Read THE GORGE screenplay for Free Online
Authors: Scott Nicholson
rain falls for a hushed moment.
Bowie leaps at Castle, fists clenched.
BOWIE
You shot him, you bastard.
CASTLE
(aims at Bowie)
Mercy kill. As many as I need.
Raintree pokes at the goregoyle with a paddle. Its limbs are twitching.
RAINTREE
Look at this.
DOVE
(looking through camera)
Its fingers are moving.
CASTLE
It’s going to fly away like the other one.
BOWIE
No. It’s changing.
The goregoyle turns pink, the color of a skinned pig—now it looks more humanoid, though its features are still shriveled.
DOVE
It’s human.
The wings collapse and the corpse begins to turn to gelatin. Its face folds in on itself, looking like sick cheese. Where rain hits the corpse, gray fluid spatters up.
Its legs move—Raintree and Dove jump back. Farrengalli comes out of the woods.
CASTLE
Whatever it was, it’s not human anymore.
FARRENGALLI
That’s one ugly fucker. Looks like Mick Jagger’s mummy.
BOWIE
We’ve got to get to the bottom of the falls before dark.
DOVE
What about Travis?
CASTLE
Leave him. It might slow them down if they’ve got food.
CUT TO:
EXT. RIVERBANK, FOOT OF THE WATERFALL.
Ace looks up at the top of the falls. He has a vision—the rain is red, clouds golden, the waterfall is like lava. Demons with scorched, screaming faces roil in the yellow-and-red fluid, reaching for the sky.
Clara grabs his shoulder and the vision dissolves. Now it’s just a waterfall. A backpack bobs down river below the falls.
CLARA
Look up there.
The group is heading down the side of the falls, carrying gear down the steep terrain, stumbling over slick rocks and hanging onto branches.
CUT TO:
EXT. RIVERBANK. EVENING.
C.A.’s corpse lies on the sandy bank under the thin blue blanket. Rain drums on it. The blanket twitches. Under the blanket, one of the arms lifts.
CUT TO:
EXT. FOREST TRAIL. EVENING.
It’s getting darker—the rain is falling harder. Dove and Bowie have moved together, Farrengalli and Raintree well ahead and Castle behind them. Bowie now has a thick walking stick. Dove slips and Bowie catches her before she takes a vicious tumble.
DOVE
Are we going to make it, Bowie?
BOWIE
I don’t know. Floods have changed the river since last time I was here.
DOVE
That’s not what I mean.
BOWIE
If those things find their prey using radar, we’re safer in the woods.
DOVE
That’s not what I mean, either.
BOWIE
Oh. This morning.
DOVE
Forget it.
BOWIE
Listen, if anything happens to me, Raintree is the only one you can count on.
DOVE
I wasn’t counting on you.
Dove hurries ahead, trying to catch up to Farrengalli and Raintree. Bowie is limping, slows. Suddenly—
SKEEEK . Branches snap overhead. Bowie drops his pack and crouches, trying to locate the attacker to his left.
FARRENGALLI
Bogie at twelve o’clock!
Farrengalli runs ahead, carrying the deflated Muskrat like a football. He disappears into the woods. Raintree and Dove stop. A second SKEEEK erupts to Bowie’s right.
BOWIE
Two of ‘em!
The creature to Bowie’s left breaks through the canopy, swoops down toward him. Another shriek, from behind Bowie, but this one is human. Raintree runs in with a sharpened wooden spear, emitting a Cherokee war whoop.
RAINTREE
Ai-eeeeeee!
The goregoyle spins in midair as if confused by the movement and the noise. Bowie, realizing the goregoyle is trying to home in on the new attacker, smacks his stick against a tree.
BOWIE
Come to poppa, you son of a bitch.
The creature turns toward Bowie again. Dove picks up a rock and hurls it at the creature. It missed, but the creature’s head turns and tracks the movement.
Raintree seizes the opening, leaps at it, and skewers it in the chest. The creature writhes and struggles, its weight forcing its torso deeper onto the spear. Gray fluid oozes from its wound and down the spear handle. Raintree struggles, brought to his knees by the weight of the creature.
The second goregoyle explodes from
Bowie leaps at Castle, fists clenched.
BOWIE
You shot him, you bastard.
CASTLE
(aims at Bowie)
Mercy kill. As many as I need.
Raintree pokes at the goregoyle with a paddle. Its limbs are twitching.
RAINTREE
Look at this.
DOVE
(looking through camera)
Its fingers are moving.
CASTLE
It’s going to fly away like the other one.
BOWIE
No. It’s changing.
The goregoyle turns pink, the color of a skinned pig—now it looks more humanoid, though its features are still shriveled.
DOVE
It’s human.
The wings collapse and the corpse begins to turn to gelatin. Its face folds in on itself, looking like sick cheese. Where rain hits the corpse, gray fluid spatters up.
Its legs move—Raintree and Dove jump back. Farrengalli comes out of the woods.
CASTLE
Whatever it was, it’s not human anymore.
FARRENGALLI
That’s one ugly fucker. Looks like Mick Jagger’s mummy.
BOWIE
We’ve got to get to the bottom of the falls before dark.
DOVE
What about Travis?
CASTLE
Leave him. It might slow them down if they’ve got food.
CUT TO:
EXT. RIVERBANK, FOOT OF THE WATERFALL.
Ace looks up at the top of the falls. He has a vision—the rain is red, clouds golden, the waterfall is like lava. Demons with scorched, screaming faces roil in the yellow-and-red fluid, reaching for the sky.
Clara grabs his shoulder and the vision dissolves. Now it’s just a waterfall. A backpack bobs down river below the falls.
CLARA
Look up there.
The group is heading down the side of the falls, carrying gear down the steep terrain, stumbling over slick rocks and hanging onto branches.
CUT TO:
EXT. RIVERBANK. EVENING.
C.A.’s corpse lies on the sandy bank under the thin blue blanket. Rain drums on it. The blanket twitches. Under the blanket, one of the arms lifts.
CUT TO:
EXT. FOREST TRAIL. EVENING.
It’s getting darker—the rain is falling harder. Dove and Bowie have moved together, Farrengalli and Raintree well ahead and Castle behind them. Bowie now has a thick walking stick. Dove slips and Bowie catches her before she takes a vicious tumble.
DOVE
Are we going to make it, Bowie?
BOWIE
I don’t know. Floods have changed the river since last time I was here.
DOVE
That’s not what I mean.
BOWIE
If those things find their prey using radar, we’re safer in the woods.
DOVE
That’s not what I mean, either.
BOWIE
Oh. This morning.
DOVE
Forget it.
BOWIE
Listen, if anything happens to me, Raintree is the only one you can count on.
DOVE
I wasn’t counting on you.
Dove hurries ahead, trying to catch up to Farrengalli and Raintree. Bowie is limping, slows. Suddenly—
SKEEEK . Branches snap overhead. Bowie drops his pack and crouches, trying to locate the attacker to his left.
FARRENGALLI
Bogie at twelve o’clock!
Farrengalli runs ahead, carrying the deflated Muskrat like a football. He disappears into the woods. Raintree and Dove stop. A second SKEEEK erupts to Bowie’s right.
BOWIE
Two of ‘em!
The creature to Bowie’s left breaks through the canopy, swoops down toward him. Another shriek, from behind Bowie, but this one is human. Raintree runs in with a sharpened wooden spear, emitting a Cherokee war whoop.
RAINTREE
Ai-eeeeeee!
The goregoyle spins in midair as if confused by the movement and the noise. Bowie, realizing the goregoyle is trying to home in on the new attacker, smacks his stick against a tree.
BOWIE
Come to poppa, you son of a bitch.
The creature turns toward Bowie again. Dove picks up a rock and hurls it at the creature. It missed, but the creature’s head turns and tracks the movement.
Raintree seizes the opening, leaps at it, and skewers it in the chest. The creature writhes and struggles, its weight forcing its torso deeper onto the spear. Gray fluid oozes from its wound and down the spear handle. Raintree struggles, brought to his knees by the weight of the creature.
The second goregoyle explodes from
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