsk’s
eyes are peeled on a readout displaying ever blossoming bids of money and the
video feeds from Brandt and Anna. He looks between the two, nervously.
PETROVSK
NO!
CUT
TO:
21 EXT. SPACE - SPACE STATION
She
punches the throttle forward. The SSU’s engines light up…
From
inside Anna’s SSU we see the walls of the Station come slamming forward, steel
and chrome collapsing like paper beneath the SSU’s main engines.
The
station begins to pitch away from the SSU
The SSU starts to drift.
From
Anna’s POV we see the Earth rise and fall, in a spinning glimpse, back into
blackness, then again.
We
see her profile, lit by the reflection of blue of Earth below. Tears spill out
in zero g, floating away and breaking like tremendous explosions against her
glass visor.
Absolute
silence.
The
spinning slows.
The
tears blur our vision through the suit’s faceplate. Earth is an impressionist
collage once more, a home below. Then the spinning pitches our view back again,
into the deep black of space beyond…
CUT
TO:
22 EXT. NIGHT SKY - FIELD OF STARS
The
deep black again, seen from Earth.
CUT
TO:
23 EXT. VICTORIAN HOUSE - BACK GARDEN
Anna
and the middle aged woman stand side by side gazing into the night sky.
ANNA
It’s all there in the logbook. He wanted you to have the
paintings to remember him by, if such a thing could happen. And he wanted you
to see this.
WOMAN
What?
ANNA
Wait for it.
Once
again we gaze into the black…
CUT
TO:
24 EXT. SPACE - ANNA’S SSU
Unconscious
now. Eyes closed. Spinning slower.
Gently
a robotic arm grips the short umbilical lead on Anna’s waist and pulls her free
from the dead SSU.
The
Space Station falls towards Earth, slowly but perceptibly.
Brandt
heads back to the Tugboat in his SSU, Anna held in its robotic grasp.
CUT
TO:
25 INT. TUGBOAT - PETROVSK’S STATION
Petrovsk’s
face is red and violent. He gazes once more at the ever expanding money counter
marking highest bids.
A
pass across the windows of various bidders, each one reading an enormous
monetary offer.
PETROVSK
KILL HER! SHE JUST COST ME 45,253,000 ACU’s. She’ll have to
work for me for the next 8,965 years for free to pay that off!
CUT
TO:
26 EXT. SPACE - BRANDT’S SSU
From
Brandt’s POV. Looking at Anna, dangling like a child from the umbilical, set
against the space beyond.
The
SSU passes below us, into the space beyond, the crest of Earth to the left.
DISSOLVE
TO:
27 EXT. NIGHT SKY - FIELD OF STARS
One
last time, the empty sky, seen from Earth.
Anna
and the middle aged woman, holding their vision, eyes upwards, on the sky.
ANNA
This is your father’s final request. I wanted you to see it.
My actions sent the station into an orbital decay. Now, two years later, I am
brave enough to bring you what I stole. His log, his paintings. They are for
you, as he requested.
WOMAN
I understand, now. When?
ANNA
Watch with me. Wait for it.
WOMAN
Why did you do this? Do you believe in ghosts?
ANNA
No. But I know about being lonely. You just have to swim in
the dark above for a few days to feel what your father did.
Now
we look upon the night sky again.
A
streak of light flashes and runs through the blackness, heading towards Earth,
then extinguishes. In a split second. The sky is now empty and still. Burning
with the lost light of stars unimaginable distances from us.
ANNA
(V.O.)
Your father wrote. About what it’s like to see Earth from up
there. No lines, no boundaries. A whole. I know about that. Sometimes love has
to go abroad. So far away from Earth, you finally learn to love it. I hope it
was the last thing he saw.
END