Planet of the Apes Page #4

30THE TWO CLOCKS - FROM TAYLOR'S P.O.V.

Both clocks have stopped: the red needle of the clock labeled SELF

TIME rests on the numeral 18; the red needle of the clock marked

EARTH TIME rests on the numeral 3975.

31EXT. TOP OF SPACECRAFT - MED. SHOT

Dodge inflates the raft with a cartridge of compressed air and

tosses it into the water. He and Landon jump into the water and

climb onto the raft as Taylor emerges from the hatch, Taylor slips

into the water and climbs onto the raft. He and Landon begin to

paddle toward shore, while Dodge immediately opens another kit and

takes a sample of the water.

32CLOSE ON THE MEN IN THE RAFT

DODGE:

(half to himself)

Briny...twenty-five percent salinity.

Near the saturation point.

LANDON:

(looking back)

She's still sinking...

33THE SPACESHIP - FROM THEIR P.O.V.

Only the radio antenna and the tip of the tail fin remain visible.

LANDON'S VOICE

(o.s.)

Going ... going...

The craft vanishes beneath the water.

34CLOSE ON THE MEN IN THE RAFT

Dodge is still busy with his kit. Landon is still looking back, but

Taylor doesn't bother to turn his head.

LANDON:

Gone.

TAYLOR:

(flatly)

We're here to stay.

35ANOTHER ANGLE - MOVING WITH THE RAFT

They gaze at the forbidding sandstone battlements as they near the

shore.

LANDON:

Well? Where are we? Have any notion,

skipper?

TAYLOR:

(confidently)

We're some three hundred and twenty

light years from Earth. On an unnamed

planet in orbit around a star in the

constellation of Orion.

(looks off at

the "sun")

That could be Bellatrix.

36THE SUN - FROM THEIR P.O.V.

Low on the horizon, seen through a dense envelope of dust particles.

DODGE'S VOICE

(o.s.)

Too red for Bellatrix.

37BACK TO ASTRONAUTS IN RAFT

Landon glances skeptically at Taylor.

LANDON:

You didn't have time to check the

tapes, so you don't really know,

do you?

(as Taylor ignores

him)

What went wrong?

(sardonically)

We weren't programmed to land

in water.

DODGE:

(grinning)

The question, Landon, is not so much

where we are as when we are.

TAYLOR:

(stands up in raft)

We've had a nice snooze. Let's start

earning all our back pay.

38WIDER ANGLE - THE BEACH

As the three astronauts step out into shallow water and pull the

raft ashore.

TAYLOR:

Take your soil test, Dodge. I'll

check the equipment.

Dodge moves inland about ten yards, removes a small hand drill

from his belt, extends the rod of the drill three feet and begins

to take some subsoil samplings. Taylor begins to examine the contents

of the three rucksacks. Landon sits down on the beach., hands around

his knees, gazing moodily at the sunken spaceship. During this and

succeeding scenes we sense that Dodge's obsession with scientific

inquiry leaves him immune to fear: Landon is possibly more courageous

and certainly more "human," for he has many fears to control: while

Taylor -- detached, cool and misanthropic -- is something of an enigma.

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