ANNIHILATION
    Alex Garland V.10 OPEN ON -

EXT. OUTER SPACE
    - blackness, and stars. In the stars, a lump of rock and ice, moving through space, leaving a trail of dust and ice crystals. Locked deep inside the ice, blue-green iridescence. Rotate around the METEOR, to reveal - - the MOON. Float past the bone-white orb, over the Sea Of Tranquility, to reveal - - Earth. Blue-green jewel. Race towards the planet. Start to blaze as we hit the atmosphere. Lighting up like phosphorus. CUT TO -

EXT. OUTER ATMOSPHERE - NIGHT
    - the METEOR burning in the outer atmosphere of Earth. The integrity of the rock and ice suddenly gives way. The body fragments. CUT TO -

EXT. LOWER ATMOSPHERE - NIGHT
    - the meteor fragments separating, drifting away. Most pieces burn away to nothing. Until there is only one. Racing down towards the OCEAN. On which we find a COAST LINE. And then a LIGHTHOUSE.

EXT. LIGHTHOUSE - NIGHT
    The meteor has almost burned to nothing before it impacts. What was a vast lump of extraterrestrial rock is now barely an ember. A SPARK. Then it hits the ground by the LIGHTHOUSE...

.. drilling into the earth like a bullet hole.
    CUT TO - - an alien form. A creature from another world. It has tendrils. It shimmers with iridescent colour. It has immense fractal complexity in its shape. And it's moving. Gently, like a sea anemone in a swell. Beats pass. Then we hear a woman's voice.
    WOMAN (O.S.)
    This is a cell.
    As we watch, the alien creature starts to divide.
    WOMAN (O.S.)
    Like all cells, it derived from an existing cell.
    The creature is now half-way through the division, separating into a mirror of itself.
    WOMAN (O.S.)
    By extension, all cells were ultimately derived from one cell. A single organism, alone on planet Earth, perhaps alone in the universe, about four billion years ago.
    The creature completes its division. Immediately its two halves start the same process again.
    WOMAN (O.S.)
    One became two. Two became four. Then eight. Sixteen. Thirty two.
    WOMAN (O.S.)
    The rhythm of the dividing pair, which becomes the structure of every microbe, blade of grass, sea creature, land creature, and human. The structure of everything that lives -
    CUT TO -

INT. JOHNS HOPKINS MEDICAL SCHOOL/SEMINAR ROOM - DAY
    - LENA KERANS. Thirty years old. Recently completed her doctorate, now teaching a seminar class of first-year MEDICAL STUDENTS.
    LENA
    - and everything that dies.
    Beat.
    LENA
    As students of medicine, as the doctors of tomorrow, that's where you come in.
    She gestures to the screen behind her - which shows the electron microscope images that we have been watching.
    LENA
    The cell you've been looking at is from a tumour. Female patient, early thirties, taken from her cervix. Over the course of the coming term...
    LENA pauses. A couple of the MED STUDENTS look up from their note-taking, aware of the silence - - and see that their tutor has been momentarily distracted. Her head is turned to the window - - where outside, above the tree tops, a FULL MOON hangs in the blue sky. The image of the MOON in daylight is gently surreal. Arresting, because the sky is so cloudless and clear. Almost absently, LENA'S hand goes to her neck, and her fingers lightly touch a SILVER LOCKET that hangs from a slender chain. As the silence extends, the STUDENTS exchange a glance. Then LENA'S focus returns. Becomes aware she has zoned out.
    LENA
    ... Excuse me.
    She picks up the thread.
    LENA
    Over the course of the coming term, we will be closely examining these cancer cells in vitro, and observing autophagic activity.

EXT. JOHNS HOPKINS MEDICAL SCHOOL/CAMPUS - DAY
    LENA walks across the campus. A man in his forties jogs up to her. DANIEL MAITLAND.
    DANIEL
    Lena.
    LENA
    Dan.
    LENA doesn't break stride, so he falls in beside her.
    DANIEL
    I keep looking for you at lunch, but you never seem to be around.
    LENA
    I've been catching up on some writing.
    DANIEL
    All work and no play. It's not healthy.
    LENA keeps walking.
    DANIEL
    I wanted to ask. Do you have plans Saturday?
    LENA
    ... Saturday.
    DANIEL
    Sarah and I have a few people coming over. A garden party, while the weather holds.
    LENA gives the neutral frown of someone prepping a polite excuse.
    LENA
    You mean this Saturday?
    DANIEL
    Yes.
    LENA
    Actually, I do have something planned.
    DANIEL
    Are you sure? I think it'll be a lot of fun. We've asked Amir and Jenny, and -
    LENA
    (cuts in)
    Thanks, Dan. I appreciate it. But I was going to paint our bedroom.
    LENA corrects herself immediately.
    LENA
    The bedroom.
    DANIEL looks at LENA.
    DANIEL
    It's been a year, Lena. You're allowed to come to a barbecue.
    DANIEL reaches out. Catches LENA'S arm. Stops her.
    DANIEL
    It's not a betrayal. Not an insult to his memory.
    Beat.
    LENA
    I'm going to paint the bedroom.
    DANIEL gives way. Removes his hand.
    DANIEL
    Home improvements.
    LENA smiles perfunctorily.
    LENA
    Yes.

EXT. SUBURB - DAY
    Bright, flat sunlight pushes through tree tops. A broad road. Detached houses. Green lawns. Two children on push-bikes glide down the sidewalk.

INT. HOUSE - CONTINUOUS
    A quiet house. Stillness in the rooms. Photographs in the BEDROOM show a couple. LENA, with a man in his early thirties. KANE. KANE is a soldier. Images show him in uniform, with comrades, in a baked landscape of rock and dust. He smiles easily at the camera. Full of life in these frozen snapshots. One of the images shows a wedding. LENA in white. The couple embracing. Another shows the couple in Verona. Perhaps the honeymoon.

INT. HOUSE/LIVING ROOM - CONTINUOUS
    LENA sits on the sofa. Legs curled beneath her. In one hand, she holds her SILVER LOCKET. It's open. Inside is a PHOTO of KANE. She gazes at it. We can feel LENA'S effort to modulate her breathing. Inhaling and exhaling through parted lips. Less controlled, tears spill down her face. Down her cheeks and neck. Into the corner of her mouth. TITLE:
    ANNIHILATION
    Then, into the quiet and stillness, MUSIC intrudes. CUT TO -

INT. HOUSE/GARAGE - DAY
    - the garage. Full of dust and boxes and junk. LENA pulls stuff from shelves. On a mission. Searching for a particular half-collapsed cardboard box. Inside: tins of paint and a roller. CUT TO -

INT. HOUSE/BEDROOM - DAY
    - the speakers from which the MUSIC is playing. - the framed photographs of LENA and KANE, which are now off the walls, and stacked on the landing. - a PLASTIC SHEET as it rises up, billows, then settles over the DOUBLE BED. - a flathead screwdriver pushes under the rim of a tub of paint and pops the lid. LENA runs a primed roller over the wall. Leaving a fat white stripe over the old colour. Flecking her shirt and face with paint. Smearing it off her forehead with the back of her hand. Repainting the room is an act of moving on. She is energised. Focused. So focused - - that she doesn't see the figure that appears in the doorway of the bedroom. KANE. He seems different to the photos. In uniform, but bloodless in his complexion. Older in his gaze. He watches LENA painting. Oddly blank. Not announcing his presence - - until she turns, needing to reload the roller - - and sees him. First, she jolts at the sight of the figure. Second, she recognises him.
    LENA
    (whispers)
    Oh God.
    The roller slips from her hand. Lands with a wet slap on the floor. She walks towards KANE. Puts a hand on his cheek, in the way she might touch a clear window to see if it holds a pane of glass. Then she grabs his face with both palms. Kissing him as she talks.
    LENA
    Oh God, oh God - I thought you were gone - gone forever - forever.
    She's crying, laughing. He isn't. CUT TO - - the two of them falling down to the paint-flecked plastic sheet over the double bed. LENA on top, pulling off her shirt, pulling at KANE'S belt and trousers. They start making love. But her passion remains completely unmatched by him. He is glazed and distant. No more than compliant. Until finally - - she has to acknowledge it. She breaks off. Hurt, confused. Looking down at him.
    LENA
    ... Kane?

INT. HOUSE/KITCHEN - NIGHT
    KANE sits at the table. In front of him is a glass of water. He stares at the clear liquid, but doesn't drink it. LENA stands by the counter. Confusion has transformed now into frustration and anger.
    LENA
    You must be able to tell me something. Vanished off the face of the Earth for twelve months. I deserve a better explanation than... no explanation.
    KANE doesn't answer.
    LENA
    No one knew anything about your unit. I contacted everyone. Everyone I could. The other wives and partners knew as little as me.
    Beat.
    LENA
    Was it covert?
    KANE
    ... Maybe.
    LENA
    What does that mean: 'maybe'?
    KANE
    Okay, yes. Covert. I think so.
    LENA
    Pakistan again.
    KANE
    No.
    LENA
    Yemen?
    KANE
    I can't tell you.
    LENA
    So it is classified.
    KANE
    I mean: I can't tell you. I don't know where it was. Or...
    He trails off. LENA frowns.
    LENA
    You're telling me you don't know where you've been? How can that even be possible? Was it hot?
    LENA
    Was there snow? Did the people speak Swahili, or Portuguese, or Pashto?
    KANE says nothing. LENA processes for a beat. Fighting back the strangeness of the conversation. Trying to assert reason.
    LENA
    How long have you been back?
    KANE
    I don't know.
    LENA
    Well - how did you get back? Which base did they fly you to?
    KANE
    I don't know.
    LENA
    What about the rest of your unit? Did they return with you?
    For the first time, we see something tangible in KANE. A helplessness. A dimly understood fear.
    KANE
    I don't know.
    Silence. As LENA suddenly understands: her husband is profoundly damaged. His body has returned to her, but not his mind. She takes a seat opposite him at the table. Then takes his hand. He doesn't resist.
    LENA
    Kane.
    He looks at her.
    LENA
    How did you get home?
    KANE
    I...
    He breaks off a moment.
    KANE
    I was outside.
    LENA
    Outside the house.
    KANE
    No. Outside the bedroom. Just upstairs, on the landing. The door was open, and... I saw you.
    Beat.
    KANE
    I remembered you. I remembered your face.
    Silence. Then KANE detaches his hand from LENA'S. He reaches for the glass of water. Takes a single sip. Then puts the glass back down. REVEAL - - in the water, a strand of blood hangs. Suspended. It can only be from inside KANE'S mouth. KANE looks up at LENA.
    KANE
    I don't think I'm very well.
    CUT TO -

INT. AMBULANCE - NIGHT
    - the interior of an AMBULANCE, driving fast through the night streets. SIREN howling. KANE - strapped to a stretcher in the back, rolled-back eyes, half-raised - vomits blood. A PARAMEDIC tries to support him with one arm while speaking urgently into a radio.
    PARAMEDIC
    Male, thirty one, hemorrhage, in seizure. Wife reports confused state. Possible concussion, but no sign of head wound.
    Kneeling by KANE, LENA wipes at the blood on his face. Tries to hold his lolling head.
    LENA
    Baby, baby, stay with me -
    PARAMEDIC
    Prepare emergency team for ETA in six mikes -
    Suddenly - - the PARAMEDIC is interrupted by a second SIREN joining the first. Then a THIRD and FOURTH. Blue lights start pulsing through the windows. Above the sirens, the PARAMEDIC shouts to the AMBULANCE DRIVER.
    PARAMEDIC
    Did you call for a police escort?
    AMBULANCE DRIVER
    They aren't police!
    PARAMEDIC
    What the Hell?
    The PARAMEDIC looks out of the window. As he does so - - the interior of the ambulance is flooded with BLINDING WHITE LIGHT and a ROAR OF ENGINE NOISE. From LENA'S bleached face, disorientated by the horror and sensory overload, CUT TO -

EXT. STREET - CONTINUOUS
    - the street outside the ambulance, where the reason for the noise and light is explained. The AMBULANCE is flanked by three black SUVs, and above it, a HELICOPTER. No more than four metres off the ground. Shining a spotlight straight down at the front windscreen. CUT TO -

INT. AMBULANCE - CONTINUOUS
    - the AMBULANCE DRIVER -
    AMBULANCE DRIVER
    Jesus Christ!
    - dazzled, slamming his foot on the brakes -

EXT. STREET - CONTINUOUS
    - sending the vehicle into a skid -

INT. AMBULANCE - CONTINUOUS
    - which slams LENA and the PARAMEDIC hard against the wall of the vehicle. The semi-conscious KANE is held fast by the stretcher straps.

EXT. STREET - CONTINUOUS
    - the AMBULANCE skids to a stop. The SUVs expertly slide to halt around it. Then immediately disgorge UNIFORMED ARMED MEN. Black gear, stubby semi-automatic machine guns. SPEC OPS. The SPEC OPS soldiers pull open the rear doors of the ambulance. Drag out LENA and the PARAMEDIC. In the FOREGROUND the HELICOPTER lands in the road. Obscuring our vision, and deafening us. Through the obliterating rotor blade wash, we can hear LENA.
    LENA
    (screaming)
    What are you doing? Let him go! Let him go!
    CUT TO - - LENA, fighting as two of the SPEC OPS try to hold her. - the PARAMEDIC and DRIVER being dragged out of view. - KANE pulled on his stretcher from the AMBULANCE. - something jammed into LENA'S neck. A one-hit disposable syringe. The tranquiliser drops to the floor, as the fight bleeds out of LENA. Then consciousness. Sound and light fade as the sedative takes over. BLACK SCREEN. CAPTION: PART ONE - THE SOUTHERN REACH: CUT TO -

INT. SOUTHERN REACH FACILITY/INTERVIEW ROOM
    - a view of door. Set into a concrete wall, in an otherwise featureless and windowless room. Silence, except the sound of breathing. REVEAL LENA. She is sat on a chair, on one side of a table. She wears the same clothes we last saw her in. But time has passed. Several hours at least. The blood of her husband is now dried black, stiffened on the material of her short and trousers, rusted and flaking on her hands. She is trembling. Beats pass. Then the door UNLOCKS, startling LENA. REVEALING a woman in her late-forties. This is DR VENTRESS. Glasses. Suit. Smiling. She's holding a small plastic bottle of mineral water.
    DR VENTRESS
    Hello.
    DR VENTRESS enters the room and closes the door - which locks behind her.
    DR VENTRESS
    You probably feel dreadful. Queasy. A nasty metal taste in the mouth. Headache.
    LENA looks at her.
    DR VENTRESS
    Would you like some water?
    The doctor holds out the plastic bottle. LENA hesitates. Then with slightly uncertain fingers, takes it. Opens it. Has a sip.
    DR VENTRESS
    That's better, isn't it?
    LENA returns the woman's gaze.
    LENA
    Who are you?
    DR VENTRESS
    I'm a psychologist.
    LENA
    What does that mean?
    DR VENTRESS
    That I study people's emotional states.
    LENA
    I know what a fucking psychologist is. I'm asking: why am I talking to one?
    DR VENTRESS
    Because I'm in charge of the facility you're in.
    LENA
    ... I'm in a psychiatric hospital?
    DR VENTRESS
    No.
    LENA
    Then what? Where am I? And where's my husband?
    DR VENTRESS ignores the questions. She takes the chair opposite LENA, and sits down.
    DR VENTRESS
    You're a biologist.
    LENA
    So what?
    DR VENTRESS
    You completed a doctorate at Johns Hopkins.
    DR VENTRESS
    Your research area is the genetically programmed life-cycle of the cell. Is it fascinating?
    LENA leans forwards. Enunciates.
    LENA
    Where is my husband?
    DR VENTRESS
    Yes. Let's talk about him. Sergeant Kane. When did he arrive home?
    LENA
    That depends how long I've been here.
    DR VENTRESS says nothing.
    LENA
    I think it was yesterday.
    DR VENTRESS
    Had he contacted you at any point over the last few months?
    LENA
    No. He left on - whatever he was doing. Whatever spec-ops mission. That was the last I heard until he reappeared.
    DR VENTRESS
    He didn't tell you what he was doing. Or where he was going.
    LENA
    He never did. I never asked.
    DR VENTRESS
    But you made regular requests for information about him to his unit CO, until six months ago. Then you stopped. Why was that?
    LENA
    Because we had an agreement. Between us. Six months of radio silence meant I was to assume he was dead. And move on.
    DR VENTRESS gives a sympathetic nod.
    DR VENTRESS
    It's not easy to move on.
    LENA
    I didn't.
    Silence. LENA sits back in her chair.
    LENA
    You know what? I think I just figured you out. You're CIA. And Kane was on some kind of operation for you. And you believe he told me something before he got sick.
    LENA fixes the woman opposite with an even gaze.
    LENA
    So let's cut the shit. I'm done answering questions. It's your turn.
    A pause.
    DR VENTRESS
    I'm not CIA, but I used to be. And your husband is in the same building as you. And I should tell you, he's extremely ill.
    LENA catches her breath. But stays composed.
    LENA
    Ill in what way?
    DR VENTRESS
    We don't actually know. He doesn't test positive for any known condition - but, objectively, his body is hemorrhaging and his organs are failing.
    LENA
    ... He's dying.
    DR VENTRESS
    Yes.
    Beat.
    DR VENTRESS
    We have him on life-support in an induced cold-coma. His metabolism is slowed nearly to a stop. It gives... a degree of time.
    LENA
    He must have been exposed to something.
    DR VENTRESS adds nothing.
    LENA
    Radiation. A virus of some sort.
    LENA leans forwards.
    LENA
    For Christ's sake - I might actually be able to help him. You have to tell me where has he been and what was he doing.
    DR VENTRESS
    I can't talk about that. You understand.
    LENA
    Clearly, I don't!
    DR VENTRESS
    You understand that I'm not going to talk about it.
    The doctor stands. The door unbolts in anticipation of her exit. As it swings open, it reveals a SPEC OPS SOLDIER standing guard in the corridor outside.
    DR VENTRESS
    I'll be back later.
    LENA
    You still haven't told me anything about what's going on or what I'm doing here!
    DR VENTRESS has reached the door.
    DR VENTRESS
    We'll speak again.
    LENA stands.
    LENA
    At least let me change out of these clothes!
    DR VENTRESS pauses. LENA holds up her hands.
    LENA
    I'm covered in my husband's blood.
    CUT TO -

INT. SOUTHERN REACH FACILITY/SHOWER
    - LENA, under a shower stream, washing the blood from her body. From her hair. Fingernails. REVEAL the shower space. Another windowless room. Tiled walls and floors. A military feel, or prison. Rows of un- partitioned shower-heads. An ORANGE JUMPSUIT is folded on a changing bench. A pair of white sneakers are beneath it. At the door of the shower room, an armed SPEC-OPS SOLDIER stands guard. His back is to the room, to protect LENA'S modesty.

INT. SOUTHERN REACH FACILITY/CORRIDOR
    LENA walks down a corridor, back towards the interview room. Wearing the jumpsuit and sneakers. The SPEC OPS soldier walks slightly behind. LENA glances back at him. SEES SOMETHING. On his belt, a clip containing two of the one-hit SYRINGE VIALS that were used to sedate her.
    LENA
    Do you know my husband? Sergeant Kane.
    The SPEC OPS SOLDIER doesn't react.
    LENA
    Just wondering if you've served together. You are the 427th, right?
    The SPEC OPS SOLDIER stops by the door to the interview room.
    SPEC OPS SOLDIER
    Just here, please, ma'am.

INT. SOUTHERN REACH FACILITY/INTERVIEW ROOM
    LENA stops in the door frame.
    LENA
    I just want to know what's happened to him.
    SPEC OPS SOLDIER
    Enter the room, ma'am.
    But rather than take a step back, she takes a step forwards, towards the soldier. Her eyes brim.
    LENA
    Please.
    SPEC OPS SOLDIER
    Ma'am.
    A tear spills. Her hand touches the soldier's chest, in the way she touched KANE'S chest.
    LENA
    If you know anything at all, can't you just -
    It's a ploy. There is a SUDDEN fluid motion. With her other hand, LENA has unclipped one of the TRANQUILISERS. In a FLASH it's up and jammed into the soldier's neck.
    SPEC OPS SOLDIER
    Ah! Bitch - you -
    His hand claws at the vial. Knocks it out. All too late. He exhales. Folds. Falling forwards into the room. As he hits the concrete, CUT TO -

INT. SOUTHERN REACH FACILITY/CORRIDOR
    - LENA bolting the interview room door closed. She looks left. Right.

INT. SOUTHERN REACH FACILITY/CORRIDOR
    LENA walk-runs through the facility. Silent on the linoleum floor in her white sneakers.

INT. SOUTHERN REACH FACILITY/ELEVATOR LOBBY
    LENA enters an elevator lobby. She goes straight to the control panel, and hits the call button. Nothing happens. Beside the panel is a glass plate, with the outline of a hand. The elevator requires a palm-print biometric pass.
    LENA
    ... Shit.
    AT THAT MOMENT, startling LENA, the elevator CHIMES. The car has just arrived on this floor. As the doors start to open, CUT TO -

INT. SOUTHERN REACH FACILITY/ELEVATOR
    - inside the elevator, where DR VENTRESS is arguing with a SPEC OPS CAPTAIN.
    DR VENTRESS
    While the facility remains under my command, the way I structure the team is my business, Captain.
    They exit the elevator, into the lobby -

INT. SOUTHERN REACH FACILITY/ELEVATOR LOBBY
    - without noticing LENA, pressed to the wall, just out of their line of sight.
    SPEC OPS CAPTAIN
    In forty eight hours, it won't be under your command. It'll be under Pentagon control, where it should be.
    DR VENTRESS
    So take it up with Washington. By the time you've found anyone with the authority to stop me, we'll be gone.
    As they walk away, LENA slips inside the elevator, just as the doors start closing.

INT. SOUTHERN REACH FACILITY/ELEVATOR
    Inside the elevator, LENA hurriedly scans the different floor options. It's LENA'S first geographical indication of where she is. There are four levels in the building. One below ground, and three above. B is SECURITY. \* is LOBBY. 1 is RESEARCH. 2 is LIVING. By the digital readout, she is on B.
    LENA
    'Southern Reach'? What the Hell?
    LENA hesitates over the panel for a moment. Then hits the LOBBY button. Nothing happens. She hits it again. Nothing. Sees - beside the control panel, another BIOMETRIC READER.
    LENA
    ... Oh shit.
    She touches the biometric pad. An error code sounds.
    LENA
    Come on, please. No, no, no...
    A terrible sense that she has managed to escape from a small locked room into an even smaller one. Then SUDDENLY - - the elevator starts moving. On the digital panel, the numbers start moving upwards. Past the lobby - to level 1. Where it stops. The doors OPEN, revealing a man in a white lab coat. A SCIENTIST of some sort. His head is dropped, reading through a sheaf of forms, which he is filling out. LENA stands, back straight against the wall, terrified to meet his gaze. But he hardly seems to notice her. Just touches the biometric pad, and presses the button for Level 2. The doors close. The elevator starts moving again. Then, still without raising his head, the SCIENTIST speaks.
    SCIENTIST
    Man, the bureaucracy of this place.
    LENA knows a response is needed. Doesn't want to give the man an excuse to look up.
    LENA
    ... Tell me about it.
    SCIENTIST
    Need to fill out an application just to have a nervous breakdown.
    This feels like it can be met with silence. Then a beat later, the doors chime. And open - - REVEALING a large room, thronged with people, and a buzz of conversation.
    SCIENTIST
    After you.
    LENA has no choice but to walk out.

INT. SOUTHERN REACH FACILITY/MESS HALL - DAY
    LENA has entered into the MESS HALL of the facility. It is packed with SOLDIERS, SCIENTISTS, and ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF. They sit at tables, chatting. Carry trays with food, and drinks. On the far side of the room, there is a floor to ceiling glass wall, through which for the first time in the facility we see DAYLIGHT. Bright, burnished, gold. In the middle of the wall is an open double door, leading to the outside. She realises at once: she has to make it across the room to that door. To the exterior, the sunlight. It's the only exit, apart from the elevator from which she has just come. But among the uniforms and lab coats and suits, there is only one person wearing an orange jumpsuit. LENA. She takes a breath. And simply starts walking. Not hurried, not slow. Not drawing attention to herself. And for a moment, it seems as if it might work. The people around simply don't notice her. Then - - someone looks at her. A WOMAN, sat at a table. She frowns. Taps the arm of the person beside her. LENA starts walking quicker.
    WOMAN
    ... Hey!
    LENA ignores her. Walks faster for the door and the sunlight.
    WOMAN
    HEY!
    LENA breaks into a run. One of the SOLDIERS ahead turns. Sees. Tries to block her path. LENA jumps onto one of the long refectory tables. Runs down the length, scattering food and drinks. Someone tries to catch her leg. She jumps over them. Is nearly at the double doors. Two SCIENTISTS try to block her and she has no choice but to go straight through them, knocking them flying. And then - - she is through the doors, and out.

EXT. SOUTHERN REACH FACILITY/VIEWING PLATFORM - DAY
    LENA makes only five or six steps into the sunlight. Then - - slows. And stops. Arrested by the view in front of her. REVEAL that LENA is standing on a VIEWING PLATFORM. Essentially a massive balcony, which projects from the MESS HALL, three stories above the ground. And the facility from which she has escaped turns out to a kind of gatehouse structure - like a medieval castle, dragged into a brutalist Twenty First Century. Either side of the facility, a concrete wall extends. Massive, buttressed, punctuated with watch towers. It looks designed to contain or defend against something mythic in scale. This would be a stunning sight in its own right - but it's the view from the platform that stopped LENA in her tracks. It shows a landscape, behind which the sun sets. A stretch of bare ground, for a few hundred yards beyond the concrete wall, leading to a dense forest. And in front of - or permeating - the forest, there is a shimmer. Similar to a heat haze - it gives a glassy liquid quality to everything seen through its prism. But unlike a heat haze - and like a prism - it splits light. So, through the shimmer - - the sun distorts into a deliquescing orange orb, fringed with chromatic aberrations of blue and green. - the colours on the clouds split into a full rainbow spectrum, spread across the sky like psychedelic Northern Lights. - the trees in the forest distort gently, as if pushed by a gentle wind that eases the trunks into movement, as if they were as light as leaves.
    SPEC OPS SOLDIER (O.S.)
    GET ON THE GROUND RIGHT NOW!
    REVEAL behind LENA, an arc of three SPEC OPS SOLDIERS, all pointing their guns at the back of her head. But before the moment can unravel, DR VENTRESS appears, pushing past the soldiers, brushing down their gun barrels as if warding away a wasp.
    DR VENTRESS
    Is there really any need for that?
    SPEC OPS SOLDIER
    Sir, she -
    DR VENTRESS
    (cuts in)
    Shut up and step away. Give us space.
    The soldiers do as ordered. Throughout, LENA hasn't turned from the fauvist view. The doctor steps beside her.
    DR VENTRESS
    It's obvious what your husband saw in you. Impressive: to have escaped. To this point at least.
    LENA talks as if through a dream.
    LENA
    Where am I?
    DR VENTRESS
    Northern Florida. Thirty miles from the coast. It was the Blackwater State Park, but we now call it the Southern Reach.
    LENA
    ... Why is a National Park sealed behind a fifty metre high concrete wall?
    DR VENTRESS
    Well, quite. That is the question.

INT. SOUTHERN REACH FACILITY/COMMAND CENTER - DAY
    The COMMAND CENTER of the Southern Reach Facility. A large room, with one wall given over to a floor-to ceiling window, which faces the landscape and the Shimmer. In the middle of the room is a large digital map. It shows the coast of Northern Florida, the boundary wall of the Southern reach facility, and - in illuminated blue - the border of the Shimmer. On the adjacent wall there is a collection of images. Some show a tall white LIGHTHOUSE - with archive architectural plans of the building. The rest are a sequence of TEAM PHOTOS. Small groups of men and women with backpacks and hiking gear. Some with weapons and uniforms. LENA walks to the digital map table. DR VENTRESS, standing by the window, starts to talk.
    DR VENTRESS
    It started when a park guide reported an event to the local police. A lighthouse on the coast was surrounded by what he called a 'shimmer'. A friend of his had entered to find out what was going on - and never returned.
    Beat.
    DR VENTRESS
    That was thirteen years ago. We evacuated the area and concocted a cover story - an accident on a cargo ship, carrying nuclear waste. Then we set up a covert body to investigate the phenomena. And three hundred billion dollars later, we know nothing more than was contained in that first brief police report.
    Behind the doctor, the landscape undulates and refracts.
    DR VENTRESS
    Something goes in, and it doesn't come back. And I'm not just talking about people. Drones, robots, animals, birds, radio waves, radar, particle streams. It's a black hole. Nothing gets out.
    Beat.
    LENA
    You have no idea what it is?
    DR VENTRESS
    We have many. An extra terrestrial event; a multi-dimensional event;
    DR VENTRESS
    a religious event. The ideas are endless. What we lack are facts.
    DR VENTRESS has joined LENA at the map. She indicates the border of the shimmer. Concentric circles - like tree rings - dated by year.
    DR VENTRESS
    Area 'X'. The only thing we can say for certain is that it's getting bigger. Initially, it enclosed the lighthouse and an area of about fifty square metres. It now covers an area the size of Chicago.
    LENA looks the dated bands. Sees the expanding gap between the most recent circles.
    LENA
    The expansion rate is increasing.
    DR VENTRESS
    Exponentially. In five years, the Shimmer will encompass the Southern United States and most of Mexico.
    LENA
    ... And in ten years?
    DR VENTRESS
    The planet.
    LENA looks back at DR VENTRESS.
    LENA
    Does the planet get to hear about this?
    DR VENTRESS
    Does it matter?
    DR VENTRESS traces her finger over the glowing blue Shimmer bands on the map.
    DR VENTRESS
    It makes me think of cancer. The invasion. The spread. If the cancer is terminal, is it better to know?
    LENA
    I'd want to know.
    DR VENTRESS
    Yes, but is it better to know.
    LENA walks to the TEAM PHOTOS. Starts scanning the faces. DR VENTRESS watches. Then indicates with her hand.
    DR VENTRESS
    He's over there.
    LENA sees KANE. In a group of spec ops soldiers. Similar to the images at home - her husband is smiling, looking straight at the camera, an Armalite rifle held loosely in his hands.
    DR VENTRESS
    Twenty three expeditions. A hundred and thirteen men and women. And only he came back.
    Beat.
    LENA
    Will you let me see him?

INT. SOUTHERN REACH FACILITY/MEDICAL CENTRE - DAY
    KANE lies on a bed. Surrounded by the tubes, lines, and the machinery of life support. His skin is almost the colour of ivory. His heartbeat monitor shows four beats per minute. LENA stands beside him. She exhales, and steam wreathes her. DR VENTRESS watches from behind an observation window. The edges of the glass are frosted with ice crystals. LENA reaches for KANE'S hand. Holds it. A tear slips out of her eye. And freezes on her cheek.

INT. SOUTHERN REACH FACILITY/MEDICAL CENTRE - DAY
    LENA joins the DR VENTRESS on her side of the observation window.
    LENA
    How long can you keep him alive like this?
    DR VENTRESS
    If he could stay here, maybe months. But I'm afraid there's a complication. The Shimmer will soon extend to where we're standing right now. The facility is preparing to relocate -
    LENA
    - and he won't survive the move.
    DR VENTRESS
    ... No.
    A beat.
    DR VENTRESS
    I don't think either of us will, as it happens.
    LENA
    What do you mean?
    DR VENTRESS
    Southern Reach has failed in its objectives, and I'm about to be relieved of command. Before that happens, I've authorised a final mission into Area X. And this time, I'm going to lead it.
    DR VENTRESS pauses.
    DR VENTRESS
    I'm like you, Lena. The cancer may be terminal, but I need to know. I need to see what happened in the lighthouse with my own eyes.
    LENA processes. Then speaks.
    LENA
    When do you leave?
    DR VENTRESS
    Tomorrow morning.
    LENA
    How many in the team?
    DR VENTRESS
    Four.
    LENA looks evenly at the doctor.
    LENA
    Five.
    Beat.
    DR VENTRESS
    Lena -
    LENA
    (cuts in)
    He's my husband. He's dying.
    DR VENTRESS
    And you'll go in there and find a cure? I think the chances are slim.
    LENA
    The chances are zero if I don't even try. I owe it to him.
    DR VENTRESS
    (echoes)
    You owe it.
    LENA
    Yes.
    Beat.
    DR VENTRESS
    Well, in any case, it's not simply a question of your motivation. There are processes to observe. Evaluations, and -
    LENA
    (cuts in)
    While the facility remains under your command, the way you structure the team is your business.
    DR VENTRESS knows she has been quoted from her exchange with the SPEC OPS CAPTAIN, but isn't quite sure how it could have happened. She smiles faintly.
    DR VENTRESS
    ... Good point.
    Beat.
    DR VENTRESS
    I have to admit, a biologist would be an ideal addition to the expedition's skill-set. And the team is short-handed.
    DR VENTRESS
    Given the track record, it hasn't been easy to find volunteers...
    LENA waits, letting the doctor talk herself round.
    DR VENTRESS
    If you were to join us, I don't think it would be wise to explain your connection to the previous mission. It might not be... helpful. To the group dynamic.
    LENA turns to the glass. Looks back at the near motionless body of her husband.
    LENA
    Whatever it takes.
    CUT TO -

INT. SOUTHERN REACH FACILITY/FIRING RANGE - DAY
    - a FIRING RANGE, in which a woman is firing an automatic rifle, straight at us. Her name is ANYA THORENSEN. She's a handsome woman in her mid-thirties. Close-cropped hair, wearing a white vest that shows muscled arms. Obviously lifts weights. She has a very distinctive TATTOO encircling her forearm, depicting an ouroboros - a snake eating its tail. CUT TO - - a TARGET, with BULLET HOLES appearing. Loosely grouped, but finding their mark. CUT TO - - the woman firing in the next alley. This is CASS SHEPPARD. She's in her mid-forties. Glasses, pony-tail efficiently tied back. Could be a mother at school gates, if not for the automatic rifle. CUT TO - - a similar spread of BULLET HOLES appearing on a target. CUT TO - - the next alley, where we find JOSIE RADEK. RADEK is in her mid-twenties, but feels younger. She has the sheltered quality that people have when they've passed straight from school to college to doctorate. She's having trouble with her weapon. She looks frightened by the recoil, leaning her face away from the stock, and convulsively screwing her eyes as the gun starts firing. CUT TO - - a near random spray of rounds that hit in various places, but not the target. CUT TO - - LENA. Stepping up to the fourth alley in the firing range. Lifting a rifle. Squeezing the trigger. She keeps the gun steady, fires in neat three round bursts, and the stock pushed tight up against her cheek bone. CUT TO - - a neat grouping of rounds, appearing in the middle of the target. CUT TO - - DR VENTRESS. Observing. She shifts her gaze to THORENSEN, SHEPPARD, and RADEK - - who are clearly surprised to find this new person in the fourth firing alley. LENA empties the last rounds in her clip. The final volley of gunshots leave a ringing echo in the concrete chamber. Broken by DR VENTRESS.
    DR VENTRESS
    Team.
    The women remove their ear defenders.
    DR VENTRESS
    I'd like to introduce Lena Kerans, a biologist we have sequestered from Johns Hopkins, to join us on the mission to the lighthouse. Ms Kerans, meet Anya Thorensen, a medic. Cass Sheppard, a geologist. And Josie Radek, a physicist.
    Beat. Then LENA lifts a hand.
    LENA
    ... Hi.

EXT. SOUTHERN REACH FACILITY - NIGHT
    The facility is picked out in the moonlight. A row of FLOODLIGHTS along the perimeter wall illuminate the wasteground and the tree line. Stars vibrate through the Shimmer.

EXT. SOUTHERN REACH FACILITY/VIEWING PLATFORM - NIGHT
    LENA stands on the viewing platform, leaning against the guard rail. She's holding the SILVER LOCKET containing KANE'S PHOTO in her hand. Gazing at it. A few metres away, RADEK and SHEPPARD sit at a table. SHEPPARD is studying one of her maps, and RADEK is making notes in a small pad. THORENSEN appears beside LENA. She's holding a pair of binoculars. LENA, gazing at the locket, her head many miles away, doesn't notice.
    THORENSEN
    Hey.
    LENA looks up, snapped back to focus - - and closes the locket with a soft snap, before THORENSEN can see the image inside.
    LENA
    ... Oh, hey.
    THORENSEN
    Wasn't meaning to pry.
    LENA
    No - it's just -
    THORENSEN holds up a hand.
    THORENSEN
    It's cool. No need to explain. I just saw you over here, and...
    THORENSEN shrugs.
    THORENSEN
    ... I don't know. I was thinking we should bond or something. Considering we're travel buddies.
    LENA
    You bet.
    LENA slips the necklace back over her head.
    LENA
    Have you been at the facility a long time?
    THORENSEN
    Nearly a year now. I was a paramedic in Chicago. Tried to join MSF, thinking I'd work out in Asia or something. But my application got flagged by some computer system, and Southern Reach got in touch. That chime with how they got to you?
    LENA
    Yeah. Similar story.
    LENA nods towards the Shimmer.
    LENA
    Do you ever get used to the view?
    THORENSEN laughs.
    THORENSEN
    It's weird. The Shimmer is the strangest thing I've ever seen. Like - what's the Grand Canyon to this? But at the same time, you do kind of get used to it. You have to accept it, because it's there.
    Beat.
    LENA
    I have a question.
    THORENSEN
    Shoot.
    LENA
    Why's our team all women?
    THORENSEN
    Affirmative action. It's an important part of the struggle that women get equal opportunity to go on suicide missions.
    THORENSEN holds up her fist.
    THORENSEN
    Yes, sister?
    LENA bumps it. THORENSEN smiles.
    THORENSEN
    It's also because they think a team of women might have a better chance of survival than a team that includes men.
    LENA
    I don't follow.
    THORENSEN
    There's two theories about what goes wrong inside Area X. One: something in there kills them. Two: they kill each other. Theory one favours a male team, all big and butch, armed to the teeth. Theory two favours a female team. Less propensity to violence. And so far, the male teams have been shit out of luck.
    LENA looks at THORENSEN. Sees this is for real.
    LENA
    They really think the previous expeditions might have killed each other?
    THORENSEN
    It's a little more than they just 'think' it. You know there's a guy who made it back? The only one. They've got him in an induced coma in the med center.
    LENA
    ... I did hear that.
    THORENSEN
    So technically he wasn't the first to walk out of Area X. He was the second.
    LENA frowns.
    LENA
    The second?
    THORENSEN hands LENA her binoculars, then gestures out across the deforested area towards the tree line.
    THORENSEN
    Check your ten o'clock, about twenty metres from the tree line.
    LENA raises the binoculars and looks where THORENSEN has indicated. Sees a bundle of rags and white bone. At this distance, the bleached dome of skull is the only thing that allow us to understand it was a human.
    THORENSEN
    See the bones?
    LENA
    ... Yes.
    THORENSEN
    He's been laid there about six months now. Too far away to positively ID, but from his uniform, they know he was on the previous mission.
    FLASHBACK TO -

EXT. THE SHIMMER/TREELINE - DAY
    - LONG LENS on the trees. A MAN walks out. Unarmed. Wearing the SPEC OPS uniform. Through the mirage distortion, he seems to have a long beard.
    THORENSEN (O.S.)
    Just strolled out the forest one day.
    Even at this distance, the MAN seems slightly dazed. Or uncertain.
    THORENSEN (O.S.)
    Didn't seem in a hurry. Stood a while. Started walking.
    The MAN takes a few steps in the direction of the distant wall.
    THORENSEN (O.S.)
    Then -
    Rapid puffs of red from the MAN'S head and chest. Noiseless.
    THORENSEN (O.S.)
    - pop.
    Followed by the delayed crack of the rifle retorts. CUT TO -

EXT. SOUTHERN REACH FACILITY/VIEWING PLATFORM - DAY
    - LENA, lowering the binoculars.
    LENA
    ... No one saw who did it.
    THORENSEN shakes her head.
    THORENSEN
    No. But we all got our ideas.
    LENA looks at THORENSEN. Waiting.
    THORENSEN
    Well - it's got to have been the guy that got out, right? The one they're keeping in the freeze box.
    Beat.
    THORENSEN
    Lieutenant Kane.
    On LENA, processing this. CUT FROM the night view -

EXT. SOUTHERN REACH FACILITY/GATES - DAWN
    - to the dazzling low morning sun. Then the concrete flank of the Southern Reach building, as the MASSIVE METAL GATES of the facility unlock. And swing open. Revealing the five women of the team. Each carrying their backpacks, and automatic rifles. Ahead of them is the dusty scrubland of the deforested area. A few beats. Then DR VENTRESS starts walking. Behind, the gates swing shut.

EXT. DEFORESTED AREA - DAWN
    The team walk in single file. DR VENTRESS leads. Then THORENSEN, then SHEPPARD, then RADEK, then LENA. They walk right past the BODY that THORENSEN pointed out. As they pass it, LENA pauses. Sees the skull. The way patches of hair and dried skin still cling to the underside of the skull, where it has been shielded from the wind and sun. Sees the missing section of bone above the left eye socket, blown out by a bullet. Sees the curve of ribs, visible where the material of the uniform has started to disintegrate. Ahead, DR VENTRESS has reached the treeline. DR VENTRESS stops before entering the forest. Then turns, to look back at LENA. They lock eyes through the shimmering air. CUT TO BLACK. CAPTION: PART 2 - AREA X: CUT TO -

EXT. THE SKY - DAY
    - the FULL MOON, hanging in a clear blue daylight sky. The same image that distracted LENA as she taught her medical students. CUT TO -

EXT. HOUSE/GARDEN - DAY
    - the garden of LENA'S house, where LENA and KANE are sunbathing on the lawn. LENA in a bikini. KANE in shorts. Around them are the remains of an impromptu picnic. They lie side by side, looking up at the sky.
    LENA
    I love seeing the moon in daytime. It's like God made a mistake, leaving the hall lights on.
    KANE
    Mmm - not sure about that. God doesn't make mistakes.
    LENA
    Oh really.
    KANE
    Yeah. It's kind of key to the whole being-a-God thing.
    LENA
    I observe his mistakes every day.
    KANE
    ... You know he's listening, right?
    LENA
    If you take a cell, and prevent the incremental shortening of telomeres, you circumvent the Hayflick division limit and prevent the cell from entering senescence.
    KANE
    Woah. So weird you say that. I was about to make the exact same point.
    LENA
    Would you like me to explain what it means?
    KANE
    I would. Because I find it arousing when you patronise me.
    LENA
    It means the cell doesn't grow old and die. It becomes immortal.
    KANE
    Don't stop.
    LENA
    We see the process of growing old as somehow natural. Whereas in fact, it's fault in our genes. We inherited it, but we don't need it, or want it.
    LENA
    And without the fault, I would be able to stay looking like this -
    She illustrates the point by indicating herself.
    LENA
    - forever.
    KANE glances at her bikini-clad form. Then back at the sky.
    KANE
    Okay. Mistakes were made.
    Beats pass.
    LENA
    ... So are you going to tell me where you're heading this time?
    KANE
    Nope.
    Beat.
    LENA
    I know there's something strange about the mission.
    KANE
    ... Why?
    LENA
    Because the silence around it is even more deafening than usual.
    Beat.
    LENA
    I don't even get a clue?
    KANE sighs.
    KANE
    Okay. You get one clue. We'll be under the same hemisphere. So, if you step outside and look up, you'll know we're seeing the same moon in the sky. Day or night.
    LENA looks sideways at KANE.
    LENA
    Holy shit.
    KANE
    ... What?
    LENA
    Are you kidding me? Is that what you think I do when you're away?
    KANE hesitates.
    KANE
    I'm just saying -
    LENA
    - You think I come out into the garden, pining, looking up at the sky?
    LENA puts her hand on her chest. Mimics herself.
    LENA
    To think my darling Kane is looking at this self-same Moon. Oh my distant celestial friend -
    KANE laughs. Shoves her sideways. LENA keeps going.
    LENA
    - please care for my beloved...
    KANE grabs her. Tries to stop her talking.
    LENA
    - my brave soldier...
    KANE
    Jesus - you know what you are? You're disrespectful, not just to the men and women of the armed forces -
    LENA yelps as he starts tickling her.
    KANE
    - but the also the President.
    LENA
    (between gasps)
    You forgot the flag!
    KANE
    I was getting to the flag.
    LENA can no longer talk because he's tickling her too hard. She becomes helpless with laughter, as they rolling on the grass. Eventually, catching her breath back.
    LENA
    Oh my hero.
    KANE
    Screw you.
    LENA
    Okay.
    They start kissing. With passion. CUT TO - - the FULL MOON. Suspended in the blue. Crater patterns only faintly visible in daylight. Then - - the MOON SHIMMERS. And then, like a cell under a microscope - - the MOON starts to DIVIDE. CUT TO -

INT. TENT - DAY
    - LENA, waking with a jolt. Wearing a T-shirt and underwear. Looking around. Surrounded by BRIGHT ORANGE. Taking a moment to understand she is inside a tent.

EXT. FOREST CLEARING/CAMPSITE - CONTINUOUS
    LENA unzips the front flap of her tent and climbs out - - to discover a campsite. Five small tents, circled around a burned out fire. The campsite is positioned in a grassy clearing, deep inside a forest. The surrounding trees are Oak and Cyprus. Looking up, the sun and clouds are seen through the familiar mirage-like distortion - as if the Shimmer is like a dome structure, which we are now inside. Just in front of LENA, THORENSEN and SHEPPARD sit surrounded by packets of food. A little distance away, RADEK is looking at a piece of electronic equipment. DR VENTRESS is nowhere to be seen. LENA looks stunned.
    LENA
    ... What the Hell?
    THORENSEN and SHEPPARD look round.
    THORENSEN
    Good. You're finally awake.
    LENA
    Uh...
    LENA takes a moment.
    LENA
    Sorry, you're going to have to give me a moment. I'm a little... thrown.
    SHEPPARD
    Join the club.
    THORENSEN
    You don't remember setting up camp, right?
    LENA
    ... I don't remember anything, after we reached the tree line.
    SHEPPARD
    None of us do. But check your boots and pants. They'll be wet and covered in mud. And we've been doing an inventory of the food. From the depletion in our stocks, we've been out here for at least forty eight hours.
    LENA shakes her head.
    LENA
    That's not possible.
    RADEK walks over, looking nervous.
    RADEK
    Guys - you want to know what's weird?
    THORENSEN
    I want to know what isn't weird.
    RADEK pulls her short-wave radio from her belt. Gives it a burst. It plays STATIC.
    RADEK
    I've been checking all my radio and electronic equipment. None of it is working properly. Like, I can switch on the sat-phone, and the GPS, and they boot up fine - but there's no signal. Even though we've probably got twenty satellites above us right now - nothing. And check this out.
    RADEK holds up a magnetic COMPASS. The needle is spinning slowly.
    RADEK
    It's like we're in the middle of the most massive electromagnetic interference.
    There is excitement in RADEK'S voice. And a note of panic.
    RADEK
    So we've got no compass, no comms, no coordinates, and no landmarks. We don't know where we are, or what direction we should be heading.
    SHEPPARD
    Radek - be cool. We know we're in the state park. So if we go South, we hit the ocean. Once there, we can follow the shoreline until we hit the perimeter wall.
    RADEK
    But how do we know what's South?
    SHEPPARD stands. Pulls up her sleeve. Shows her wrist watch.
    SHEPPARD
    Take your watch. Point the hour hand at the sun. Split the difference between the hour hand and twelve.
    As she's talking, she's doing. Having orientated the watch to the sun, she points into the forest.
    SHEPPARD
    South.
    THORENSEN raises her eyebrows.
    THORENSEN
    Get you, Sheppard.
    SHEPPARD
    Yeah. Get me.
    DR VENTRESS
    Very impressive.
    LENA looks around. DR VENTRESS is right behind her. She shows no sense of concern about the situation. She seems almost serene.
    DR VENTRESS
    And honestly, Radek - we weren't really expecting the equipment to work, were we? After thirteen years of expeditions, and thirteen years of radio silence.
    She gestures at the tents.
    DR VENTRESS
    Let's pack up and get moving. It's already gone ten o'clock. We don't want to lose any more of the day.

EXT. SWAMP - DAY
    The five women are walking in knee-deep water. It's hot. Heavy backpacks. Heavy weapons. Hard going. It's also impossible to gauge the depth of the swamp. THORENSEN suddenly steps into a hole. Sinks into the black water, up to her waist.
    THORENSEN
    God damn it.
    LENA offers THORENSEN a hand. Hauls her out.
    THORENSEN
    Now I know why we all got amnesia. Why would you want to remember this shit-hole?
    THORENSEN marches ahead, soaked, pissed off. LENA looks around. Sees the Cyprus trees with their fanned-out roots, Spanish moss on the branches, dappled sunlight through the high canopy. All reflected in the glassy water. LENA turns to RADEK.
    LENA
    I'd like to remember it.
    RADEK
    Sure. It's beautiful.
    They start walking again.
    LENA
    So you're a scientist too? A physicist, right?
    RADEK
    Astrophysicist. Specifically the life-cycle of stars.
    LENA
    And what is the life-cycle of stars?
    RADEK
    Long.
    LENA laughs.
    LENA
    I do the life-cycle of cells. Short.
    RADEK shrugs.
    RADEK
    Still a cycle.
    UP AHEAD - - SHEPPARD has seen something. A structure, through the trees. SHEPPARD calls back to the others.
    SHEPPARD
    Over here!

EXT. SWAMP/FISHING HUT - DAY
    On the bank of the swamp is the half-collapsed frame of a wooden hut, and a short jetty. The hut is smothered on one side by a dense carpet of brightly coloured FLOWERS. They cover the ground and push up the side of the building like a snow drift. The five women approach it.
    THORENSEN
    Think this place might show up on the maps?
    SHEPPARD
    Doubt it.
    SHEPPARD peers inside the door frame. The roof has partially fallen in. Sunlight illuminates the interior. There's a bench and a table. Some hooks on the walls. Everything metal is long corroded. Everything wooden is black and damp, and patched with moss.
    SHEPPARD
    I think it's just a fishing hut.
    BACK OUTSIDE - - LENA crouches by the brightly coloured flowers, growing on the side of the structure. Like a sprawling bouquet, they are very varied. Some large. Some small. Some a vivid blue. Some red. Others are creamy white, with scatterings of orange-fringed crimson on the broad petals.
    LENA
    ... These are extremely strange flowers.
    DR VENTRESS
    Why?
    LENA
    To look at them you wouldn't say they're the same species.
    LENA pulls back an area of flowers to show the plant system beneath.
    LENA
    But they're all growing from the same branch structure. So not just the same species. The same plant.
    RADEK
    They're like snowflakes. Each one is different. I've never seen anything like it.
    LENA
    It seems stuck in a continuous mutation. Some kind of morphogenesis error.
    DR VENTRESS
    You mean it's a pathology?
    LENA
    It's very pretty, but you'd sure as Hell call it a pathology if you saw it in a human.
    LENA picks a white and crimson petal, and holds it.
    DR VENTRESS
    Amazing pattern. Like a Rorschach test.
    LENA offers it to her.
    LENA
    So what do you see in there?
    RADEK has found something else.
    RADEK
    Hey, check this out.
    In the undergrowth behind the hut, there are the hulls of two upturned flat-bottomed fibreglass boats. She crouches down, and get a hand under the lip of the hull. Lifts the fibreglass boat easily.
    RADEK
    We could use these. Be much quicker way of getting across the swamp.
    REVEAL - - something that RADEK hasn't seen. In the black swamp water behind RADEK, there is the half- submerged head of a huge ALLIGATOR. Its armoured skin is BLACK. Obsidian. Reflective. And it has strange eyes. Red pupils that bleed into yellow, like diffusing saffron. Oblivious, RADEK turns back to LENA and DR VENTRESS.
    RADEK
    Shall we see if they still float?
    The NEXT MOMENT - - the ALLIGATOR LUNGES at RADEK. Thrusting out of the water. Massive jaws pulling open. We can see amidst the water spray and flash of movement, this creature is at least two times the size of a normal gator, in bulk as well as length.
    LENA
    Radek!
    RADEK reacts - - and sees the gaping MOUTH and TEETH as they lunge towards her. She turns away - - just as the creature's jaws SNAP. Closing on her BACKPACK. RADEK'S screams are abruptly knocked out of her - - as the ALLIGATOR viciously snaps its head to the side, tossing the young woman like a ragdoll. RADEK remains held fast by the shoulder straps on her bag. Then - - the ALLIGATOR pulls back into the water, and both the creature and RADEK are gone. A moment of stunned silence. Then LENA is running for the water. RADEK!
    DR VENTRESS
    Lena! Stop!
    LENA doesn't listen. Runs into the swamp up to her knees, gun raised, sweeping the black mirrored surface. RADEK! THORENSEN and SHEPPARD appear from the hut.
    THORENSEN
    What the Hell happened?
    LENA
    A gator took her! We've got to -
    AT THAT MOMENT - - RADEK bursts out of the water, only a couple of metres from LENA. Her backpack is gone. She's gasping for breath.
    RADEK
    Help! HELP ME!
    LENA grabs her. Starts dragging her out of the swamp.
    RADEK
    It's got my bag!
    LENA
    Fuck the bag!
    Just as they reach the bank -
    THORENSEN
    Shit!
    - as the water erupts behind them as the GATOR appears and lunges again. LENA shoves RADEK hard to the side, and pulls her rifle to her shoulder - - and opens fire. She empties an ENTIRE clip into the GATOR. Rounds slam into torso, punching through the reptile armour. But incredibly, the creature isn't killed. It simply redirects its attention from RADEK to LENA. LENA desperately tries to jam in a new clip - - as the GATOR propels itself in her direction. Just as the creature is about to reach her - - the CLIP is driven home, and LENA cocks her gun and opens fire again - - emptying this magazine at point blank range, directly down the GATOR'S THROAT. The muzzle flash illuminates the interior. Bullets slam into the flesh. This time, LENA is joined by SHEPPARD, THORENSEN and DR VENTRESS. In five seconds, four women empty four magazines. Riddling the creature's head and torso. After the last shot is fired, the ALLIGATOR remains supported on its legs, jaws open, frozen for a moment, half out of the water. Then the legs buckle. And the jaws shut. It's dead. CUT TO BLACK.

INT. GATOR - DAY
    IN DARKNESS, we hear RADEK'S voice. Muffled.
    SHEPPARD (O.S.)
    Be careful! There might be a reflex!
    THORENSEN (O.S.)
    I think its reflex days are behind it.
    SUDDEN DAYLIGHT - - as we see the jaws being prized back open, from the POV of the gullet. We are inside the wet cave of the GATOR'S mouth, looking out over a slab of tongue, and jagged stalagmite/stalactite teeth. LENA is peering in. Behind her, we can see RADEK and DR VENTRESS. The jaw is being held open by SHEPPARD and THORENSEN.
    LENA
    ... Woah.
    LENA sticks her head even further inside.
    LENA
    It's the exactly same as the flowers.
    We see what LENA sees. Behind the row of teeth, there is a second row. Internal, folded backward slightly. And behind the second row, there is third, these almost flat.
    LENA
    Look at the teeth. Concentric rows. Something here is making big waves in the gene pool.
    SHEPPARD
    Sharks have teeth like that.
    DR VENTRESS
    Could it be a cross-breed?
    LENA
    You can't cross-breed different species. They have different genes.
    THORENSEN
    (strained)
    Hey - that's all cool. But can you get your head the fuck out so we can let this go? It's getting kind of heavy.
    A final beat on LENA'S puzzled expression. Then LENA nods.
    LENA
    Sure.
    LENA retracts her head. The jaw shuts with a wet thump. Back to BLACK. CUT TO -

EXT. SWAMP - DAY
    - a tree in the swamp. The trunk is clustered with fat mounds of moss, flourishing like petri-dish cultures. They have bright colours. Not just greens, but intense reds, and purples, and rust colours. They look like disease. CUT TO -

EXT. SWAMP - DAY
    - the flat-bottomed boats gliding over black water. Swampland floating by. Serene. The first boat holds DR VENTRESS, RADEK and THORENSEN, with THORENSEN paddling. The second boat holds SHEPPARD and LENA. While SHEPPARD paddles, LENA is preoccupied by a mark on her forearm. It looks like a faint bruise. LENA pushes at it with her thumb. Vaguely puzzled about where she picked it up.
    SHEPPARD
    You hurt, Kerans?
    LENA
    Just a bruise. Guess I picked it up with that gator.
    SHEPPARD
    Likely.
    Beat.
    SHEPPARD
    So where did you learn to shoot?
    LENA looks round. Prepares to gets her internal story straight.
    LENA
    My husband was military. We used to go hunting together in Pennsylvania. Deer.
    SHEPPARD
    Was military.
    LENA
    Yeah.
    SHEPPARD
    He quit.
    LENA
    ... No.
    LENA hesitates. Doesn't want to lie to SHEPPARD - but does.
    LENA
    KIA.
    It's almost the truth.
    SHEPPARD
    I'm sorry to hear that.
    Beat.
    SHEPPARD
    But I guess there had to be something.
    LENA
    What do you mean?
    SHEPPARD
    Signing up for something like this - it's not something you do if your life is in perfect harmony.
    SHEPPARD nods towards the other boat.
    SHEPPARD
    We're all damaged goods here. Thorensen is teetotal, therefore an addict. And Radek won't wear short sleeves because she doesn't want you to see the pale scars on her forearms.
    LENA
    Ventress?
    SHEPPARD
    She's like an office building in a financial district. All steel and glass and height. But what for?
    Beat.
    LENA
    You?
    SHEPPARD pauses.
    SHEPPARD
    I lost someone. Like you. But, a daughter. Leukemia.
    Silence.
    LENA
    Thorensen called this a suicide mission.
    SHEPPARD
    I doubt it's as shrink-wrapped as that.
    LENA
    But on some level.
    SHEPPARD
    You tell me, Kerans. When you volunteered, did you have high expectations of making it back?
    LENA
    I wasn't thinking in those terms.
    LENA looks at SHEPPARD evenly.
    LENA
    But now you mention it: yes. I'm going to be making it back.
    SHEPPARD smiles.
    SHEPPARD
    Babe, I'm sticking with you.
    They lapse back into silence. Behind them, SHEPPARD'S oar strokes leave a gentle disturbance on the water. CUT TO -

EXT. SWAMP - DAY
    - THORENSEN in the lead boat. Eyes narrowing.
    THORENSEN
    We got something here...
    REVEAL - - the two boats gliding towards a shoreline. Behind which, there is a cluster of low concrete buildings.

EXT. ABANDONED BASE - DAY
    The five women walk into the collection of buildings. They have a distinctively military feel. Prefab huts, breeze block walls, chain-link fences, guard huts by the gate. Nature has been busy reclaiming the area. Tall grasses push through cracks in the tarmac. The concrete is stained with rain and dark algae. And as with the trees in the swamp, brightly-coloured mosses bloom on the buildings. DR VENTRESS notices LENA'S gaze going to them.
    DR VENTRESS
    More mutations.
    LENA
    I saw many on the trees. They're everywhere.
    DR VENTRESS
    They look malignant, don't you think? Like tumours.
    LENA doesn't answer. DR VENTRESS addresses the group.
    DR VENTRESS
    At least now we know where we are. This was the previous Southern Reach headquarters, before the Shimmer swallowed it.
    SHEPPARD pulls her map out. Scans.
    SHEPPARD
    Yes. I've got it. Right here.
    RADEK exhales.
    RADEK
    Awesome. We're not lost any more.
    THORENSEN looks around.
    THORENSEN
    And it's nice timing. A pretty good place for us to stay the night.
    DR VENTRESS
    Agreed.
    She points to a low building up ahead.
    DR VENTRESS
    That used to be the barracks. We'll billet in there.

INT. ABANDONED BASE/BARRACKS - DAY
    The door to the barracks dormitory opens, and the five women enter. Light pushes through the grimy windows, and the foliage that has grown up outside. It illuminates rows of beds with bare mattresses. THORENSEN pulls off her bag and drops it on the nearest one.
    THORENSEN
    I've slept in worse.
    SHEPPARD
    Not sure I have.
    LENA takes a couple of steps further into the room. She's seen something, a couple of beds further into the barracks. There's something lying on the ground. When she gets closer - - she sees it's someone's BACKPACK. And she recognises what kind of someone. Khaki. Military. Spec ops. Beat. Then LENA turns to the others.
    LENA
    Uh - guys. Come and look at this.
    The others join her.
    RADEK
    ... Whoa. Someone else is here?
    LENA
    Was here. It's covered in dust.
    THORENSEN
    You think one of the other missions?
    DR VENTRESS
    Certainly could be. No reason to assume they weren't able to reach as far as us.
    SHEPPARD
    Why would they leave their gear here?
    THORENSEN
    Guess they left in a hurry.
    LENA opens the bag. Starts pulling stuff out. Produces a washbag. A scrunched-up rain poncho. Then - - a VIDEO CAMERA.
    SHEPPARD
    ... Hello.
    LENA glances back at the others.
    THORENSEN
    What are you waiting for? Do it!
    LENA pops open the flip screen. Presses the play button. ... And the camera is stone dead.
    LENA
    Figures.
    RADEK
    No problem. Just take out the memory card and we'll stick it in my camera.
    CUT TO -

INT. ABANDONED BASE/BARRACKS - DAY
    - the five women, standing around RADEK'S camera, waiting for her to switch it on. RADEK clips shut the card hatch, and powers the camera up.
    RADEK
    There we go.
    CUT TO -

INT. SCREEN - CONTINUOUS
    - extreme CLOSE UP on the tiny SCREEN of RADEK'S camera. The video starts. At first, abstract. Something dark and unfocused, accompanied by the kind of noise you hear when someone accidentally dials their phone from their pocket. Then the image and noise suddenly resolve. And we find we are looking at KANE. And he's looking at us.
    KANE
    I don't know how long we've been here.
    CUT TO -

INT. ABANDONED BASE/BARRACKS - CONTINUOUS
    - LENA. Freezing at the sight of her husband. She shoots a glance at DR VENTRESS. DR VENTRESS doesn't look back.
    KANE (O.S.)
    It must at least be weeks. But it could also be months, or years.
    CUT BACK TO -

INT. SCREEN - CONTINUOUS
    - KANE. We see he is sitting on steps, in sunlight. Somewhere in the abandoned base. Red eyes, unshaven. Wired. As if he hasn't slept in days. He's looking just past the lens - addressing not the camera, but the CAMERAMAN.
    KANE
    We've lost track. Of time, and everything else.
    Beat.
    KANE
    Sometimes I think I must be dreaming. But I know I can't be. Because I never wake up.
    Beat.
    KANE
    If anything, it's the other life that feels most like a dream. The wife. The home. They don't seem to -
    KANE breaks off. Glances over his shoulder.
    KANE
    You hear that?
    CAMERAMAN
    I heard it.
    A beat later, there is a distant crackle of automatic gunfire. KANE looks back at the CAMERAMAN.
    KANE
    They're coming back.
    KANE stands abruptly. Out of frame.
    KANE
    Get to positions.
    The video jerks sideways as the CAMERAMAN moves. Then CUTS STRAIGHT TO - - an INTENSE night-time FIRE-FIGHT. KANE and two others soldier - PEYTON and SHELLY - are crouched behind a LOW WALL somewhere in the compound. They take turns to fire over the top of the wall. Faces lit by muzzle flashes.
    KANE
    Reloading.
    PEYTON takes over from KANE. Firing at something in the darkness. PEYTON turns to the CAMERAMAN and shouts:
    PEYTON
    You seeing that? You getting it on film? You got to get it!
    CUT TO -

INT. ABANDONED BASE/BARRACKS - CONTINUOUS
    - DR VENTRESS.
    DR VENTRESS
    Freeze it there.
    RADEK hits pause. REVEAL the image on the screen. The picture is blurred, smeared by the fast left-right pan of the CAMERAMAN. But it seems to depict a SHIRTLESS MAN, running at the lens, no more than five or six metres away, burned-out by a blasting strobe of MUZZLE FLASH. There's something strange about the MAN'S form. His neck is twisted, pushing his head sideways into an unnatural position. It feels wrong. Broken. Where his jaw should be, there is a cavity, as if his mouth has swallowed the lower part of his face. It's unclear - his jaw may have been shot off. His neck may actually be broken. But his arms also have a strange broken quality. It's subtle, but the break point of the elbow is slightly higher than it should be. The upper arm too short, the forearm too long. The deformation is oddly animal-like. And again, as with the neck and jaw, ambiguous. Are we seeing what is there, or a distortion caused by the lighting and the smeared freeze-frame. BURNED OVER THIS IMAGE is a bright red streak. It is the RED DOT LASER SIGHT of KANE'S gun, carved across the frame like the tail-light of a car burned onto a retina. The aim is about to settle on the MAN'S torso. SILENCE, as the five women absorb what they are seeing. Broken by THORENSEN.
    THORENSEN
    ... Whoa. What the Hell happened to that guy.
    SHEPPARD
    Has his jaw been shot off?
    THORENSEN
    I don't know. Injuries do freaky stuff to people, but...
    The sentence trails.
    DR VENTRESS
    Press play again.
    CUT TO -

INT. SCREEN - CONTINUOUS
    - the film restarting. A split second later, KANE is firing. Bullets hit the RED DOT. And the DEFORMED MAN drops. The video CUTS again. This time to the violent sway-motion of the CAMERAMAN running. The video CUTS again. Now the CAMERAMAN is crouched beside KANE who is by the corner of a building, who is hunched over as incoming rounds hit the concrete. The firing is sustained - - then stops. Immediately KANE swings out and RETURNS FIRE. From somewhere nearby, over the noise of the firing we hear screaming. Then PEYTON shouting:
    PEYTON (O.S.)
    Cease fire! Cease fire!
    The video CUTS again. This time the CAMERAMAN is following SHELLEY. Now we're in an interior. Which we recognise, as the video aperture corrects for the light - - as the BARRACKS. CUT TO -

INT. ABANDONED BASE/BARRACKS - CONTINUOUS
    - RADEK, wide-eyed - realising.
    RADEK
    Oh shit - shit - that's here! They're walking right down this room!
    DR VENTRESS
    Radek, be quiet.
    CUT BACK TO -

INT. SCREEN - CONTINUOUS
    - SHELLEY and the CAMERAMAN walking the length of the barracks. Then into the SHOWER ROOM at the far end. There, they find KANE and PEYTON. Standing beside another man. His name is MAYER. And he's handcuffed to one of the water pipes. KANE and PEYTON are arguing. Raised voices.
    KANE
    What the Hell do you want me do, Peyton? Actually cut him open and take a look?
    PEYTON
    We got to, Kane.
    MAYER starts pleading.
    MAYER
    No - no you don't. You don't have to!
    PEYTON
    We got to.
    MAYER
    Kane, please.
    KANE
    You mean I've got to.
    MAYER
    Jesus - Jesus Christ - Kane!
    KANE
    God damn it.
    KANE reaches to his belt. Pulls a long fixed-blade knife.
    KANE
    I'm sorry.
    MAYER starts screaming.
    MAYER
    Jesus - I swear to God - there's nothing wrong with me! There's nothing wrong!
    KANE'S head snaps around to the CAMERAMAN.
    KANE
    You aren't filming this.
    MAYER
    (screams)
    KANE! DON'T -
    The image dies.
    CUT TO -

INT. ABANDONED BASE/BARRACKS - CONTINUOUS
    - the five women. Looking at the black screen. LENA is in a place beyond horror - mind assailed, not able to process what has just happened. SHEPPARD breaks the spell by leaning forward and switching the screen off.
    RADEK
    ... Oh God.
    THORENSEN
    You know them, right?
    For a moment, LENA thinks THORENSEN is talking to her. Then sees THORENSEN is directing the question at DR VENTRESS.
    THORENSEN
    It's the team that went in the year before us. The spec ops guys.
    DR VENTRESS
    Yes.
    SHEPPARD
    Including the one tied to the chair.
    DR VENTRESS
    His name was Mayer.
    Beat. Then THORENSEN starts walking. In the same direction we saw SHELLEY walk. Down the length of the BARRACKS, to the showers. After a few moments, the others go after her - - except LENA. Halfway down the barracks, DR VENTRESS stops. Looks back at LENA. A beat between them. Then LENA follows.

INT. ABANDONED BASE/BARRACKS/SHOWER ROOM - CONTINUOUS
    LENA enters. To find RADEK, SHEPPARD, THORENSEN and DR VENTRESS. In front of them is MAYER'S body. Still cuffed to the chair. Desiccated, skeletal. His ribs have been broken open at the sternum, and are splayed open like a book. Like inverted wings. And his skull is sitting on the ground. Laid in front of his feet. Silence.
    RADEK
    ... I don't want to stay here tonight.
    No one says anything.
    RADEK
    I don't want to stay here tonight!
    DR VENTRESS
    I don't think we have a choice. It's late in the day for us to move on.
    RADEK
    Please -
    SHEPPARD
    Hey.
    SHEPPARD puts a hand on RADEK'S face. Gently redirecting the younger woman's gaze away from the corpse.
    SHEPPARD
    We won't have to stay in the barracks. We can choose another building. And we'll figure out a guard rota.
    LENA looks down at MAYER'S open rib cage. The skull, and dislocated jaw.
    THORENSEN
    Right.
    CUT TO -

EXT. HOUSE/BEDROOM - NIGHT
    - LENA'S face. Asleep. In darkness. Then LIGHT flooding on to her closed eyes. Stirring her. IN THE FOREGROUND - - a glass of ORANGE JUICE is laid down. On to a bedside table. LENA blinks herself awake...

.. to see her bedroom.
    And KANE drawing the curtains. Then turning to her.
    KANE
    Freshly squeezed.
    LENA
    That's a surprise.
    KANE
    I'm full of surprises.
    He sits on the bed next to her.
    KANE
    But not all of them good. I'm leaving a day early.
    LENA
    You mean today?
    KANE
    I mean now.
    Beat.
    LENA
    ... Shit.
    LENA props herself up.
    LENA
    I had a whole day planned. We were going to go to Sam and Mary's for lunch, and then drive out to -
    KANE
    (cuts in)
    - I'm sorry. We can't.
    LENA reaches out with her hand. Takes his.
    LENA
    Well, can we at least -
    He pulls his hand back.
    LENA
    ... 'Now' means 'right now'.
    KANE
    Yeah.
    A beat. LENA picks up on something in KANE. A detachment. A subtle coldness.
    LENA
    ... What is it?
    KANE doesn't answer for a moment. Then he looks at her.
    KANE
    I love you, Lena.
    LENA frowns.
    LENA
    ... I love you too.
    On KANE. Gazing back at her flatly. Giving nothing back. Unreachable. CUT TO -

INT. ABANDONED BASE/REC ROOM - NIGHT
    - LENA'S eyes, flicking open. Echoing the image of her waking that we just saw. But this time, when she rubs the sleep out of her eyes, she's in the Shimmer. REVEAL what was once the REC ROOM of the abandoned base. There's a dart board on the wall, and a pool table with mould- covered baize, and a pinball machine with broken glass. She's got a sheen of sweat on her face. Wipes it off. Looks around. On the floor, she sees THORENSEN, asleep on her unrolled bedding. Beside THORENSEN is RADEK, also asleep. Beside RADEK is SHEPPARD. Awake. SHEPPARD winks.
    LENA
    Hey.
    The two women whisper quietly to each other.
    SHEPPARD
    How you doing, babe.
    LENA
    ... Fine.
    LENA nods at RADEK.
    LENA
    Good she's getting some rest.
    SHEPPARD
    Yeah - with the help of a little sedative.
    LENA
    How about you? Get any sleep?
    SHEPPARD shakes her head.
    SHEPPARD
    I'd need a horse-tranq to knock me out. I'm at least as freaked as Radek. Just hiding it better.
    Beat.
    LENA
    I'll go check on Dr Ventress.
    SHEPPARD
    You got it.

EXT. ABANDONED BASE/REC ROOM HUT - NIGHT
    LENA exits the REC ROOM hut. The hut is on the edge of the abandoned facility. The starlight doesn't illuminate much, but we can just about make out the chain-link perimeter fence, and beyond it, the black shape of the forest. DR VENTRESS is sitting at a picnic table, just outside the door, studying a map by torchlight.
    DR VENTRESS
    What are you doing up, Kerans? You're not due to relieve me until three AM.
    LENA
    I'm done sleeping for the night.
    DR VENTRESS
    In that case, you might as well take a look at this.
    DR VENTRESS taps way-point positions on the map.
    DR VENTRESS
    Here's us. Here's where I think we camped last night. And here's the lighthouse. Judging by the distance we covered today, we won't reach it tomorrow. But look, South West from here -
    DR VENTRESS indicates a new position.
    DR VENTRESS
    - Ville Perdu. A tiny community, evacuated ten years ago. I think we should aim there for tomorrow night. Then pick up the road to the coast.
    LENA says nothing. DR VENTRESS notices the non-response. She looks up at LENA from the map and the torchlight. A beat between them. Then LENA speaks.
    LENA
    The previous expeditions. Were they selected in the same way as this one? From volunteers.
    DR VENTRESS
    Yes. They were.
    LENA
    Even the soldiers?
    DR VENTRESS
    ... No one was ordered to go.
    LENA meets the doctor's gaze.
    LENA
    Then I have to ask: why did my husband volunteer for a suicide mission?
    DR VENTRESS pauses.
    DR VENTRESS
    Why would I have an answer to that question?
    LENA
    Because you ran the programme. You must have assessed him. And he must have told you.
    DR VENTRESS
    So you're asking me as a psychologist?
    LENA
    Yes.
    DR VENTRESS
    Then, as a psychologist, I think you're confusing suicide with self- destruction, and they're very different. Almost none of us commit suicide, whereas almost all of us self-destruct. Somehow. In some part of our lives. We drink, or take drugs, or destabilise the happy job -
    Beat.
    DR VENTRESS
    - or happy marriage.
    LENA reacts. Uncertain whether this was targeted at her. DR VENTRESS continues.
    DR VENTRESS
    But these aren't decisions. They're impulses. And in fact, as a biologist, you're better placed to explain them than me.
    LENA
    What do you mean?
    DR VENTRESS
    Isn't the self-destruction coded into us? Imprinted into each cell.
    Silence. DR VENTRESS shrugs.
    DR VENTRESS
    So.
    The word hangs. And LENA is spared having to find a reply - - by a strange noise, from somewhere in the darkness. A POPPING. A TEARING. Not organic. Metallic. Surprisingly loud. The heads of the women flick round to the source of the noise.
    LENA
    ... What was that?
    DR VENTRESS
    I don't know.
    LENA unslings her rifles and raises it, switching on the night-vision scope. CUT TO - - the green-white view. Scanning the tree line, through the fence.
    DR VENTRESS
    You see anything?
    LENA
    No, just -
    LENA breaks off.
    LENA
    Yes.
    Through the scope, there is something. A large hole in the perimeter fence. The chain-link twisted, pulled open. CUT TO - - SHEPPARD emerges from the REC ROOM HUT, into the moonlight, holding her weapon and a flashlight.
    SHEPPARD
    What's going on? I heard a noise.
    LENA
    Something's just come through the fence.
    DR VENTRESS
    What do you mean: through the fence?
    LENA dips the gun.
    LENA
    It's ripped open like a zipper.
    SHEPPARD
    But what could do that?
    LENA
    I don't know. Something big.
    ANOTHER NOISE. And this is organic. It's a thump of movement. Then a panting breath. A snort. And it feels very close. The three women freeze. A beat. Then SHEPPARD lifts her FLASHLIGHT. Points it straight in front of her. And illuminates a huge creature...

.. less than two metres away. It looks something like a BLACK BEAR. But like the GATOR, it's twice the size it should be.
    And it's stranger than the GATOR. It seems to be enmeshed with plant matter. Stems and leaves are growing out of its fur. Its fur hangs like the Spanish moss on the swamp oak branches. Long thorns push outwards, bristling over the crown of its skull, along its snout, down its arms. And it's up on its hind legs. Standing like a man, towering over SHEPPARD and LENA. Blotting out the stars. Then it opens its jaws. And it looks as if some of the plant matter is actually growing from inside the BEAR'S mouth. It is a terrifying and transfixing sight.
    SHEPPARD
    ... shit.
    The next moment - with shocking speed - the BEAR lunges downwards - - at SHEPPARD. There is a glimpse of her being pulled to the side, and almost COMPRESSED. Like a glimpse of someone being hit by a car. Then the FLASHLIGHT winks out. And SHEPPARD is gone. Sucked into a rush of movement and blackness. LENA, who has hardly had time to draw breath, now reacts.
    LENA
    Sheppard!
    No answer. LENA clamps the night scope to her eye, scanning desperately. SEES something massive in the darkness, moving fast, back towards the fence. A glimpse of SHEPPARD, dragged like a rag doll. Then it's gone. The creature, and SHEPPARD, have vanished.
    LENA
    SHEPPARD!
    THORENSEN appears, holding her gun.
    THORENSEN
    What's going on? Where is she?
    LENA
    She's gone! She was right here next to me - and something took her! It was like a bear, or -
    Sudden screaming. High, desperate. And sustained. It's SHEPPARD. But she's nowhere close. It's from the trees.
    THORENSEN
    ... Oh Christ.
    LENA, THORENSEN and DR VENTRESS start running toward the sound. They reach the break in the fence. But the forest beyond is immeasurably massive and dark, and the screams are from deep inside. LENA calls out - SHEPPARD! SHEPPARD'S shrieking continues. Then - - abruptly stops.

EXT. THE SHIMMER - DAY
    Daybreak, through the SHIMMER.

EXT. ABANDONED BASE/REC ROOM - DAY
    RADEK is sat on the ground. Shaking uncontrollably. DR VENTRESS sits on a chair, on the far side of the room, observing RADEK with a neutral expression. LENA and THORENSEN are standing.
    RADEK
    We have to go back. We have to go back now.
    THORENSEN
    She's right.
    DR VENTRESS
    Right in what sense?
    THORENSEN
    We've been attacked twice, we've lost one of the team, and we have documentary evidence that the previous team were also under attack - not just by mutated creatures, but each other. How more 'right' could she be?
    DR VENTRESS
    We haven't reached the lighthouse. We still don't understand the cause or nature of the Shimmer.
    THORENSEN
    But we have data, observations, photographs, samples -
    DR VENTRESS
    - all of which make the phenomenon less explicable, not more.
    THORENSEN
    That's beside the point! Our mission parameters are to get into Area X, find something out, and live to tell the story.
    DR VENTRESS
    Mission parameters?
    DR VENTRESS stands.
    DR VENTRESS
    I'm not sure I have any mission parameters.
    THORENSEN shoots a glance at LENA.
    THORENSEN
    ... What the Hell?
    DR VENTRESS
    I plan to get to the lighthouse. But I'm not going to pretend it's for a mission. It's because I want to know what's inside.
    DR VENTRESS walks to the door.
    DR VENTRESS
    I'll do it alone, if need be. You simply decide whether you're coming with me, or not.
    DR VENTRESS exits. Leaving LENA, THORENSEN and RADEK alone. Silence.
    THORENSEN
    ... She's crazy.
    Then THORENSEN turns to LENA.
    THORENSEN
    Thanks for the back-up, Kerans.
    LENA
    ... I didn't know there were sides.
    THORENSEN
    There are sides.
    LENA hesitates.
    LENA
    Okay. Then I agree with you. We should be heading back.
    THORENSEN looks relieved.
    THORENSEN
    Right. Good. The three of us can -
    LENA
    (interrupts)
    Just a minute.
    Beat. THORENSEN already doesn't like this.
    LENA
    We head back: yes. But I don't think we do it by retracing the route we took here. It took us approximately four days to reach this point, right? But the coast is only two days away. And as Sheppard pointed out: once we hit the shore, we can follow it until we hit the perimeter wall. It's impossible to get lost, and it will be easier terrain than making our way back through the swamps.
    THORENSEN
    You're saying we get out by going deeper in?
    LENA
    ... If you like, yes.
    THORENSEN
    If I 'like'? No Kerans, I don't fucking 'like'.
    THORENSEN doesn't disguise her suspicion.
    THORENSEN
    This isn't just a way of talking us round so we keep heading for the lighthouse.
    LENA
    It has nothing to do with the lighthouse. I believe the coast is the best route out. That's all.
    Silence. THORENSEN glances at RADEK. The younger woman has closed her eyes. Just trying to block it all out.
    THORENSEN
    (under her breath)
    Shit.

EXT. ABANDONED BASE/REC ROOM HUT - DAY
    LENA exits the hut. Wearing her backpack. Carrying her gun. DR VENTRESS stands in the spot where SHEPPARD was attacked, gazing towards the broken fence. LENA approaches.
    LENA
    We're coming with you.
    DR VENTRESS glances back at LENA.
    DR VENTRESS
    I knew you would be. But I'm glad about the others. Better we stick together.
    DR VENTRESS shoulders her backpack.
    DR VENTRESS
    Incidentally, Lena, I just wanted to say: on top of whatever else is going here, you shouldn't worry.
    LENA
    ... Worry about what?
    DR VENTRESS
    Your secret. It's safe with me.
    LENA pauses.
    LENA
    'My secret'. You're talking about my husband?
    LENA lowers her voice.
    LENA
    Is that not our secret? In that you were the one who instructed me to keep it.
    DR VENTRESS shrugs.
    DR VENTRESS
    By all means. If that way of seeing it is helpful to you.
    THORENSEN and RADEK appear at the door to the REC ROOM HUT.
    DR VENTRESS
    (calls)
    Are we good to go?
    THORENSEN makes no reply.

EXT. SWAMP - DAY
    The four-person team walk in single file. DR VENTRESS on point. Then RADEK. Then THORENSEN. Then LENA. As they walk, LENA becomes aware that THORENSEN is talking to herself. Low muttering. Unintelligible. It sounds like some kind of internal private argument, unwittingly externalised. LENA watches.
    LENA
    Hey Thorensen.
    THORENSEN'S gaze flicks round. There's a flash of something in her eyes. Something like anger. Something like a lack of recognition. As if whatever she's seeing at that moment, it isn't LENA. Then it's gone.
    THORENSEN
    What?
    LENA
    You okay?
    THORENSEN turns away.
    THORENSEN
    I'm fine. Leave me alone.
    CUT TO - - DR VENTRESS. Suddenly stopping. She's seen something just ahead. Then RADEK sees it too. Puts a hand over her mouth. As LENA reaches them, REVEAL - - crushed undergrowth, forming a trail into the trees. And along it, unmistakable splashes and smears of blood on the leaves.
    RADEK
    ... Sheppard.
    DR VENTRESS
    Very likely.
    LENA
    She might still be alive.
    DR VENTRESS
    I think it's unlikely.
    LENA
    I think we need to know.
    Beat.
    DR VENTRESS
    I'm not risking the entire mission.
    LENA
    Fine.
    LENA cocks her rifle.
    THORENSEN
    I'll come with you, Kerans.
    LENA glances at THORENSEN. Again, sees something in her eyes. A slight sheen or glaze. Something not quite right.
    LENA
    I'll go alone. Quicker, quieter.

EXT. SWAMP - DAY
    LENA heads through the swamp. Gun raised. Following the blood trail. From somewhere nearby, she hears a noise. Perhaps the BEAR. Perhaps something else. She freezes. Looks into the trees. There is movement in the foliage. Something could be out there - a creature, or person. Or equally it could be a trick of the light, and shadows. LENA watches. Waits. Sees something. But it's not the BEAR. It's a DEER. Or a deer-like creature. Elongated legs. Branch and leaf structures flowing out of its back. Then - skittish - it's gone. Sweat runs down LENA'S face. She blinks it out of her eyes. Silence returns. LENA heads on.

EXT. SWAMP/CLEARING - DAY
    Dense foliage. In it, we find LENA. Crawling forwards on her belly. She's seen something up ahead. REVEAL - - the end of the blood trail, in a clearing. In the middle of the clearing, sunlit, is SHEPPARD. Lying on her back, facing upwards. Clothes soaked with blood. LENA watches. Waits. No sound, except wind in trees.

INT. SWAMP/CLEARING - DAY
    LENA cautiously approaches SHEPPARD'S body, gun raised, continually scanning the tree line. As she reach her colleague - - REVEAL SHEPPARD. Her midriff is torn. Either bitten or clawed. Through the dark congealed blood and ripped material, we glimpse the blue- white coil of intestine. But her face is intact. There are flecks of blood on her cheek. And her eyes are open. Then - - something very strange happens. Her LEFT EYE - and her left eye only - makes a sudden jittering movement. Like a quiver. LENA jumps.
    LENA
    Jesus!
    Then SHEPPARD'S slightly parted lips move. As if just starting to form a word.
    LENA
    ... Sheppard?
    CUT BACK to SHEPPARD'S face - - as SHEPPARD'S mouth is pushed more fully open, which reveals that INSIDE her mouth, there is a creature. The size of small snake. The texture and colour of worm. SHEPPARD'S cheeks undulate gently with the movement. And the LEFT EYE suddenly starts to sink into the socket, as if being consumed. CUT TO -

EXT. SWAMP - DAY
    - LENA, returning to where DR VENTRESS, THORENSEN and RADEK are waiting.
    RADEK
    Did you find her?
    LENA
    She's dead.
    The finality in LENA'S voice dissuades follow-up questions. Wordlessly, RADEK, THORENSEN and DR VENTRESS shoulder their backpacks.

EXT. SWAMP - DAY
    Distant from the small group. They are far figures, moving through the green. Flitting in and out of view. Then merged totally. Gone.

EXT. THE SUN - SUNDOWN
    The light of the setting sun, refracting into a rainbow.

EXT. OUTSIDE VILLE PERDU - SUNDOWN
    The four women stand on a dirt road. Ahead is a small town. A backwater place. The twenty or so buildings are largely wooden and single-storey. Plant-life has been busy reclaiming the structures. The moss tumour-growths are even more extreme here. Some of the buildings are half-swallowed by the red and green clusters.
    DR VENTRESS
    This is where we camp tonight. The ocean is another two hours hike from here. We pick a house. Secure the windows and doors. And we don't venture out until sun-up.

EXT. VILLE PERDU - SUNDOWN
    The women enter the town. Not talking. Scanning. Alert. Weapons unslung, and hands resting with the finger above the trigger guard. LENA is distracted by the sight of one of the houses - from which a tree has appeared to grow from the inside. Branches push out through the windows and roof shingles.
    RADEK
    Kerans.
    The quiet urgency in RADEK'S voice makes everyone look round. RADEK is frozen to the spot. LENA follows her gaze - - and jolts. Twenty or so metres ahead, in the dark space between two of the buildings, there is what appears to be the silhouette of a MAN. Motionless. Arms at his side. Facing them. Only after registering the shape of the MAN does it become clear that there is something odd about him. He's slightly misshapen. His arms and torso are too thin. His legs are too thick. A beat. No one has moved. LENA takes a step towards the MAN. Raises a hand.
    LENA
    Hello?
    The silhouette of the MAN doesn't react at all. LENA takes another step - - and the shift in perspective reveals another figure. This one is behind the man, behind the building. Not in shadow, but caught in the light from the dropping sun. It looks like a CHILD. Also motionless, also misshapen. But now, in the light, the oddness of the shape makes more sense. The CHILD is not flesh and blood, but plant. A twisting root system form calves and feet, leading up to knotted branches and densely packed leaves. Like a topiary.

EXT. VILLE PERDU/STATUE GARDEN - SUNDOWN
    LENA, followed by the others, walks through the space between the buildings, past the shape of the MAN - - into something that is like a statue garden. In the space between the back of the houses and the tree-line of the forest, there are twenty or so plant figures. Some of them have grown into reasonable facsimiles of a man, or woman, or a child. Others are incomplete. The legs, and half the torso. An outstretched arm, becoming a tangle of twigs and leaves beyond the bicep. Others have exploded far beyond the basic outline of a human, expanding out into tree structures.
    THORENSEN
    What are these things? Were they made by the people who lived here?
    DR VENTRESS
    Impossible. The area has been empty for years.
    THORENSEN
    Or made by one previous teams?
    LENA examines a CHILD PLANT.
    LENA
    They haven't been cut this way.
    LENA plucks a LEAF from the CHILD FIGURE.
    LENA
    They've grown this way.
    THORENSEN
    What are you talking about? That makes no sense.
    RADEK speaks quietly.
    RADEK
    I think it does.
    RADEK has sat on the grass between two of the figures.
    RADEK
    In fact, it makes total sense.
    All turn to RADEK.
    RADEK
    I'd thought the radio waves were blocked by the Shimmer, and that's why no one inside could communicate with base or GPS.
    RADEK glances upwards.
    RADEK
    But I look up. I see the sun. And the sky. The light waves aren't blocked.
    Bright rainbow colours fringe the clouds above.
    RADEK
    They're refracted.
    RADEK reaches for her short-wave radio, hooked on her belt, and switches it on.
    RADEK
    And it's the same with the radios. The signals aren't gone...
    Through the STATIC FUZZ, there are sounds. Pulses. Soft distorted tones, that rise and fall.
    RADEK
    ... They're split. Scrambled.
    RADEK switches the radio off. Shifts her gaze to LENA.
    RADEK
    The leaf in your hand. You know what you'd find if you sequenced it? Hox. Pax 6.
    DR VENTRESS
    Hox? What are you talking about?
    LENA
    They're the genes that define body structure. But in animals. Not plants.
    RADEK
    The plants have arms. The arms are attached to shoulders. The legs are attached to hips.
    LENA is trying to collect her thoughts, mind racing.
    LENA
    No - they're just simulacra. Like a stick insect or chameleon. What you're saying is simply not possible.
    RADEK
    None of this is possible, Lena. But it's what's happening. The Shimmer is a prism. It refracts everything. Light, waves, fields, DNA.
    RADEK hesitates.
    RADEK
    All DNA.
    THORENSEN interrupts, overwhelmed by confusion and frustration.
    THORENSEN
    Stop! Just - stop talking science. Speak English. What do you mean, 'All DNA'?
    LENA
    You know what she means, Thorensen. She means our DNA.
    LENA lets the leaf drop.
    LENA
    Whatever's happening to everything else will also be happening to us.
    In the low sun, everything upright is silhouette, fringed with gold. On the ground, the long shadows of the women and the plant statues are fringed with chromatic aberration, and are indistinguishable from each other.

INT. VILLE PERDU/HOUSE - NIGHT
    The women are inside the FRONT ROOM of one of the abandoned houses. The KITCHEN is off the front room. The kitchen and living room windows have been barricaded, and LENA and THORENSEN are positioning a heavy dresser to jam the front door. Once it's in place, LENA turns to the others.
    LENA
    You all get some sleep. I'm keeping first watch.

EXT. THE MOON - NIGHT
    The moon in the sky, through the Shimmer.

INT. VILLE PERDU/HOUSE/FRONT ROOM - NIGHT
    LENA sits at the dining table. The room is lit by her upended flashlight. She's removed the top, exposing the bulb, like a candle. She's watching the other three. Laid out on their bedding. Their soft breathing. Satisfying herself that they're all asleep. Then she quietly opens her backpack. Removes a small case. Inside is the equipment we saw her select from the Southern Reach laboratory. A field microscope. A scalpel. She removes a blade from a sealed foil packet. Clips a blade into the scalpel. Then she rolls up her left shirt sleeve. It reveals her forearm - - and the unexplained BRUISE she first noticed while talking to SHEPPARD as they paddled through the swamp. The mark is now darker. And larger. Roughly circular, with a slight indication of a pattern. It's as the bruise were painted with ink on wet paper, and the marks have blurred into something too abstract to understand. LENA gazes at the strange, oddly malign shape. Then pushes the scalpel into it. Drawing blood from the dark marks. A beat. The sight of the crimson bead has hypnotised her. CUT TO -

INT. VILLE PERDU/HOUSE - NIGHT
    - LENA leaning over her microscope. CUT TO - - extreme CLOSE UP on blood cells. The biconcave shape are clearly visible. The MAGNIFICATION increases. We see inside the translucent cell structure...

.. Where something is shimmering.
    CUT TO - - LENA, leaning away from the microscope. Blank-faced. Then she stands, walks past the apparently sleeping figures of RADEK, THORENSEN and DR VENTRESS.

INT. VILLE PERDU/HOUSE/KITCHEN - NIGHT
    LENA enters the KITCHEN. Goes directly to the sink. And - quietly, with a minimum of fuss - throws up. When she has finished, she turns around - - and sees RADEK. Standing at the kitchen door. Looking at her.
    RADEK
    Well?
    LENA
    Your thesis is correct.
    RADEK
    What did you see?
    LENA
    It's in me.
    RADEK
    It'll be in all of us.
    LENA
    ... I imagine so.
    RADEK exhales. Beat.
    RADEK
    Do you think you can get any sleep?
    LENA doesn't answer.
    RADEK
    You should try.
    CUT TO -

EXT. SKY - DAY
    - CLOSE UP on the MOON in daylight. CUT TO -

INT. JOHNS HOPKINS MEDICAL SCHOOL/SEMINAR ROOM - DAY
    - LENA, talking to her students.
    LENA
    So we can describe cancer as a genetic mutation that causes unregulated cell growth. But genetic mutation is also the reason we exist. We wouldn't have evolved from the single-cell organism from which we're all derived.
    LENA pauses.
    LENA
    I think it's partly why cancer frightens us. It doesn't just hurt us, and kill us. It changes us.
    CUT TO -

EXT. VILLE PERDU/STATUE GARDEN - NIGHT
    - the moonlit human shapes in the statue garden. Not quite motionless. Moving gently in wind. CUT TO -

INT. HOUSE/BEDROOM - NIGHT
    - LENA'S face, moonlit. Seen over a man's shoulder. In bed. Having sex. CUT TO -

INT. HOUSE/BEDROOM - NIGHT
    - LENA. Now sitting at her bedroom window. Gazing out at the night sky over the suburban street. REVEAL the man on the bed behind her. It isn't KANE. It's her work colleague. DANIEL. Beats pass. Then LENA speaks.
    LENA
    This was a mistake.
    DANIEL
    Okay...
    He pauses.
    DANIEL
    ... But it's a mistake we keep making. It's not exactly the first time I've been in your bed, or you in mine. Whenever he goes away, we find ourselves right here.
    LENA
    It's still a mistake.
    DANIEL half-laughs.
    DANIEL
    You want to have this conversation again?
    Silence.
    DANIEL
    Fine. Let's have it again. You spend more time away from your husband than with him.
    DANIEL
    You can't talk to him about your work, and he won't talk to you about his. And there is a clear physical and intellectual connection between us. Have I covered the bases?
    LENA
    You didn't mention your wife.
    DANIEL
    I love my wife, as I always make plain. She's blameless in this.
    DANIEL sits up in bed.
    DANIEL
    Come on, Lena. What's really going on here?
    LENA doesn't answer. She's zoned him out.
    DANIEL
    Is it because you haven't heard from him? You think...
    DANIEL hesitates.
    DANIEL
    ... You think something may have happened to him?
    Beat.
    DANIEL
    Or you think he knows. That's it, isn't it? You think somehow he's found out about our affair.
    The note of anxiety in DANIEL'S voice pulls LENA out of her glaze. He's clearly more worried by the idea that KANE knows about their affair than KANE being KIA.
    DANIEL
    ... Has he found out?
    LENA glances back at DANIEL. Watches him for a moment. Flat. Dead.
    LENA
    You should go.
    DANIEL frowns.
    DANIEL
    Look, Lena, I -
    LENA
    Dan.
    DANIEL cuts himself off.
    LENA
    I'm not interested in talking to you, or anything you have to say. Just get dressed and get out, will you?
    A beat. Then DANIEL stands. Starts to put on his clothes.
    DANIEL
    You know it's not me you hate. It's yourself.
    LENA
    No, Dan. It's you too.
    LENA turns away, back to the window. CLOSE ON LENA'S FACE.
    LENA
    This is never going to happen again.
    She shuts her eyes. Behind her, out of sight, we hear DANIEL leave. Then - - we hear THORENSEN'S voice.
    THORENSEN (O.S.)
    You lying bitch.
    The voice intrudes in the way an alarm clock intrudes on a dream. The sudden awareness that the alarm is real, and the dream is not. CUT TO -

INT. VILLE PERDU/HOUSE/FRONT ROOM - NIGHT
    - LENA opening her eyes. Sees THORENSEN and RADEK. DR VENTRESS is nowhere to be seen. RADEK looks terrified. And THORENSEN is leaning over LENA. Eyes wide, lips curled back over teeth. Holding her automatic rifle. Pointed at LENA'S head. LENA startles - waking fast. Sitting upright.
    LENA
    ... What's going on?
    THORENSEN
    You don't get to ask that question. You get to answer it.
    RADEK tosses something. It lands on LENA'S lap. LENA looks down - - and sees KANE'S face, looking at her out of her open SILVER LOCKET. LENA'S blood freezes. She looks up - - just in time to see THORENSEN spin her rifle around, and smashes the stock down. Knocking LENA out cold. CUT TO BLACK. Then CUT TO -

INT. VILLE PERDU/HOUSE/FRONT ROOM - NIGHT
    - the view-finder POV of a CAMERA, as it POWERS UP. The camera is being handheld by RADEK, and is filming LENA and DR VENTRESS - - who are both tied to kitchen chairs. Wrists bound behind their backs. Ankles tied to the chair legs. Blood has run down LENA'S face from a cut inside her hair- line. DR VENTRESS is bruised under the eye. THORENSEN stands in front of them, holding her gun.
    DR VENTRESS
    Thorensen -
    THORENSEN'S gun swings immediately to DR VENTRESS.
    THORENSEN
    (cuts in)
    Shut up.
    The gun swings back to LENA.
    THORENSEN
    Keep talking, Kerans.
    CUT OUT from RADEK'S camera POV. The rest of the scene intercuts the camera footage with normal photography.
    LENA
    But Thorensen, I'm telling you - that's all there is to it! He's my husband. He was on the previous mission. He went in, came out, and was sick, and I needed to understand what had happened to him. I thought maybe if I knew what had damaged him, I could -
    THORENSEN
    (cuts in)
    Bullshit. You think I don't know this whole thing's a set-up? You two - you've been working together. You tricked us. You lied to us. You led us here.
    THORENSEN'S gun swings back DR VENTRESS.
    THORENSEN
    Tell me I'm wrong.
    DR VENTRESS
    You're wrong. But you're also not interested hearing in the truth.
    DR VENTRESS looks at THORENSEN. Hard. Unfazed.
    DR VENTRESS
    Or not able.
    THORENSEN
    What do you mean by that?
    DR VENTRESS
    Isn't it obvious?
    DR VENTRESS looks to the VIDEO CAMERA - to RADEK.
    DR VENTRESS
    Tell me, Radek. If the Shimmer is refracting us physically, couldn't it refract us psychologically too? Our perception? Our minds?
    THORENSEN
    Wow. You're a real piece of work, Ventress.
    DR VENTRESS
    Does Thorensen's behaviour seem rational to you at this moment? Does it seem sane?
    THORENSEN
    See what she's trying to do, Radek? See how she's trying to twist this?
    DR VENTRESS turns back to THORENSEN.
    DR VENTRESS
    You really can't see that what's happening in this room is exactly what happened on the previous missions?
    RADEK
    Thorensen - it is possible. What she's saying.
    THORENSEN
    Jesus Christ! Don't listen to her!
    RADEK
    But it is possible! Think about what's happening in this place. The things we're seeing. We could all be locked in some kind of rolling hallucination -
    AT THAT MOMENT - - RADEK is interrupted by the sound of SCREAMING. It's a woman. Coming from somewhere outside. And we've heard it before. It's the sound SHEPPARD made as she was being killed in the forest. The screams fade out. A beat of stunned silence in the room. Broken by THORENSEN.
    THORENSEN
    Sheppard.
    LENA
    ... It can't be Sheppard.
    THORENSEN
    That was her.
    LENA
    I saw her body.
    Another sudden burst of screaming. This time, it sounds much closer, and within it, we can hear words.
    SHEPPARD (O.S.)
    Help me - oh God please - please help me -
    It cuts out again.
    DR VENTRESS
    Kerans?
    LENA
    She was dead! I saw her body!
    THORENSEN
    You're telling me that's not Sheppard?
    LENA
    It can't be real!
    THORENSEN
    So it's a 'hallucination'? That we're all sharing?
    BANG. All jump. Something has knocked against the barricaded FRONT DOOR of the house. All heads turn to the sound of the noise.
    RADEK
    (hyperventilating)
    What was that?
    SHEPPARD (O.S.)
    Please - please -
    SHEPPARD'S voice is right outside the door. Something scratches against the wood.
    THORENSEN
    (calls)
    Sheppard?
    SHEPPARD (O.S.)
    Please, Thorensen, is that you? Oh God, I'm hurt, I'm hurt -
    THORENSEN
    Fuck.
    THORENSEN starts for the door.
    DR VENTRESS
    Thorensen, no!
    LENA struggles against her bindings.
    LENA
    Radek - untie me!
    SHEPPARD (O.S.)
    I'm bleeding -
    THORENSEN
    It's her! I've got to let her in!
    RADEK is frozen, staring at the door - - as THORENSEN starts pushing back the dresser that barricades it.
    THORENSEN
    Sheppard - hold on -
    SHEPPARD (O.S.)
    Hurry -
    NO!
    LENA
    (yells)
    Radek! Untie me NOW!
    RADEK finally reacts. Moves to LENA, pulling her KNIFE - - but too late. THORENSEN has pulled the dresser back, and pulled the door open. It reveals the huge plant-enmeshed BEAR-CREATURE that killed her. Lit now in the light from the room. - is the huge shape of the plant-enmeshed BLACK BEAR. Eyes reflecting light from the room as bright yellow discs. Long thorns cresting over its head and shoulders. Oddly elongated claws, like a long hooks of a sloth.
    THORENSEN
    ... Sheppard?
    The BEAR lifts a paw. And makes a simple motion - an upwards swipe across THORENSEN'S midriff. THORENSEN bends forward. And something wet and heavy splashes out of her stomach, onto the floor. Then she drops to her knees, then pitches forwards... ... at the feet of the BEAR. The BEAR turns to look at RADEK. And opens its jaws, as if to howl. But instead, it emits SHEPPARD'S high, desperate scream. OVER THE SCREAM - GET ME OUT! - RADEK'S knife slices through the rope tying LENA'S hands - - just as the BEAR-CREATURE forces its way into the room. Charging RADEK, LENA, and DR VENTRESS. The women are knocked violently aside. LENA'S CHAIR breaks as she lands - - allowing LENA to kick out of the ropes that tie her ankles. She crawls across the floor - - as the BEAR turns to RADEK - - and spears RADEK through the CHEST with a hooked claw. Lifting RADEK into the air, her feet leaving the ground. RADEK is impaled but alive. Hyperventilating. Legs bicycling in the air. Hands trying pull herself off the claw. LENA scrambles across the floor. Reaching for THORENSEN'S weapon, which lies beside her body. Grabbing it. Turning - - as the BEAR turns, still holding RADEK suspended. And LENA OPENS FIRE with the AUTOMATIC RIFLE. Emptying the entire clip into the BEAR'S freakishly deformed head. For a moment it remains upright. Then it topples like a felled tree. CUT TO THORENSEN - - on the floor, expelling a final gurgling breath, as she dies.

EXT. VILLE PERDU - SUNRISE
    First light, over the town.

EXT. VILLE PERDU/HOUSE/PORCH - SUNRISE
    RADEK sits on the porch of the house, slumped on a rotting wicker chair. Her chest is bandaged - but the bandage is soaked through with blood. Her skin looks like white wax. Her eyes open. She sees LENA sitting beside her. LENA holds a water bottle to RADEK'S lips.
    RADEK
    ... Thank you.
    RADEK'S voice is weak. She drinks a little.
    RADEK
    ... Dr Ventress?
    LENA
    Gone, about half an hour ago. The coast isn't far, so I'm sure she'll make it. The only real purpose of this expedition was to give her a chance to reach the lighthouse. Find out what's inside, after all these years.
    LENA pauses.
    LENA
    I don't much like her. But I'm glad she'll get what she wanted.
    A beat. Then RADEK glances at LENA.
    RADEK
    Why didn't you leave me here?
    LENA says nothing.
    RADEK
    I can't survive these injuries. You know that.
    No answer.
    RADEK
    You plan going to stay with me. Until I die.
    LENA
    Yes.
    RADEK nods. Then pauses.
    RADEK
    It was strange, hearing Sheppard's voice last night. I suspect that as she was dying, part of her mind became part of the creature that was killing her.
    Beat.
    RADEK
    It's a terrible thought. To die frightened and in pain, and have that as the only part of you which survives. Trapped in the mind of an animal.
    Beat.
    RADEK
    I wonder if I'll be trapped in you.
    Silence.
    RADEK
    There's morphine in the medical kits.
    LENA
    Radek -
    RADEK
    Give me whatever's left. Shut my mind down. Then shoot me.
    LENA
    Radek, please. Don't ask me to do this.
    Silence. RADEK'S gaze remains fixed on LENA'S face. Eventually, LENA has to meet it.

EXT. VILLE PERDU/STATUE GARDEN - DAY
    Sunlight in the statue garden. A few beats of quiet. Then the sound of a single gunshot. The retort slaps off the sides of the houses, then vanishes into the forest. A few beats later, LENA appears. Face drained of colour and emotion. She stares at the foliate people. CUT TO - - the statue garden. LENA has set all the figures on fire. She's watching them burn. And she's howling with rage and grief. For RADEK, SHEPPARD, THORENSEN, and KANE. Setting fire to the forest feels like revenge. From orange flames, wrapped around human forms - - CUT TO BLACK. CAPTION: PART 3 - THE LIGHTHOUSE: CUT TO -

EXT. BEACH - DAY
    A long hook of beach, where the swamp gives way to the sea. Massively empty. Miles of undulating dunes, and the great flat ocean. Along the beach, strange shapes rise. Visually similar to the tumour-like growths on the plants and buildings... ... but these are made of sand. Like massive termite mounds, as much as thirty foot high, morphed into spires and oddly organic abstractions. Only one other landmark can be seen. A couple of miles distant, seen through a blue haze of air and sea spray. The LIGHTHOUSE. Slender, tall. And white - where one can still see of the original construction, behind the brightly coloured moss. Leading that direction, a snaking line of footprints are clearly visible in the damp sand. The trail left by DR VENTRESS. CUT TO - LENA. Standing on the pale sands. Wind pulls at her hair. She looks down at her arm...

.. where the BRUISE has now resolved into something immediately recognisable.
    The dark circle and blurred indication of patterns have become a TATTOO. Exactly the same distinctive image that THORENSEN wore. The ouroboros. She touches it with her thumb, as half-expecting it might wipe away. And when she pulls her thumb away - - something moves in her flesh. Not just a flex. Much more fundamental. A bone, shifting and contracting. Or a muscle, worming its way to a new position. LENA closes her eyes.

EXT. THE OCEAN - DAY
    From the ocean, a single figure walks along the shore. Between the abstract SAND STRUCTURES. In the foreground, the back of a huge whale-like creature breaks the surface... ... then slides back beneath the waves.

EXT. BEACH/LIGHTHOUSE - DAY
    LENA stands on the beach. The LIGHTHOUSE is still a few hundred metres away. The area here is littered with bones and scraps of clothing. The scene of a massacre, many years ago. Blown and blasted by the wind, sand, sun, and salt. The bones look like ivory. A bright red backpack has been bleached pink. The body beneath it has almost been completely submerged into the dune. LENA reaches down and picks up the top half of a skull. The back of the skull morphs into the star-shape of a vertebrae, as it had been fused with its own backbone. LENA drops it back on the sand. Then continues towards the tall white lighthouse building.

EXT. LIGHTHOUSE - DAY
    From the top of the lighthouse, we watch LENA approach. Below, at its base, its door hangs open, swinging in the sea breeze, knocking gently against its frame.

INT. LIGHTHOUSE - DAY
    LENA enters the base of the lighthouse. Light filters down from the window, thirty metres above. It illuminates a round room, with some specific features. A wooden staircase winds up the circular wall to the top of the structure. Abandoned on the floor, there is some MILITARY GEAR. A BACKPACK, surrounded by cannister-shaped GRENADES, and a RIFLE. Opposite where LENA enters, there is a TUNNEL in the floor, about two metres in diameter. At its entrance, the wooden boards have been pulled up, and laid out as a kind of ramp structure, leading downwards. INSIDE the tunnel something glows. The soft blue-green light of phosphorescence. Finally, in the middle of the room there is a VIDEO CAMERA on a tripod. The camera faces a long black scorch mark, rising up the curved wall, from a blackened heap on the ground. The nature of the heap is unclear. It's charred and fused beyond all recognition. LENA takes this all in. Her gaze finally settling on the CAMERA. CUT TO -

EXT. SWAMP - DAY
    - the PLAYBACK ON THE CAMERA. Which opens TIGHT on SHELLEY screaming:
    GET AWAY!
    GET AWAY FROM ME!
    It's a blurred, shaking image. PEYTON is trying to hold SHELLEY, who is bare-chested, and struggling violently. KANE is holding a rifle on them both. All the soldiers are unkempt. Unwashed. Bearded.
    KANE
    Let him go for Christ's sake!
    PEYTON releases SHELLEY. SHELLEY breaks away. Running for a tree-line. KANE opens fire. CUT TO -

EXT. SWAMP - DAY
    - SHELLEY, lying in the grass, filmed by the CAMERAMAN. KANE and PEYTON stand either side. We can see that SHELLY has been shot in the chest. He's not dead yet. He's making a wheezing sound, as his punctured lungs collapse. Now that the camera is focused and steady, we can also see that SHELLEY has some extremely strange deformations. On his neck, there is a split, or opening. Effectively a large tracheotomy, shaped as a sideways mouth, running from the concave skin above his collar bone to under his chin. Inside the mouth, where there might be a tongue, there is something fat and white and red. It looks like a skinned SNAKE. Air bubbles through the blood around it, and the SNAKE is writhing slowly. There are more deformations on SHELLEY'S arms. Each one is split, just below the elbow, into two. Each split has secondary protrusions, finger-like, at irregular intervals. PEYTON looks haunted. Jaw locked into a rictus.
    PEYTON
    Oh God, Shelley...
    KANE cuts PEYTON off - - by lifting his gun and firing a quick burst into SHELLEY. In SHELLEY'S throat, the skinned SNAKE judders and contorts. Then stops moving. KANE pulls at PEYTON'S shoulder.
    KANE
    Come on.
    CUT TO -

EXT. BEACH - DAY
    - the BEACH. KANE and PEYTON are standing on the sand, facing the ocean. They appear to be waiting for something. After a few seconds, it appears. First, a disturbance in the water - as if caused by a quake on the seabed, a hundred metres from the shore. KANE jabs a finger.
    KANE
    There. It's coming again.
    Then an area of water is rising, as if forming a hill. Then the surface of the water breaks - - and a DOLPHIN launches itself into the air. The DOLPHIN is the size of a BLUE WHALE. The vast creature holds for a moment, suspended in mid-air, before gravity takes hold. Pulls it down with an almighty crash. KANE turns to the CAMERAMAN. Wired. Wide-eyed.
    KANE
    Unreal.
    CUT TO -

EXT. BEACH - NIGHT
    GREEN & WHITE NIGHT VISION. PEYTON is firing his machine gun at the night sky. Bright tracer rounds arc into the stars, dipping slightly, then burning out.
    KANE
    What the Hell are you doing?
    PEYTON
    Killing it.
    KANE
    You're just shooting at stars.
    PEYTON
    Where the fuck you think it came from?
    He fires off another full clip.
    KANE
    Quit wasting rounds! You're losing it, Peyton!
    PEYTON laughs. Slams in a fresh magazine.
    PEYTON
    (to himself)
    Losing it. Oh man.
    Turns to face KANE and the CAMERAMAN.
    PEYTON
    Have you two taken a look in the mirror recently? Or even a look at each other? Cause you really fucking should.
    PEYTON flips to his rifle's underslung GRENADE LAUNCHER.
    PEYTON
    Eat it, you son of a bitch!
    A hollow thump - as the grenade is fired. Then an explosion high in the air, like a firework, momentarily lighting up the sand and water. Then a moment of quiet. Waves lapping on the shore.
    KANE
    Think you got it?
    PEYTON makes a sobbing sound. CUT TO -

EXT. BEACH/LIGHTHOUSE
    - the CAMERAMAN recording the area of bones, in the dunes near the lighthouse. CUT TO -

EXT. BEACH/LIGHTHOUSE - DAY
    - KANE and PEYTON. They're a little distance away from the camera, where the dunes get flattened by the tides. PEYTON seems to be having some kind of seizure. He's on all fours, head dipped, with his spine buckling as if he's retching. KANE isn't helping. He just holds his rifle. Watching. Then PEYTON lifts his head - - revealing there is something wrong with the shape of his skull. At this distance, it's hard to tell what. Some kind of deformation that has elongated his face. Some words are exchanged between them. A beat. Then KANE shoots PEYTON. CUT TO -

EXT. BEACH - DAY
    - KANE. He's a long way distant from the camera. Standing waist-deep in the ocean. After a few moments, KANE starts pounding the water with his fists. Screaming and yelling. The rage is miniaturised by the scale of the landscape. Voice almost lost against the surf. Then he stops. And looks back towards the CAMERAMAN. Stares. CUT TO -

EXT. LIGHTHOUSE - DAY
    - KANE, walking towards the lighthouse. Through the towering SAND STRUCTURES. CUT TO -

INT. LIGHTHOUSE - NIGHT
    - KANE entering the lighthouse. He slips off his BACKPACK. Lays down his RIFLE. CUT TO -

INT. LIGHTHOUSE - NIGHT
    - GREEN & WHITE NIGHT VISION. The camera position is locked-off, on a tripod, in the middle of the room. It faces KANE. KANE is sat on the floor, cross-legged, with his back to the curved wall. Holding something in his hands.
    KANE
    I thought I was a man.
    KANE pauses.
    KANE
    I had a life. People called me Kane. But now I'm not sure.
    Beat.
    KANE
    If I wasn't Kane, what was I?
    KANE looks at the CAMERAMAN.
    KANE
    Was I you? Were you me?
    The CAMERAMAN doesn't answer.
    KANE
    My flesh moves like liquid. My mind is cut loose.
    Beat. Then KANE looks straight down the lens. His pupils glow like a cat's eye in the infra-red light.
    KANE
    I can't bear it.
    He opens his palm. He's holding one of the cannister-shaped GRENADES. He glances up at the CAMERAMAN.
    KANE
    Ever see a phosphorous grenade go off? Shield your eyes. They're kind of bright.
    KANE hesitates.
    KANE
    And if you ever get back, find Lena.
    CAMERAMAN
    I will.
    KANE pulls the pin on the grenade. There is a soft quick ticking, like wristwatch by your ear. KANE gazes directly at the camera. Unafraid.
    KANE
    Five, four, three, two -
    THE NEXT MOMENT - - the grenade detonates. A blinding white flame, as if KANE is suddenly holding the sun in his lap. A high pressure rush of noise. Initially, we can scarcely see KANE'S shape through the glow. Then it dims slightly, starting to burn itself out. We see his blackened shape bend. Fall forwards onto the sun. A couple of moments pass. The flare continues to die down. Then - - the CAMERAMAN walks forward. Stepping into frame. It's our first ever view of him. His back is to us. He gazes at the hunched charcoal figure, as it continues to blaze with the fierce white light. Then he turns his head. And in the etched light of the phosphorous, we see his face. It's KANE. ON THIS - - the image FREEZES. CUT TO -

INT. LIGHTHOUSE - DAY
    - LENA. Staring at the small screen on the camera, which remains frozen on KANE'S face.
    LENA
    (whispers)
    No.
    Her eyes flick to the blackened heap under the scorch marks. Now able to make sense of the shape.
    LENA
    No, no, no...
    She is interrupted by a sound. A distorted scream. Echoed and distant, as if having passed through passages and chambers. Female. DR VENTRESS. It's coming from the torn up floorboards. The TUNNEL, that leads down into bedrock. LENA looks to where the floorboards have been pulled up. To the tunnel entrance, and the soft blue-green light. LENA controls her fear. Knuckles white around the grip of her rifle.

INT. UNDER THE LIGHTHOUSE/TUNNEL - CONTINUOUS
    LENA makes her way down the tunnel, gun raised. The walls continue the curve of the lighthouse above, and the floor is sloping downwards - - which means the passage is corkscrewing into the ground. It is unclear how the rock has been cleared. The walls, ceiling, and floor are made of smooth black rock, like obsidian. The rock is rippled, as if worn smooth by an ancient stream or lava flow. It is seamed with PHOSPHORESCENCE - illuminating everything in the way that sea creatures light their way in the depths. And the walls seem to be moving. Or gently undulating. The surface of the walls are covered in CILIA. Tiny anemone arms waving, caught in the flow of slow-moving water. The flow movement is down. Deeper into the tunnel. As if what lies inside is feeding on what lies outside, and being channeled along a vein and capillary structure.

INT. UNDER THE LIGHTHOUSE/TUNNEL - CONTINUOUS
    As if from LENA'S POV - - we continue. And as we circle downwards, the ripples on the smooth black rock walls become more pronounced. Then stop being random undulations... ... and become FORMS. Organic. Embedded into the rock like fossils. First, there are fractal PLANT shapes. Leaf, branch, fern. Then, in the flora, there are ANIMALS. The patterned armour of an alligator, or its teeth, of the fat swirl of tail. The snout and claw of a bear. The curls of snakes. The feather imprints of birds wings. And then - we start to see HUMANS. A torso. An arm. A face, trying to push out from between the other forms. Or finger tips, stretched out, as if trying to grab or be grabbed. The tunnel has become a tableau. A boiling sea of people and creatures - melded and frozen in black marble. Animal into plant. Plant into human. Human into animal. And then - - movement. Treacle slow, but unambiguous. No longer frozen. No longer fossils. The walls are alive. Or the things inside them are not dead. And at the moment of that realisation - - the tunnel suddenly stops, and opens out into a CHAMBER.

INT. UNDER THE LIGHTHOUSE/CHAMBER - CONTINUOUS
    The chamber is roughly semi-spherical. Three quarters of a sphere, with the bottom levelled out into a floor. The sculpted forms of humans and animals continue across the floor, but as they rise up the walls they taper into curved points. Either side of these points, the walls are glassy smooth. The arrangement is similar to petals, as if we are on the inside of flower before it has unfurled. The interior of a vast lotus bulb. The very center of the chamber is particularly bright - because it is to here that the phosphorescent veins and channels all lead. And standing on this brightest point - - is DR VENTRESS. The doctor is internally lit. Cilia cover her skin like undulating fur. She shimmers gently. LENA hesitates in the entrance. She looks around. Up at the petal structure. Down at the energy feed beneath DR VENTRESS. Then back to the glowing figure of the doctor. LENA takes a step inside the chamber.
    LENA
    ... Doctor Ventress?
    DR VENTRESS turns to LENA. She has the same expression as KANE when he appeared back home. Alzheimer's-like. In her eyes there is confusion. But through the confusion, a vibrating sense of fear.
    LENA
    Dr Ventress - what's happened to you?
    DR VENTRESS hesitates. As if half-remembering.
    DR VENTRESS
    I had to know what it was. What was waiting. I had to know.
    Beat.
    DR VENTRESS
    And now it's inside me. I can feel it.
    LENA
    ... It's inside you?
    DR VENTRESS
    Yes.
    LENA
    What is inside you?
    DR VENTRESS
    Something old. The very oldest thing. From so far away. From stars. Of stars.
    LENA
    ... Something alien?
    DR VENTRESS
    Yes. Alien.
    DR VENTRESS looks down at her glowing hands.
    DR VENTRESS
    It's not like me. It's not like me at all. I don't know what it wants. I don't know what it wants from me.
    The cilia on her palms move like wind over a wheat field.
    DR VENTRESS
    I think it doesn't want anything. It doesn't care. It doesn't feel anything.
    As she talks, something disturbing begins to happen to DR VENTRESS. Splits, complex fissures, start rippling across her skin. As if her form is becoming unbalanced. She can feel it. The panic is rising in her voice.
    DR VENTRESS
    It's more than death. Nothing of what we are will remain. It's going to annihilate us. That's what it is. That's what's waiting. It's annihilation.
    DR VENTRESS looks back at LENA desperately. Panic now surging.
    DR VENTRESS
    Annihilation.
    Then DR VENTRESS can't speak any more. She has started undergoing an extraordinary physical transformation. It is a shape-shift of a kind that our mind cannot entirely make sense of - like a computer animation of a four dimensional shape casting a three dimensional shadow. A vector cube that unfolds and refolds from within itself, its interior indefinably becoming its exterior. IN THIS CASE - it is the doctor's skin that is unfolding and refolding. Her face splits open like a starfish. From out of the starfish, multiple circles of radiating objects emerge. Gold orbs, each with unique radiating Mandelbrot-like ferns. The rainbow ferns radiate ever-increasing size and complexity. The concentric circles are endless. The sense of expansion becomes vast. Until the mesh of immense structural detail becomes - - the mesh of undulating CILIA on skin. But DR VENTRESS is gone. Where she stood, there is a shape. The ALIEN. A BEING. An uncoalescing, fracturing form. Made of light, and ice, liquid. Endless refractions. Glimpsed within these deliquescing shapes, a creature from the world of electron microscope images. Surrounded by radiating impressions of infinitely smaller versions of itself. LENA and the BEING gaze at each other for a few hypnotic seconds. Then the BEING starts UNFOLDING again. Expanding, collapsing in on itself. And this time, during the TRANSFORMATION - - we see fleeting glimpses of other bodies and faces. SHEPPARD and THORENSEN. PEYTON and MAYER. Unknown team members from the previous expeditions. For a moment it is RADEK who stands in front of LENA. Then DR VENTRESS again. Then the RADIATING SHAPES have filled the chamber. They surround LENA. Then LENA herself is starting to unfold. Unravel like fabric.
    LENA
    No -
    Through this - - she lifts her gun. Like a dream - - which shatters, the moment she squeezes the trigger and FIRES. BULLETS slam into the BEING. The rounds have an amazing effect. Where they hit the body, a hole expands, like a bullet into ballistic gelatine - but does not contract. Where they penetrate the body, they leave bright trails of emerald light, like sunlight through dust motes. For a moment, the BEING is poised in this state. Hugely misshapen. Speared with brilliant green. Then it EXPANDS. TRANSFORMS. And RESOLVES - - into a HUMANOID FIGURE. Sexless. Featureless. Having the arms, legs, head and torso of a human - man or woman. But nothing else. No eyes, or mouth, or nose, or muscle form. LENA is transfixed by the sight. The FIGURE turns to LENA. And we see its smooth facial area. Internally lit. Cilia covering the skin like undulating fur, shimmering gently. A beat, between the woman and the humanoid. LENA'S weapon is out. She has no more clips. She starts to run. The HUMANOID observes her run. Then it starts to follow her. The first step is slow. The second faster. The third is as fluid and powerful as LENA. It starts sprinting.

INT. UNDER THE LIGHTHOUSE/TUNNEL - CONTINUOUS
    LENA sprints back up the tunnel. Stumbling over the shifting melded animal/human shapes. Crashing to the ground. Scrambling back up. CUT TO - - the HUMANOID. In pursuit. And we see something strange happen. Where LENA fell and tripped - - the HUMANOID does exactly the same thing. Falling in the same place. In the same way. A simulacrum of LENA'S action. CUT TO - - LENA, reaching the TUNNEL exit. Climbing back up into the base of the lighthouse.

INT. LIGHTHOUSE - CONTINUOUS
    LENA scrambles across the room - - towards the door to the LIGHTHOUSE. But she doesn't make it. The HUMANOID simply appears in front of her, before she reaches the door. It is unclear how it got there. A frozen beat. Then LENA STRIKES the HUMANOID with all her strength. And moment later, in a mirror of her actions - - the HUMANOID STRIKES HER BACK - but with incredible power. LENA is sent flying backwards across the room. She collides with the CAMERA and TRIPOD. All skid across the room to the wall. But it has provided LENA with a weapon. As the HUMANOID reapproaches her, she picks up the TRIPOD and swings it like a club, smashing the camera against the HUMANOID'S head. And again, the HUMANOID mirrors the actions. Using its arm like a club. For a second time, LENA is sent hurtling back across the room by the force of the impact. But this time towards KANE'S BACKPACK. She collides with it, and the PHOSPHOROUS GRENADES beside it. And as she gets to her feet, the HUMANOID is again on her. Standing directly in front of her. Featureless, eyeless, but somehow watching. Utterly, infinitely more powerful than she is. For the first time, we see something beaten in LENA. Something broken.
    LENA
    Please -
    She expects a killing blow. And flinches - - and the HUMANOID does the same. LENA sees. She immediately realises what we already know. The HUMANOID is mimicking her. She is fighting herself. We can see her thinking: can this be true. The killing blow still hasn't come. LENA lifts a hand. Fingers trembling with adrenaline and fear. And the HUMANOID'S opposite hand also rises. She pauses. The HUMANOID'S hand pauses. LENA'S hand starts moving again. Until - - she touches its cheek. An exact mirror of the gesture where she touched KANE'S face at the start of the film, when he appeared at their bedroom at home. A beat. Then the HUMANOID raises its hand. LENA holds motionless, suspended, except for tight breathing and trickling beads of sweat, as the softly glowing hand lifts to her face... ... Then - - lightly touches her cheek also. And as it does so - - the HUMANOID starts another FOLDING TRANSFORMATION. Rippling, folding, collapsing. And this time, resolving itself as KANE. LENA gasps. For a moment, the two face each other. Then LENA opens her mouth to speak.
    LENA
    ... Kane?
    Beat.
    KANE
    Kane?
    Another beat. REVEAL - at LENA'S feet - the PHOSPHOROUS GRENADES. CLOSE, on LENA. Processing. Controlling herself. Then - slowly - - she reaches down. Opposite her, in a slightly delayed mirror action - - KANE does the same. LENA'S hand closes around one of the metal cannisters. KANE does the same. LENA rises again. Never taking her eyes off KANE'S face. KANE rises. A final beat. LENA watching KANE'S face.
    LENA
    (whispers)
    I'm sorry.
    Then LENA pulls the pin. KANE mirrors. Soft ticking from the cannisters. Seconds passing.
    LENA
    (breathes)
    Five, four, three, two -
    Then - LENA drops the grenade - - and throws herself sideways. KANE'S head turns, sees - - but he's too late to fully react. LENA'S PHOSPHOROUS GRENADE DETONATES. And a moment later, so does KANE'S. The interior of the lighthouse is suddenly illuminated by stark white light. The route to the exit is blocked by the blaze. LENA scrambles for the STAIRS that spiral up to the top of the LIGHTHOUSE. Climbs upwards. Beneath her is LIGHT and SMOKE. In the brightness, we can glimpse the SHADOW SHAPE of the HUMANOID/KANE - shape-shifting in silhouette.

INT. LIGHTHOUSE/TOP - DAY
    LENA has reaches the top - a semi-circular balcony around the old housing for the lamp. Below her is a fifty foot drop to the burning interior of the lighthouse. The whole wooden structure of the building is starting to burn. She kicks out a window. The jump to the ground looks lethal. The lighthouse is ringed with a concrete platform. The only hope might be the sloping sand dunes, just beyond the ring of concrete, which could take the deadly impact out of the fall. But the fire behind doesn't give her a choice. Within a minute, her options will only be to jump or burn. LENA takes a step back, to give herself the chance to run at the window, and propel herself through with enough force to reach the dunes. But as the steps back, she JOLTS. And TURNS. The HUMANOID is directly behind her. It's burned. Horribly damaged. Locked into jittering transformations, none of which can quite resolve. Shadows of humans and creatures and alien forms flicker across it. All in expressions of agony. It is a TRULY NIGHTMARISH SIGHT. Reflexively, LENA screams. In its broken mirror state, the HUMANOID also screams. A maw appearing where a mouth might be. Then, as if with a final effort, it makes a FINAL TRANSFORMATION - - and resolves into LENA. A literal mirror image. Down to the finest detail. Their stances mirror each other. They are dressed identically. They are smeared with blood identically. And we have literally no way of telling who is who. A frozen beat. Then one LENA lunges at the other. Strikes. Impacts. And one LENA topples backwards, over the edge of the balcony - - falling down into the phosphorous blaze. The other watches. TIGHT ON HER FACE. As she watches herself fall. Blank. Held. Face illuminated by the bleaching light. There is no clear indication as to which LENA lived, and which LENA died.

EXT. LIGHTHOUSE - SUNDOWN
    WIDE on the burning LIGHTHOUSE. Long flames curl from the top window, into a plume of dark smoke. The sun is setting, and is clustered with the psychedelic colour refractions we always see through the Shimmer. Except that something is clearly happening. The movements and vibrations of the Shimmer are settling. And the colours are becoming less intense. Then all along the beach, the SAND STRUCTURES start collapsing. First one, then three, then seven. Then all together. Wind collects them as they fall. And as they fall, they REVEAL a figure walking across the sand towards us. LENA. CUT TO -

EXT. SOUTHERN REACH FACILITY/VIEWING PLATFORM - SUNDOWN
    - the viewing platform of the Southern Reach Facility, where people are exiting from the MESS HALL. Excitedly gathering to look at the view over the scrubland to the tree-line... ... where the SHIMMER is now clearly melting away. And the refractions are reverting to the blues, reds and oranges of a normal, beautiful sunset. PULL BACK. Wide. Then CUT TO -

EXT. THE NIGHT SKY - NIGHT
    - a STAR-FIELD in a night sky. Dense constellations. The Milky Way. Drift down. Past the MOON. To the SOUTHERN REACH FACILITY. And a lone woman walking out of the tree line, across the scrubland towards it. LENA.
    LENA (O.S.)
    I want to see my husband.
    CUT TO -

INT. SOUTHERN REACH FACILITY/MEDICAL WARD - NIGHT
    - a medical ward. LENA is walking down it, with a DOCTOR alongside, and two SPEC OPS SOLDIERS following.
    DOCTOR
    It was miraculous. It happened the same night that the Shimmer disappeared. His blood pressure stabilised, and his pulse rate started to rise. By the next morning, he was not only awake. He was lucid. Coherent.
    They have reached a door in the ward. Through the glass panel, LENA can see KANE inside. Sitting at a chair. Gazing out of the window.
    DOCTOR
    There's no trace of abnormality anywhere in his system.
    LENA
    I'd like to see him alone.

INT. SOUTHERN REACH FACILITY/WARD ROOM - CONTINUOUS
    LENA enters. Closes the door behind her. KANE looks round, and they lock eyes. Neither speak. After a moment, LENA goes to the WINDOW. Looks out at the NIGHT SKY.
    LENA
    Are you Kane?
    Silence. Then KANE gives a slight shake of the head.
    KANE
    I don't know.
    Beat.
    KANE
    Are you Lena?
    LENA hesitates. Then turns to face him. BEHIND HER - - we can see through the window to the night sky. And in that sky, we see a SHOOTING STAR. Then another. Then another. CUT TO -

INT. LOWER ATMOSPHERE - NIGHT
    - the shooting stars as FALLING METEORS. As we saw in the opening images of the film. A hunk of rock, burning as it falls through Earth's atmosphere. And as the nearest meteor splits apart, we see in its core. Something shimmering. CUT TO BLACK.
    END

Summary: Cellular biology professor and former U.S. Army soldier Lena is under interrogation. She was part of an expedition to an anomalous zone known as the "Shimmer", but she was the only one to return. The Shimmer emerged three years prior from a meteor that landed in a lighthouse in the St. Mark's National Wildlife Refuge in Florida, and it is gradually expanding and increasing its boundaries. Many exploratory expeditions were organized, but only Lena's husband Kane returns home after a year of absence. Kane cannot explain where he was and how he came back, and his condition quickly deteriorates. Lena calls an ambulance, but she and Kane are intercepted by security forces and taken to a secret facility. As Kane is put in intensive care, psychologist Dr. Ventress prepares a new scientific expedition into the Shimmer, and Lena joins her. Three other women participate in the expedition: Cass, a geomorphologist; Anya, a paramedic; and Josie, a physicist. Communication equipment does not function within the Shimmer's territory, and the expedition encounters unusually mutated plants and animals. Josie is attacked by an albino alligator with several concentric rows of teeth. At an abandoned military base, the group finds a video message from Kane's expedition, in which Kane cuts open another soldier's abdomen with a knife to reveal slithering intestines. The group finds the soldier's corpse, which has turned into an overgrown colony of lichens. At night, the base is attacked by a mutant bear that drags Cassie away, and Lena later finds her mutilated body. Within an abandoned village, Josie studies plants that have taken on a humanoid form, and theorizes that the Shimmer functions as a prism, distorting and transforming everything that falls within its boundaries—including the expedition members' own DNA. Anya, overcome with paranoia after watching her fingerprints change, disarms the other members and ties them to chairs, and accuses Lena of murdering Cassie. The mutant bear returns and lures Anya away by emitting a cry for help in Cassie's voice. The bear kills Anya, while Josie frees herself and shoots the bear. Ventress leaves the group and heads for the lighthouse, the center of the Shimmer. Josie believes Cassie's dying mind was "refracted" into the bear, and then allows herself to "refract" into a humanoid plant to avoid a similar fate. Lena follows Ventress to the lighthouse, where she discovers Kane's remains and a videotape. In the footage, Kane leaves an instruction to find Lena before killing himself with a phosphorus grenade. After the explosion, a doppelgänger of Kane steps into frame. Within the hole created by the meteor, Lena finds Ventress, who explains that the Shimmer will eventually swallow everything. Ventress then disintegrates into a shimmering cloud that absorbs a drop of blood from Lena's face and changes into a faceless, shimmering, humanoid being that mimics Lena's movements. Unable to escape the creature, Lena tricks it into igniting one of Kane's leftover grenades as it transforms into her doppelgänger. Lena flees the burning lighthouse and the Shimmer dissipates. Lena visits the Kane doppelgänger, and asks if he is really Kane, which he doubts. He asks if she is Lena, but she does not answer. They embrace and their irises shimmer.