Tomorrow Never Dies

FADE IN ON:

EXT. DESOLATE MOUNTAIN RANGE - HIGH ANGLE - DAWN

Super:
THE KHYBER PASS, AFGHANISTAN

We're looking down at what used to be called "The End of the Known

World." A landscape that is both beautiful, and forbidding.

In the center of this vista, there is a deep ravine.

Pushing in on the ravine, there appears to be a giant icicle hanging

over a cliff:

AN ICE FALL. A 600 foot waterfall whose face is frozen solid.

Pushing in still closer, there is a tiny black dot inching its way up

the ice. A human figure. This is:

JAMES BOND, BRITISH SECRET SERVICE AGENT, 007.

Bond is sweating and straining, four hundred feet in the air. He has

an ice-pick tethered to each hand, ice-cleats on his boots. A black

backpack. As he climbs, spider-like, pulling himself up, he goes to

JAM A CLEAT into the ice, but -

CRACK! A 50 foot stiletto of ice breaks off, CRASHING onto the rocks

below. Regaining his foothold, Bond looks down: Certain death. He

looks up:
So very, very, far to go. Bond shakes his head:

BOND:

There has to be an easier way to earn

a living.

Still, Bond climbs. Huffing, sweating, he goes up, and up, until -

ANOTHER ANGLE -

He's 25 feet from the top. He drives a first ice pick in. Gets a

toehold. But when he slams the second pick in -

THE ICE WALL SHATTERS, FALLING AWAY IN FRONT OF HIM. IN THE SHOCK -

BOND LOSES HIS GRIP ON THE FIRST ICE PICK -

And 007 is now dangling, 575 feet in the air, staring at a torrent of

water - hanging only by the leather thread around his wrist, attached

to the first ice-pick, still embedded in the wall.

Bond pauses. Thinks. And coolly begins to swing himself back and

forth, in widening arcs, like a clock's pendulum.

At the high point of his swing, Bond reaches back to smash his other

pick into the ice - BUT MISSES. He looks up at:

THE FIRST ICE PICK, STILL EMBEDDED IN THE WALL -

Beginning to work its way out. The tether, fraying.

RETURN ON BOND -

Cautiously, 007 begins to swing a second time. Once. Twice. And on

the third arc, he swings the ice-pick viciously - but MISSES AGAIN.

ANGLE ON THE FIRST ICE PICK, STILL EMBEDDED IN THE WALL -

Now jutting downward, barely holding. The tether is almost totally

frayed through.

RETURN ON BOND -

One last chance. Bond swings. Once. Twice. He reaches back, hurls

himself at the wall, lunging - AND SMASHES THE SECOND PICK INTO THE

ICE... Just as the tether finally snaps on the first one. Still,

he's all but home: He reaches over, grabs the first pick (barely

holding in the ice,) jabs it in, and continues upward.

EXT. THE TOP OF THE WATER FALL -

Exhausted, Bond reaches up, over the edge. He drives a pick down -

through the ice, into the hard, flat, ground beneath the waterbed.

As he pulls himself up, (his full weight on the first ice-pick,) he

smashes a second pick through the ice, into the waterbed, and -

THE ENTIRE ICE FALL GIVES WAY -

Breaking off with a groan, tumbling onto the rocks below.

IN THE WATERBED -

A torrent of water crashes over 007. Fighting the oncoming deluge,

he crawls - on his belly - through the water - 25 feet inland.

NEW ANGLE - (TOP OF THE WATER FALL, INLAND)

Bond stands, walks out of the riverbed. He looks back at the cliff:

BOND'S POV - THE WATER FALL -

On either side of the water, there are two small RADAR DISHES, angled

down, scanning every inch of the area, save for the waterfall itself.

In other words:
This was the only way in.

RETURN ON BOND -

007 shrugs. From his backpack, he takes out TWO CIGAR-SIZED BLACK

CANISTERS, and an ELONGATED BLACK BOX. He presses a button on the

side of the box, and - fwap, fwap, fwap - SNOW SKIS unfold.

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