INTERFACE
Page 1
Panel 1 – Establishing shot of CIA headquarters. Here’s a link to the “virtual tour” on the CIA’s website which has pictures of the exteriors of both the New and Original Headquarters Buildings:
http://www.cia.gov/cia/information/tour/tour.html
Either one is fine with me. If you can find other pictures to use, go for it. It’s a bright, sunny day. Early afternoon, just after one o’clock.
Caption: LANGLEY, VA.
Caption: CIA HEADQUARTERS.
Caption (Secretary): “DIRECTOR GILLMAN? GENERAL MILLER HERE TO SEE YOU.”
Panel 2 – Inside the office of Deputy Director (Operations) Frederick Gillman. It’s a mid-size office, about what you would expect for a senior vice-president. Large desk of cherry wood with an old high-backed, leather chair behind it. Two “guest” chairs on the other side of the desk. One on wall is a row of bookcases. Along the wall opposite the bookcases is a sofa with a small coffee table before it. There’s a coat rack by the door, a lightweight trench coat hanging from it, an umbrella leaning up against it. In a corner by the door stands an American flag. The office is neat and orderly, a place for everything and everything in its place. I point all of this out for reference. You don’t need to show everything. We’re looking from behind and slightly off to one side of Gillman as he stands to greet General David Miller. Miller wears his dress greens with his full salad bar of decorations over his left breast and four gold stars on each epaulet. His cap is tucked under his left arm. A white man in his early fifties, Miller is tall and stocky, with thinning gray hair and a square face with hard features. His back is ramrod straight. Gillman is in his early forties, white, with dark hair and eyes. He’s of average height and slender, a runner. He has on a nicely-tailored light-gray suit. In the background, Gillman’s secretary, a middle-aged woman with poofy white hair and a plain, dark-blue dress, pulls the door closed behind her.
Gillman: AFTERNOON, GENERAL. GOOD TO SEE YOU.
Gillman: LET ME GUESS, THE ORACLE.
Miller: WHAT ELSE?
Panel 3 – Looking over Miller’s shoulder at Gillman, now seated behind his desk, a wall of windows behind him. The desk is neat and orderly, like the rest of the office. There’s a manila file folder on the desk in front of him. Maybe we can see some pens and pencils in a coffee mug or a framed photograph, too. Gillman gestures toward the file folder.
Gillman: OKAY, WELL, I’VE HAD THE GUYS FROM S & T TAKING A LOOK AT YOUR REPORT, AND—
Miller: FRED, THOSE ARE HARD FIGURES. WITH A SUPERCOMPUTER THAT POWERFUL IT’S ONLY A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE THEY’RE ABLE TO BREAK OUR ENCRYPTION ALGORITHMS.
Panel 4 – Medium shot of Gillman as he opens the file and starts reading from it.
Gillman: RIGHT …“FUKURO DAI-SAN’S ORACLE HAS UNSURPASSED COMPUTATIONAL AND PREDICTIVE CAPABILITIES. ON THE INITIAL LINPACK BENCHMARK TESTS—“
Miller (off-panel): YES, THANK YOU. I’VE ALREADY READ THE PRESS RELEASE.
Panel 5 – Gillman’s POV as Miller scowls at him.
Miller: THIS THING’S A GENERATION BEYOND CRAY’S BLACK WIDOW SYSTEM, AND CRAY DOESN’T EXPECT TO HAVE THAT UP AND RUNNING FOR ANOTHER SIX MONTHS. I DON’T KNOW HOW, BUT THESE BASTARDS STOLE THE TECHNOLOGY AND RAN WITH IT.
Gillman (off-panel): STOLE, GENERAL? I THINK THE TERM YOU’RE LOOKING FOR IS REVERSE ENGINEERING.
Panel 6 - Side view of the two of them, Miller on the left, Gillman on the right.
Miller: I DIDN’T COME HERE TO ARGUE SEMANTICS WITH YOU. SOMETHING NEEDS TO BE DONE ABOUT THIS, AND SOON.
Gillman: I AGREE, WHICH IS WHY WE’VE GOT AN OPERATION IN THE WORKS TO…ACQUIRE…THE TECHNOLOGY.
Miller: REALLY? AND WHEN IS THIS OP SUPPOSED TO GO OFF?
Page 2
Panel 1 – Okay, here we’ve got a nice shot of the skyline of Tokyo. A web search should turn up some nice pictures if you need a reference. It’s night (or early morning, depending on how you want to look at it), just after three A.M. local time, still plenty of lights on around the city, though. Featured in the center of the panel is a tall corporate building, all glass and chrome: the corporate headquarters of Fukuro Dai-San.
Caption: TOKYO, JAPAN.
Caption (Gillman): “OH, RIGHT ABOUT NOW, ACTUALLY.”
Panel 2 – We’re in the lobby now, looking down slightly at the security station: a reception desk sitting before a bank of security monitors. The guard’s chair is empty, the guard lying unconscious on the floor. All we can see of the guard is his feet sticking out from behind the desk.
Caption (Miller): “YOU SEND THAT ‘SPECIAL’ TEAM OF YOURS? THE ONE I'M NOT SUPPOSED TO KNOW ABOUT?”
Caption (Gillman): “SPECIAL. YES, THAT’S A GOOD WAY OF PUTTING IT.”
Caption (Miller): “YOUR LITTLE EXPERIMENTS BETTER BE ABLE TO DO THE JOB.”
Panel 3 – CU on the bank of security monitors, showing various locations in the building. In the monitor in the center of the panel, we’re seeing the exterior of the room that contains the Oracle, looking at the closed doors and the hallway outside the room. We see two members of our team, Jake Fowler and Inanna Grzesiak, standing before the door, their backs to us. On either side of the door is an unconscious guard, one lying face down on the floor, the other slumped down along the wall next to the door. At this point there’s not much detail, just vague figures.
Caption (Gillman): “WELL, TECHNICALLY IT WAS THEIR PARENTS THAT WERE EXPERIMENTED ON.”
Caption (Gillman): “TRUST ME, GENERAL, WITH THEIR… ABILITIES …THEY’RE THE MOST QUALIFIED PEOPLE FOR THIS OP.”
Panel 4 – Now we’re actually in the hallway with the two of them as they’re standing before the door. This is a side view of them, the door on the right side of the panel. Inanna is in foreground and has her hand on the locking mechanism-panel-thing next to the door. She’s short and curvy, with Mediterranean features, long, dark hair pulled back into a ponytail. Her eyes are closed and there’s an energy distortion field around her hand on the lock as she “tells” it to open the door. As the door slides open, Jake, standing beside her in the background, has his arms spread wide, grandiosely. He’s tall and thin with a long, narrow face. His hair, a crew cut, is so blonde as to be almost white. They’re both wearing black military fatigues with web gear, pistols in holsters, Jake with an MP-5 sub-machine gun slung over his shoulder.
Caption (Gillman): “THE TEAM’S LEADER, INANNA GRZESIAK, HAS THE ABILITY TO INTERFACE WITH ANYTHING THROUGH TACTILE CONTACT. SHE TOUCHES SOMETHING, SHE CAN SEE HOW IT WORKS, AND CAN CHANGE IT TO SUIT HER WISHES.”
Jake: OPEN SAYS-YOU.
Panel 5 – Inside the Oracle room, looking out at the two of them standing side by side, Inanna on the left, Jake on the right. Inanna looks at him sourly.
Jake: WHAT?
Caption (Miller): “WHO ELSE?”
Caption (Gillman): “JAKE FOWLER AND HIS TWIN BROTHER ISAAC. THEY—”
Panel 6 – Same shot. Inanna walks into the room, heading off the left side of the panel so that all we see is one side of her. Jake sticks his tongue out at her back.
Caption (Miller): “WAIT, JAKE FOWLER?”
Caption (Miller): “THE SAME JAKE FOWLER THAT GOT KICKED OUT OF SEAL TEAM SIX?”
Inanna (off-panel): I SAW THAT.
Panel 7 – Looking from behind them as Jake follows Inanna into the room.
Caption (Gillman): “YES, THAT ONE. I’LL ADMIT, HE CAN BE A PAIN IN THE ASS.”
Jake: NO YOU DIDN’T.
Jake: DID YOU?
Caption (Miller): “YOU HAVE A KNACK FOR UNDERSTATEMENT.”
Page 3
Panel 1 – Cut to the parking garage in the basement of the building. Nice wide view, concrete pillars here and there, a stray car or two, focusing on a light-colored panel van backed into its parking space along the far wall.
Caption (Gillman): “PAIN IN THE ASS OR NOT, HE AND ISAAC ARE THE BEST PARAMILITARY OFFICERS I’VE EVER HAD. AND THAT’S INDIVIDUALLY. PUT THE TWO TOGETHER AND THEY’RE UNSTOPPABLE.”
Panel 2 – Inside the van now, we see Jake’s identical twin brother Isaac sitting in the passenger seat. His head is tilted slightly so he can talk to the man in the back of the van, yet still keep watch out the windshield. Isaac, wearing a similar outfit as the others, has a pair of pistols in their holsters underneath each armpit. In the back, kneeling over a large metal box (which we probably can’t see at this point) is Alex “Brick” Morgan. Brick, as his name implies, is a big, big man. Six-six, two-eighty and broad. He’s black with a neatly-trimmed beard and nearly-shaved head.
Brick: HEY, ‘ZAC, HAS INANNA SEEMED STRANGE TO YOU LATELY?
Isaac: I DON’T KNOW. NOT REALLY.
Isaac: WHY?
Caption (Gillman): “THERE’S A PSYCHIC BOND BETWEEN JAKE AND ISAAC. THEY CAN COMMUNICATE TELEPATHICALLY AND LEND THEIR STRENGTH AND SPEED TO ONE ANOTHER. PUT THEM TOGETHER, AND IT’S LIKE ONE PLUS ONE EQUALS SEVEN.”
Panel 3 – Flip the shot around so that now we have Brick in the foreground, kneeling over the large metal box—an EMP emitter. The box is maybe three feet long, a foot tall and a foot wide with a digital counter prominently on top. An access hatch is open, wires and circuits everywhere, as Brick fiddles with them, trying to get the thing set up. Jake is visible in the background, looking over his shoulder at Brick.
Brick: I DUNNO. SHE’S JUST BEEN ACTING ODD. HANGING AROUND WITH HER COMPUTERS SO MUCH SHE’S STARTING TO ACT LIKE ONE.
Brick: DOESN’T TALK MUCH, AND WHEN SHE DOES IT’S ALL KIND OF COLD, LIKE, YOU KNOW?
Caption (Gillman): “THEY’RE BACK-STOPPED BY ALEX MORGAN. CALLED BRICK, BECAUSE HE’S BUILT LIKE ONE AND AS TOUGH AS ONE.”
Panel 4 – CU on Isaac, his expression thoughtful, concerned.
Isaac: I SUPPOSE.
Isaac: I DON’T KNOW. YOU’RE CLOSER TO HER THAN I AM.
Isaac: YOU WORRIED ABOUT THE MISSION?
Panel 5 – Upshot of Brick, working on the EMP.
Caption (Gillman): “BRICK’S INCREDIBLY STRONG, HIS SKIN INCREDIBLY TOUGH. HE’S ALSO AN EXPLOSIVES AND HEAVY WEAPONS SPECIALIST.”
Brick: NO. MORE LIKE I’M WORRIED ABOUT WHAT THE MISSION’S GONNA DO TO HER.
Isaac (off-panel): SHIT.
Brick: WHAT?
Panel 6 – Looking over Isaac’s shoulder through the windshield as a Humvee with four Japanese soldiers has pulled up, maybe thirty feet away. The Humvee is directly in front of the van, perpendicular to it. One soldier exits from the passenger-side door.
Isaac: WE GOT COMPANY.
Page 4
Panel 1 – Cut back to the Oracle room. It’s a sterile, white room. Banks of computers and monitors line one wall. In the center of the far wall sits the Oracle, a large box-y supercomputer. (Check out www.cray.com for some pictures of supercomputers.) We’re looking from behind Inanna as she stands before the Oracle.
Panel 2 – Medium shot of Inanna as she puts her hand on the computer, accessing it. Her eyes are closed, her body going stiff. There’s the same distortion effect around her hand as before.
Panel 3 – She’s overwhelmed by the complexity of the computer. Her body is jolted, her eyes flying open, hand still glued to the machine.
Inanna: NNGH!
Panel 4 – CU of her face, her expression pained, her eyes having rolled up in the back of her head. In the background around her head, instead of the room, we see row after row of ones and zeroes or some other computer-type stuff (the data stream) to make it seem like she’s in the computer.
Jake (off-panel): INANNA?
Inanna: AHHH!
Jake (off-panel): INANNA!
Panel 5 – Jake hovers close to Inanna, afraid to touch her. She’s rigid, still connected to the Oracle.
Jake: C’MON, GIRL, TALK TO ME.
Inanna: TRICKLE SYNCH MECH…IMMERSION COOLING…MEMORY BOARDS IN BATH OF ELECTRICALLY INERT FLUID...
Panel 6 – CU on Jake, frowning off-panel at Inanna.
Jake: OKAY, TALK TO ME IN ENGLISH.
Jake (telepathically): ISAAC, INANNA’S GONE ALL WONKY ON ME HERE. WHAT’S YOUR STATUS?
Page 5
Panel 1 – Cut back to the parking garage as Isaac and Brick have stepped out of the van to engage the soldiers. Medium shot as Isaac punches out the soldier from the passenger side of the Humvee, Isaac’s fist coming right at us, the soldier’s head snapping around, spit spraying from his mouth.
Isaac (telepathically): UM, NOW’S REALLY NOT A GOOD TIME TO CHAT.
Panel 2 – Looking from behind and above Brick as he has reached down to grab the under-carriage of the Humvee and now flips it. Maybe we can see one of the soldiers diving out of the car to get away.
Brick: RRAAAGHH!!
Panel 3 – From the far side of the garage, another Humvee arrives with four more soldiers, the soldier in the passenger seat leaning out to fire his rifle at Isaac and Brick.
Panel 4 – The two of them fall back to far side of the van opposite the two Humvees. As he runs, Isaac has pulled out his pistols and fires at the new arrivals. He orders Brick back into the van.
Isaac: GET IN THERE AND GET THE EMITTER READY.
Isaac: WE NEED TO BE OUT OF HERE, NOW.
Panel 5 – Wide shot as Isaac fires at the soldiers from behind the cover of the van. The soldiers return fire. The second Humvee has pulled to a stop on the far side of the van, thirty or forty feet away.
Page 6
Panel 1 – Looking straight at Isaac sitting with his back against the van as he reloads his pistols. The open side door of the van is visible to his right (our left). Maybe gunshots are ricocheting off of the hood of the van.
Isaac: BRICK…?
Brick (from van): I’M MOVIN’ AS FAST AS I CAN.
Panel 2 – Looking past Isaac and the front of the van as three soldiers advance, two from the second Hummer, one from the first, firing as they go. Isaac, still hunkered down, has his eyes closed as he calls Jake.
Isaac (telepathically): JAKE, I NEED THE JUICE.
Panel 3 – Medium shot of Isaac, pistols held up in front of him. As Jake lends Isaac his strength and speed (maybe have some sort of effect around Isaac’s head, something on the order of Spider-Man’s spider-sense perhaps), Isaac’s eyes pop open, his expression intense.
Jake (off, telepathically): YOU GOT IT. GO.
Panel 4 – POV of the advancing soldiers as Isaac pops out from behind cover, a blur of motion as he blasts away with both pistols. (Maybe take this from behind the soldiers so we can see them getting hit.) Isaac’s mouth is curled up in a snarl.
Panel 5 – From behind Isaac as he runs toward the space between the two Hummers, both pistols pointed at the second Hummer as he shoots the two remaining soldiers from that Hummer.
Panel 6 – Isaac dives between the two Hummers, twisting toward the first one as he shoots the last two soldiers.
Page 7
Panel 1 – Okay, three panels on this page. This one is the “money shot” and takes up the top two-thirds of the page. Isaac stands amidst the dead soldiers, one pistol held up as he ejects the empty clip, the other one down by his side. Both barrels are smoking.
Panel 2 – The next two panels take up the bottom third of the page. In this panel, Brick climbs from the side door of the van, an M-16 in his hand. He calls to Isaac.
Brick: ALL RIGHT, WE’RE GOOD TO GO.
Panel 3 – Isaac jogs back to the van.
Isaac: GOOD, LET’S GET MOVING.
Isaac (telepathically): JAKE, WE’RE ON OUR WAY UP.
Page 8
Panel 1 – Back in the Oracle room. Medium shot of Inanna as she is still “downloading,” eyes still rolled back in her head, the data stream—the ones and zeroes or whatever—all around her.
Panel 2 – Same shot as Inanna finishes downloading. Her head lolls forward, her eyes back to normal. The data stream has trailed off, ending halfway down the panel so that the top half is the data stream, the bottom half is the actual room.
Panel 3 – Pull back so that as the connection is broken, her hand falls away from the computer and she slumps forward.
Inanna: UNNHH...
Panel 4 – Jake catches her before she can fall.
Jake: WHOA. EASY NOW.
Panel 5 – He lays her down.
Jake: INANNA?
Jake: C’MON, SWEETIE, TALK TO ME. YOU IN THERE?
Panel 6 – Looking over Jake’s shoulder as he touches her face. Her eyes open.
Jake: INANNA?
Jake: HEY…YOU ALL RIGHT?
Panel 7 – Same shot as she gives him a weak grin.
Inanna: I KNOW KUNG FU.
Jake: ALL RIGHT, VERY FUNNY.
Panel 8 – They both turn toward the door as Isaac bursts in, Brick right behind him.
Isaac: CAN WE GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE?
Page 9
Panel 1 – Cut to a shot of the roof of the building, giving us a good look at it, helipad off to one side, access door in middle of the shot.
Panel 2 – Close in on the access door as it bursts open.
Caption (Miller): “SO ONCE THEY’VE ‘ACQUIRED’ THE TECHNOLOGY, HOW DO THEY GET OUT OF THERE?”
Panel 3 – The four of them come through, Brick first, followed by Jake half-carrying Inanna, with Isaac trailing as he fires back into the stairwell.
Panel 4 – Pull back so we can see them clustered on the landing pad as a Black Hawk helicopter comes over the edge of the roof, a rope ladder dangling from the open cargo door.
Caption (Gillman): “ARMY SPECIAL FORCES BLACKHAWK.”
Panel 5 – Small panel. CU of Brick’s hand as he grabs the ladder.
Panel 6 – Pull back so we see Brick holding the ladder, surrounded by the others.
Brick: GRAB ON. ALL OF YOU.
Isaac: WHAT?
Brick: SHUT UP AND DO IT.
Panel 7 – Cut back to the shot of the access doorway as Japanese troops leapfrog through, firing.
Page 10
Panel 1 – Money shot. Nice big panel here. Troops’ POV as the helo pulls away, Brick firing back at the troops with his M-16 in one hand while dangling from the rope ladder by the other hand, Inanna on his back, Jake and Isaac grabbing him around the waist from either side.
Caption (Gillman): “THEY’LL RENDEZVOUS WITH THE U.S.S. OHIO.”
Caption (Gillman): “SHE’S READY FOR THEM, SUBMERGED JUST OFF THE COAST.”
Caption (Gillman): “GIVE IT A WEEK, GENERAL, AND YOU’LL HAVE THE KNOW-HOW TO BUILD ONE OF THESE THINGS YOURSELF.”
Panel 2 – Page-wide panel. Pulling back, now, so we get to see the roof of the building, the small figures of the soldiers standing around impotently as the helo flies off in the distance.
Caption (Miller): “YET THAT STILL LEAVES F.D.S. WITH THE TECHNOLOGY.”
Page 11
Panel 1 – Cut to parking garage, looking at the van, all shot up.
Caption (Gillman): “RIGHT, WELL, INCLUDED AMONG THE TEAM’S ORDINANCE IS AN EMP EMITTER, TIMED TO GO OFF AS SOON AS THEY’RE CLEAR.”
Panel 2 – Inside the van now, looking at the EMP emitter. The counter is at 0:01.
Caption (Gillman): “WE’RE NOT TAKING ANY CHANCES.”
Panel 3 – CU on the counter as it clicks over to 0:00.
Panel 4 – Exterior shot of building as the EMP goes off, electromagnetic waves pulsing out around the building.
Caption (Miller): “EMP? WITH WHAT RANGE?”
Panel 5 – Skyline of Tokyo, same shot as first panel on page two, only now, where there were lights before, everything is dark.
Caption (Gillman): “TWELVE BLOCKS.”
Caption (Gillman): “LIKE I SAID, WE’RE NOT TAKING ANY CHANCES.”
Caption: END.
mattkrizan.com