Unbroken

1 EXT. OCEAN 1

We are panning, from high, a horizon that is water, all

water, a world of water. It is softly, warmly lit.

We are starting to hear the distant thrum of engines.

Our high sweep of the planet has brought into frame the sun,

big, red, rising, just at the horizon.

The engine noise approaches, louder, and is now

distinguishable as being many engines not one.

Our continuing pan brings into frame nine B-24’s in combat

wing assembly, speeding toward us.

2 INT. INSIDE THE LEAD AIRCRAFT 2

Close on the pilot, RUSSEL ALLEN PHILLIPS—“PHIL”.

Droning engines. Phil’s head bobs with the motion of the

plane.

The copilot:
HUGH CUPPERNELL. Scanning the sky for enemy

aircraft.

The top turret gunner: STANLEY PILLSBURY.

He looks out:
his view to one side, of the accompanying

planes on his wing, pans forward, over his own plane’s

cockpit and nose, to the ocean before us.

A point-of-view straight down at whitecaps racing underneath

us. The view is through the hatchmarks of a sight of some

kind.

Extremely close on a blinking eye.

Close on the bombardier, LOUIE ZAMPERINI. He raises his head

from his Norden bombsight, looks forward through the belly

bubble, squints at something dead ahead.

Above him, nose gunner ROBERT MITCHELL scans the sky.

3 Back to Phil, the pilot. He also reacts to something dead 3

ahead.

His view:
a small island in the middle of the vast ocean.

He speaks into his radio:

PHIL:

We. . . are. . . here.

Cup reacts, tensing after many soporific hours of flying.

1A

2

CUP:

At eight thousand feet; this is it

boys.

Stanley at the helm of his twin .50’s.

MAC, the tail gunner in firing position.

CLARENCE DOUGLAS and HARRY BROOKS, waist gunners, are ready.

HARRY:

You hit this one and drinks are on

me.

Louie:
His look drops back down into the bombsight.

Through the bombsight: the point-of-view starts straight

down, then tips slowly up to bring the oncoming island into

the crosshairs.

LOUIE:

I ain’t goin to a bar with you

“dame magnet”. You confuse all the

broads.

There is a landing strip on the island. Planes are parked to

the side of the landing strip. However nine zeros are

suddenly moving on the runway. Taking off one by one...

PHIL:

(radio voice)

Ya got it, Louie?

Louie is squinting down into the sight.

LOUIE:

Get your cameras boys, I’m gonna

light it up like Christmas!

PHIL:

Pilot to bombardier, your ship.

Phil flips a switch.

LOUIE:

Bombardier to pilot, roger.

The sky becomes a fury of color, sound and motion.

Louie keeps his focus below.

3

LOUIE (CONT’D)

Bombardier to crew, bomb bay doors

open.

We look down past racked bombs as the bay doors swing open,

showing ocean below.

HARRY:

Bay doors open.

4

WITHIN MOMENTS... 4

BANG! Superman is rocked by a flak explosion.

The sky fills with flak puffs and the plane rocks with shock

waves.

The CHUNK-CHUNK-CHUNK of holes being punched into the

fuselage.

Stanley gripping his machine guns, pivots his turret as the

plane bucks. He can see nothing except white puffs of flak

bursting close by.

Louie is being bounced around, he loses the target, he tries

to find it again, staying focused.

Dull BOOM—the bomber on his wing breaks apart in its midsection

and falls away trailing smoke.

Louie’s look follows the bomber as it falters, and disappear

under Superman's wing.

At last, Lou has his aim.

Louie releasing bombs. Looking down through the bay as the

bombs fall away.

A knot of planes and structures beside a runway EXPLODE.

The Superman passes over a set of red-roofed barracks and an

antiaircraft battery, Lou's second and third target. He

lines them up and watches the bombs crunch into the buildings

and battery.

LOUIE:

(quietly to himself)

There you are...

Louie takes a deep breath and takes aim. He fires. The bomb

falls clear and Lou turns the valve to close the bomb bay

doors.

LOUIE (CONT’D)

Bombs away. Bombardier to pilot,

your ship.

PHIL:

Pilot to bombardier, roger.

4

Outside there is a pulse of white light and an orb of fire:

Lou made a perfect drop… the shack was a fuel depot which

further destroys the island's phosphate.

PHIL (CONT’D)

Just like Christmas.

5

EXT. SUPERMAN 5

Superman turns toward home. Planes behind begin to follow

suit.

6

INT. SUPERMAN 6

Louie watches as a vast cloud of smoke billows upward.

When the smoke clears-- A Zero is flying aggressively right

towards the Superman. Right toward Louie.

Mitchell (above Louie) begins to fire. The Zero fires back.

Louie reacts as bullets pierce the bombardier’s bubble. He

tenses, not sure which way to lean, in the completely exposed

space. Mitchell’s bullets hit the Zero.

Louie grabs a photo taped to the now-broken glass and jams

it in his pocket. (We will later know the importance of this

picture) He grumbles as he starts crawling out of the belly:

Louie crawls out from his position into the center of the

plane.

Mac is firing at two Zeros.

Harry is firing at another.

Stanley is firing at a couple more.

Suddenly- CRACK. A bullet hole opens in the bubble just

behind his head. He turns.

A Zero is on his other side bearing in on him at 45 degrees,

guns firing.

Much firing, inside and out. Bullets chink through the metal

of the plane.

Stanley keeps firing.

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