Against the Sun
1942. The South Pacific.
The New Year finds USS Enterprise
and her crew of 2,000 men
preparing to deliver greetings
to the Japanese
in the form of torpedo bombers
and fighter planes.
With last month's attack
on Pearl Harbor still fresh in the minds
they've decided that revenge
is a dish best served piping hot.
Chief, this is Aldrich.
I'm losing her on the ARA.
Come on, where are you goin'?
Chief, I've lost the beacon. Over.
Are we close, Chief?
I'll give him a tap,
maybe his com is down.
Chief, can you hear us? Over.
Loud and clear, boys.
Just waiting for this wind to tell me
which direction she wants to blow.
Pastula, take another drift set.
That's not how I'm reading those wave tops.
Yes, Chief.
15 degrees.
Same read as the outbound, Chief.
If that's correct...
she's off to the east. I had her west.
I'm taking her east.
Blue Base, this is 6-tare-14
requesting an inbound bearing, Over.
- Chief, you've broken radio silence.
- Affirmative. We need a bearing.
Confirm you're on 79.
7-niner confirmed.
I reckon we're still too far out.
Well, keep trying.
Blue Base 6-tare-14, do you read?
Come in, Blue Base, over.
- Chief.
- Go.
On the EMF, I heard Jap talk.
Pulled the plug.
- Roger that. Let's go silent on Morse.
- Silent on Morse, affirmative.
How are we on fuel, Chief?
Low.
Pastula, we need to make altitude.
Drop the ordinance.
Aye-aye, Chief. Bombs away.
- Aldrich, hit that MF.
- But the Japs, Chief.
Do it!
Blue Base, this is 6-tare-14,
do you read?
6-tare-14 to Blue Base.
Come in, Blue Base. Over.
Like hell she's east.
Enterprise, this is 6-tare-14,
do you read?
- Get on it, Aldrich.
- I'm on it.
We're out of range.
Boys, I got to put her down
before we run out of fuel.
Snug up your vests, stand by
for a water landing, understood?
You're kidding me.
- Affirmative, Chief.
- Pastula?
Yes, Chief?
Aldrich, gather the flares,
the smoke candles and the first aid kit.
We're gonna need the flashlight.
Pastula, grab the rations and the water
and ready the life raft.
Keep your heads, boys.
Pass this back!
- Got it.
- Coming through!
Grab a parachute!
- Parachute?
- Prepare to ditch!
Brace for impact!
- Pastula?
- Here, Chief.
- Aldrich?
- Here.
Step lively, boys.
Come on!
Chief!
No, no!
Damn thing won't inflate!
The valve is jammed. Train that beam.
Unship your weapons.
They're dragging us down.
I can't get it.
There goes mine.
Mine too. That makes a difference.
This damn thing.
Here it goes!
It's too heavy to lift.
Maybe if we...
Aldrich!
You get trapped under there again,
just deflate the vest a little bit
swim down and out, understood?
I can't swim much.
You're kidding. You?
Not really, Chief. No!
For crying out...
Okay.
This is gonna be hard to turn over
in these swells.
We take off our vests,
string them together,
tie one on here and throw the other across.
Then we go around and pull.
- Good idea.
- Except neither one of you can swim.
Just have to hold tight
to the handrail, real tight.
- Okay. Let's give it a go.
- Yeah.
Here.
All right. Okay.
Go around, then I'll toss it over.
- Okay. Ready?
- Yeah.
Here it comes!
- You got it?
- All right. We got it.
All right, get a grip
and heave like you mean it.
One, two, three!
Come on.
Hold it down. I'll go around
Come on.
Kippers in a can got more space.
Let's try laying athwart.
Aldrich, I think you already
strapped in when I was on deck.
Didn't get a good look at you.
Harold Dixon.
Gene Aldrich.
You'll get a gander in the morning,
Chief. I'm sure I'll be here.
Pastula, is that Italian?
- Polish, Chief.
- Polish.
I've made a couple of hops
with you before.
Oh, yeah? I don't remember.
We'll be picked up come morning,
you reckon, Chief?
That's what I'm hoping.
- Hoping?
- We got procedures for this.
Come early morning,
they'll be on us like an old hound dog.
It was so damn hot inside that plane.
It's freezing down here.
Cock-a-doodle-doo, boys.
Well, we made it.
I was worried she wouldn't keep us
afloat, but she's still ship-shape.
Thank God.
Gene Aldrich, now I know you.
I couldn't put a face in the name.
In all my glory, Chief.
All right, who's up
for a fresh cup of coffee?
Hen-Ry! I'm gonna put on the pot.
All right, yeah.
- Thanks, Henry.
- Henry? Why Henry?
Oh, it's that show, you know,
off the radio?
Hen-Ry! Henry Aldrich!
Chief, when you said you were gonna land
in the drink, I thought, boy, this is it.
- Thought I couldn't land her?
- Wasn't that some flying?
I mean, he just laid her right down.
Yeah, he sure did.
You know, Aldrich, I've been wondering,
I don't understand
how you couldn't raise that carrier.
We couldn't have been more
than 20 miles out at one point.
Even at 40,
should have caught something, right?
You tell me, Chief. How far out were we?
We should keep our eyes peeled, right?
That's right. Everybody take a point.
We need to cover 360.
Good visibility.
Yeah, they'll check
every square mile out here.
It'll take a while,
but they'll do it, won't they?
Right, even if it takes all day
or into tomorrow.
Yep. Could take most of a day.
They'll do a box out to 50.
Well, even 100. They got the vis.
Divide that by the number of planes,
heck, it's likely to be this morning.
Maybe we'll get a real breakfast, Chief?
You figure we'll see 'em first
or hear 'em?
You see that speck?
That's a bird.
It ain't moving its wings.
Wait.
That's something all right.
Steady on our course, whatever...
That's one of ours.
- Hey! Hey!
- Get down!
Low down!
You got plenty of time to drown.
- That thing is an SPD.
- She's on a bearing.
About 140 knots, half a mile out.
Pastula, grab the parachute,
spread it on the water.
- Chief?
- No parachute.
- Aldrich, how about those flares?
- I couldn't hold them, Chief.
Well, wave something!
Look down here! What, are you blind?
Sun's behind you. Check your 3:00.
Down here!
- Over here!
- Down here!
Look here.
Come on. Where... where you going?
No, no, no, where...
We're over here!
Come on.
Over here.
That was our one and only chance.
- What?
- That was our search.
What do you mean?
They can't just leave us here.
Could be he saw us
and he's going back for help.
Why didn't he break course?
'Cause he's on a box search is why.
Next pass, he'll be out of sight.
Well...
well, maybe there'll be more planes
double-checking or ships?
What the hell are they telling you
in boot camp?
We are at war, Aldrich.
We're in the vicinity
We get one quick look, at best.
Like you said, there's a procedure.
All right.
No parachute or flares.
I don't suppose
the chart board made it either?
Affirmative.
- First aid kit?
- Everything's gone, Chief.
Including the rations and water.
Oh, God.
I don't get it,
I give the orders in plenty of time
so I could get busy with the landing,
Translation
Translate and read this script in other languages:
Select another language:
- - Select -
- 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
- 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
- Español (Spanish)
- Esperanto (Esperanto)
- 日本語 (Japanese)
- Português (Portuguese)
- Deutsch (German)
- العربية (Arabic)
- Français (French)
- Русский (Russian)
- ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
- 한국어 (Korean)
- עברית (Hebrew)
- Gaeilge (Irish)
- Українська (Ukrainian)
- اردو (Urdu)
- Magyar (Hungarian)
- मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
- Indonesia (Indonesian)
- Italiano (Italian)
- தமிழ் (Tamil)
- Türkçe (Turkish)
- తెలుగు (Telugu)
- ภาษาไทย (Thai)
- Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
- Čeština (Czech)
- Polski (Polish)
- Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
- Românește (Romanian)
- Nederlands (Dutch)
- Ελληνικά (Greek)
- Latinum (Latin)
- Svenska (Swedish)
- Dansk (Danish)
- Suomi (Finnish)
- فارسی (Persian)
- ייִדיש (Yiddish)
- հայերեն (Armenian)
- Norsk (Norwegian)
- English (English)
Citation
Use the citation below to add this screenplay to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Against the Sun" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 4 Oct. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/against_the_sun_2321>.
Discuss this script with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In