THE FLYING BEHEMOTH
Working Title: The Flying Behemoth
Estimated Length: Three hundred pages
The Time: Slightly in the Future
The Place: A Government Base in an Unspecified Town and Points Beyond.
The Theme: The Dehumanizing Effect of Placing Man-Made Objects (Machines,
Governments) Above Human Beings, and the Saving Effects of Adventure,
Ingenuity, and Personal Commitment
The Characters:
A Doctor/Inventor
His Assistant
His Friend and Fellow Doctor
A Boy, Orphaned Son of Scientist who lives on the base
The Boy's Friend
An Evil Military Commander
A Warmongering, Conscienceless Scientist
The Ships:
The Flying Behemoth
The U.S.S. Nemesis II
THE FLYING BEHEMOTH
Act One: Jim Hawkins is coming
home from school. He comes walking down the steps and gets on his bike and
pedals off. As he passes from the city out to the edge of town he sees many
signs of hard times: people in long lines waiting for food and jobs, litter-lined
streets, groups of glum and idle men standing around listlessly, teenage gangs
fighting, people breaking store windows. He goes by these warily. As he gets
further into suburban areas things continue to look shabby: unmown lawns and
unpainted houses and squalid children abound. Finally he gets out into the
fields beyond and comes to the military base. It is a flat, nondescript place,
but spotlessly neat--almost oppressively so. We can see that there is something
just as wrong here, but in a different way.
He approaches the gate and gives
the guard his ID card. As he passes by some of the houses of the families who
live on the base he drops his bike off at one. A woman is on the porch; it is
his foster mother. She says his foster brother isn't home yet, and Jim as he
rushes on says he is going to see "Doc"--Dr. Dagobert D. Runes. The
mother calls after him not to be late for supper.
He jog-trots on till he comes to
the hangar where Dr. Runes is working on his project. He talks to the
Voice-Lock which Runes has programmed from a boring Army-issue device to an
abusive yet comical piece of machinery. Jim goes in.
He is in the top level of a
shallow amphitheater in which sits the Flying Behemoth, an ornately baroque
device that resembles a futuristic Spanish galleon. It is silvery and trimmed
with weird emerald and amethyst lights glowing here and there along the
bodywork; it is about a hundred yards long from stem to stern. All in all it is
a beautiful and awesome sight, and Jim stands a moment wonderstruck, even
though he has now seen it many times.
Suddenly he notices voices
talking down below. From under the overhang come walking Dr. Runes and General
Z. Gordon Strickland, the commander of the base. Dr. Runes is a patriarchal
figure, with hair and beard gone prematurely white, and he is tall, hook nosed,
and be-eyepatched. General Strickland bears a striking resemblance to Dabney
Coleman, but lacks his warm and caring ways. Strickland is disgusted with Runes'
way and line of development, and gestures contemptuously at his eccentric work
area, which sports, among other things, an autographed picture of Gyro
Gearloose. Strickland says he is using his authority to suspend Runes' grant
and shelf his project indefinitely because of his non-military tinkering.
Although Runes argues about the importance of his research into ionic impulses,
the General is not impressed and orders him to dismantle everything, hand over
his results and data, and pack to leave at once. Strickland storms out, pausing
only to rage at the Voice-Lock on his way out.
Jim comes down to Runes and says
he's sorry about Runes having to leave. Runes says it's hardly surprising,
since he's known what a bastard Strickland was for years, ever since the war,
when he, Strickland, and Jim's father all served together in one company. As he
fulminates against Strickland, he lets out that it was the General's (then
Lieutenant) fault that he lost an eye and Jim's father his life. Jim, of
course, is enraged, but there seems to be nothing he can do. He and Runes part
on a sad note as the doctor begins to tinker with a device on the worktable,
taking it apart.
Jim goes home to supper, where
his foster-brother and good friend, Sam Richardson, is waiting for him.
Although he is the same age as Jim, he is portly and timid, but faithful, and
acts as if Jim were much older than he. As the family eats supper, the mother
and father discuss ever gloomier topics, ranging from possible impending war to
Dr. Runes' dismissal (which they see as totally just), and things keep building
up to one decision for Jim. Late that night, long after curfew, he gets out a
knapsack and puts in it the few things that mean anything to him. Sam wakes up
and insists on accompanying him, at least as far as the gate. Jim agrees, but
first he says he's got to go see Dr. Runes to say goodbye. Sam and Jim, both knowledgeable
and expert at avoiding the camp security, sneak out and make their way over to the
hangar.
Jim is accustomed to seeing Dr.
Runes working late at night, but what he sees when he enters surprises him. The
flying machine is lit up and glowing with an intense light and the air is
filled with a soft humming sound. The doctor comes running out carrying an
armload of junk and heads for the gangplank to put it into the ship, but when
Jim calls out to him he scatters it in surprise. He tries frantically to gather
it up as Jim comes down and asks him what he is doing. Behind them the ship seems
to ripple with heat waves. Dr. Runes explains that he has completed his ionic
impulse drive but doesn't want it to fall into the hands of men like
Strickland, and so he has decided to voyage off on his own. Jim immediately
wants to come with him, and tells him of his own decision. Runes is hesitant at
first, but in the urgency of his take-off agrees. Jim helps him pick his stuff
up and throws his own pack aboard, over Sam's incredulous objections.
Suddenly klaxons and alarms go
off. Apparently someone has seen the boys go into the hangar and observed the
unusual lights and sounds. Runes is already behind the huge wheel and is
hastily punching buttons. Jim leans over the rail and yells good-bye to the now
thoroughly frightened and bewildered Sam. Over the humming of the device can be
heard the shouts and commands of the guards outside as they hammer at the door
and curse at the recalcitrant door lock. Finally someone starts shooting
through the door, and with a frightened yell Sam jumps aboard the Behemoth. The
ship begins rising off the ground and turns ponderously toward the hangar
doors. The entrance door bursts open and the soldiers stream in just as Jim
realizes there is no one to open the hangar doors for them; at exactly that
moment Runes pulls a lever and a vast sonic boom shatters the hangar doors open
and flattens the soldiers to the ground. The ship's sails unfurl majestically
in an unseen wind and the Flying Behemoth departs on its maiden voyage.
Act Two: The FB is gliding
through the starry night sky. Dr. Runes is making some final adjustments on his
instruments, setting a zigzag course to elude pursuit. With his wild white
hair, eyepatch, and long flapping lab coat he already looks pretty piratical.
Jim is calming down the frightened hysterics of Sam, who is afraid of heights.
When he is almost back to normal, Jim goes over to the Doctor and asks him
where they are headed. Runes says he is not sure, just yet, but that he has a
fancy to visit the North Pole. Jim says they've got to take Sam back, but Runes
says it is too dangerous to go back now and that he cannot set Sam down just
anywhere. It seems that Sam must go with them, for the time being anyhow.
Meanwhile, back at the army base,
Strickland is at the hangar, surveying the damage angrily. It is plain to him
that Runes was working on something that he should have had his hands on long
ago. His tame scientist and partner in evil, Dr. Batard, comes hurrying in. He
is a rotten, cancerous stick of a man, and his normally fussy dressing habits are
disheveled because of the late hour. Strickland briefs him on what has
happened, and demands he search the computer records to see just what Dr. Runes
had been up to. Batard taps in the coded key, and the two bend forward to see
the results. At first there is a meaningless swirl of computer chatter, then a
colorful message lights up the screen: "SUCKS-BOO TO YOU,
STRICKLAND!!" It flashes on and off in rainbow colors. Strickland
explodes, and vows to chase Runes to the ends of the earth to get his revenge.
Batard slily replies that he has something that is just what Strickland needs.
It is nearing morning and the
ship is cutting through eerily drifting fog. Jim expresses his fear that they
will run into something but Runes explains how the ship has sensors that detect
obstacles in its path and adjusts its own course to avoid them. Jim is
impressed, and asks him about what else the ship can do. Runes explains how the
FB can mimic the radiation levels of its surroundings, becoming invisible to
radar and sonar scanning devices, and fool just about any satellite tracking,
all just on the energy gathered by its special sails, which also help to power
the ionic impulse drive. Runes says they can elude almost any detection, except
by the human eye. They talk excitedly about possible places to go, until Sam
asks what they are going to have for breakfast. Dr. Runes slaps his forehead.
He has forgotten provisions for his expedition.
The solution: they descend in the
early morning fog behind a 7-11 that is luckily free of customers at the time.
The sleepy clerk watches in amazement as they gather enormous quantities of
junk food, which they pay for with the doctor's MasterCard. Sam sneaks in some
comic books and toys. Jim sighs.
As they leave the store carrying
many bags stuffed with food, they notice that the delivery man is just filling
up the stands with the morning papers. The delivery man looks at them with the
mild distrust anyone feels for things not in their daily routine. Jim goes over
and buys a paper and glances at the headlines and gasps. He shows it to Sam,
and they both run around the corner. The delivery man is amazed a minute later
by the sight of the FB rising from behind the 7-11 and flying off into the
rising sun.
The villains, meanwhile, have not
been idle. Strickland has alerted all air scanners to scour the skies for the
ship, and has prepared his statement to the effect that Runes is a dangerous
lunatic who has run off with valuable government property, kidnapping two young
boys in the process. He tells it to reporters as he makes his way back to the
base and Batard's project, which he has promised to show him. He enters
Batard's lab and is immediately impressed.
Batard's project is The Nemesis,
a vast warplane at least three times the size of the Behemoth. It is shiny
black with red markings and is obviously made with evil intent. Batard sings
its praises: its vast personnel capacity, its enormous arsenal, its speed, its
advanced computerized abilities, combined with its vertical takeoff ability and
the power to hover in the air make it the perfect mobile military base. And the
ideal vehicle in which to search for Runes and his childish galleon.
Strickland is ecstatic. Now this
is more like it. If Runes had dedicated himself to this sort of thing in the
beginning, he thinks, we never would have had this trouble in the first place.
Strickland wants to set out immediately, but there is one minor flaw. The
Nemesis is far from finished and Batard needs at least a week and a dozen more
assistants to help him. Strickland curses, but says that Batard will get
everything he needs. In the meanwhile, the search will continue with more
conventional means. Strickland casts a lingering eye over the Nemesis before he
leaves, and nods in a cruelly satisfied way.
Act Three: Aboard the FB, the
three voyagers hastily bolt down fried pies as they nervously read the
newspaper story about their dramatic escape. Sam and Jim are worried, but Runes
seems confident in their ability to elude their pursuers.
They travel pleasantly along for
a while, passing over verdant forests and waving fields. Dr. Runes takes this
lull to officially proclaim the formation of the ship's company, with himself
as Captain, Jim as Ensign, and Sam, in view of his somewhat unorthodox
position, as Cabin Boy. As Jim goes aloft to the crow's nest, Runes begins
talking to Sam, building his confidence and helping him get his stuff together.
They stow the food away and arrange things in the cabins of the ship.
Suddenly Jim calls down on the
console. He has sighted five fighter jets coming in their direction. Runes
yells for him to get down quick. They meet at the wheel, and Runes raises the
jets on his radio. They demand that he slow speed and accompany them back to
the base, or they will blow him from the sky. Runes declines, and warns them
that if they do not cease following them, he has the ability to make them rue
it. Strickland, who is on the radio with the squad commander, tells them to
open fire and destroy them. The leader is hesitant (he knows about the kids on
board) but at Strickland's insistence agrees to do it. The jets, which have
closed in and surrounded the FB, fall back to a safe firing range.
Jim asks Runes if they're
leaving. Runes, who has been listening in, says, no, they're going to fire. The
planes get in position and the squad leader asks one more time if Runes will
surrender. Runes warns him one more time to leave them alone. Strickland yells
at him to fire, and he does, reflexively.
The missile ignites and flies
towards the FB. Dr. Runes, whose hand has been near a button on the panel,
presses it. The missile isn't even near the FB when it explodes in mid-air. The
squad leader, whose sight of the ship is obscured by the explosion, is
surprised to see the FB come flying out of the smoke cloud toward him, whole
and apparently undamaged.
Dr. Runes comes back on the air
and explains to the befuddled pilots, who have scattered in the wake of his
ship, that the FB is equipped with a special ray of his invention that
detonates any explosive that it touches. He tells them that he can detonate
their missiles in midair or in their planes, they can take their pick. The
squad leader, not liking the sound of that, decides to retreat, over
Strickland's objections.
On the ship, the three travelers
are elated at having escaped what the boys were sure was certain death. Dr.
Runes happily explains that they can take care of anyone who is armed and
outrun any who aren't. Except for a scattering of shrapnel on the deck, the
ship seems fine.
Back at the base, Strickland
berates the pilots unfairly for their failure to capture Runes. He and Batard
discuss this new development and decide to modify the Nemisis accordingly.
Batard says the warship is progressing quickly.
After a few miles, the FB begins
behaving strangely. Apparently part of the guidance system has been hit and
they are running into things. Runes decides to take the ship to an old friend
of his who is sure will help them. In the meanwhile, they'll have to steer by
sight. They set course and go.
Act Four: Professor Elgin
Croftways Watson is cheerily going through his late afternoon ritual of winding
down with tea and Mozart as he relaxes on his battered ancient Chesterfield. As
he unwinds, he thinks about the business of his friend Runes and his latest
escapades. Although he derides the common opinion that Runes is a lunatic, he
cannot believe he has done something as irresponsible as defy the military
might of a whole nation.
Suddenly he hears a horrible
scraping sound, and when he rushes to the window he sees the FB descending into
his backyard, having apparently just scraped the weathercock off the roof of
his house. He runs outside just as Runes lowers the gangplank over the side.
Watson is dumbfounded as the crew
file out and Runes happily and nonchalantly greets him. Watson is mildly
disapproving but invites them in to tea. As they eat, Runes explains about the
FB and of their encounter with the planes. Watson is impressed with it all, but
especially the ray, which he says could put an end to modern warfare once and
for all. After much talk, Watson agrees to get them the necessary parts from
The Institute, which as a member of the college board he has an extra key to.
Luckily Watson lives out in the
country a ways and night is coming on, so with a minimum of camouflage they are
able to hide the FB safely in a clump of trees. After Watson gets together a
few pieces of equipment they all set out for town in Watson's old clunker.
As they drive along Runes
expresses the fear that they might be seen and recognized, but Watson
mysteriously replies that he has thought of a good plan. When they drive into
town, the Professor parks behind a deserted bunch of buildings, and, much to
the surprise of Runes and the boys, opens up a manhole cover and drops in. When
they follow him he explains he used to roam the sewers in his wild, childhood
days and knows ways of getting places that would amaze his stodgier colleagues.
They begin to journey through the subterranean world of the sewers.
It is a weird and eerie journey,
and the tunnels are fraught with sounds like those in the forest in The Wizard
of Oz. At last they reach their destination, and Runes and Watson go above to
get the parts, while the boys keep watch in the sewer. If anything happens,
Runes wants them to try to get back to the FB in any way possible. Sam and Jim
are left alone in the hole.
Runes and Watson make their way
into the darkened labs, stumbling around and making noises and generally
frightening each other unnecessarily. At last they find the room where the
things that Runes needs are, and open it to find it occupied by a very startled
young student named Oscar.
Oscar is momentarily confused,
but when he recognizes Runes he enthusiastically shakes his hand and tells him
how he has admired his work. It is now Runes turn to be amazed. He had expected
a fight or a struggle. Oscar helps him find the things he needs and he helps
them carry it to the door.
It seems they have made a clean
getaway when Oscar, as he says goodbye to them, slams the door. This sets off
an alarm, and almost immediately lights flash on and the sound of approaching
guards fills the night. All three flee down the tunnel, carrying Jim and Sam in
their wake, and hotfoot it back to the car. Behind them they hear guards
entering the sewer and running after them.
They hastily scrample [sic]
through the maze of tunnels, with the sound of pursuit growing ever nearer.
Suddenly Watson, who has been leading, gasps and leads the group into a side
turning. They watch in horror as an alligator, as thick as the whole
passageway, goes grunting past. As Watson leads them along after it passes,
they hear cries and shots and roars from the direction it went in.
They emerge without further
incident back at the car, and all bundle in. Watson realizes that they were
probably recognized, and that they will most likely be followed very soon to
his house. They also realize that Oscar has instinctively joined them. Watson
produces miracles of speed out of the old clunker, and they soon arrive back at
his place.
Runes, aided by the eager Oscar,
works swiftly on the guidance system. Sam and Jim accompany the professor as he
calmly packs a chest and carpetbag. He has decided to join them on their
journeyings, to, as he puts it, "avoid any unpleasantness that this little
episode may cause me." He is just finished when a glance out the window
informs him that military jeeps are pulling up to his front gate.
They return to the FB, which is
almost finished. Oscar has expressed his wish to come with them, and Runes,
nothing loth, has assented. They complete the repairs and bundle in, and soon
the FB has left behind another batch of frustrated military personnel.
Act Six: On board the Fb the crew
sighs in relief. The ship is sailing smoothly again. While Watson and the boys
retire to the kitchen to produce a meal, Runes shows Oscar all over the FB and
explaining the various philosophies that led to its invention. As Runes closes
a closet, they hear a clunk and a muffled "Ouch!" They open the door
again and find they have a stowaway. It is a girl.
Her name is Wilhelmina Dunn. She
explains that she is editor of the high school newspaper of the town they have
just left, and that while she was out hiking in the back fields she came upon the
deserted FB, and realizing what is must be from the news reports, climbed in
with hopes of getting a scoop that would make her famous. The crew is a bit
shocked and incredulous. Although there is a lot of talk about putting her off,
she convinces them that she wants to stay and write up their story, and that
there would be great value in a true and unbiased report that could be given to
the world. Reluctantly, it is agreed that she can remain.
Wilhelmina Dunn (or Miss Dunn, as
Runes and Watson call her, or "you" as Oscar says, or "her"
as Jim and Sam sat, or "Willy," as I suspect she will eventually come
to be called) is a little over seventeen, and a senior in high school. She has
brownish blond hair, steel blue eyes, and is athletic and incisive. She is
dressed in blue jeans and has a blue jeans jacket and always seems to have a
yellow pad and pencil somewhere in reach. Although Oscar is several years
older, in force of personality she is easily his equal, and is used to debate
and leading questions. Everyone has a different reaction to her. Runes is
merely patriarchal; Watson is chivalrous; Oscar seems to be constantly engaged
in conflicts with her; Jim is disdainful; Sam accords her the obedience and
distant worship that he might give any mature baby-sitter.
Meanwhile, Strickland has gotten
news of this last encounter and is playing it for all it is worth, whipping the
country and the world into an anti-Runes frenzy. Strickland believes he has
figured out Runes' course, as the FB has been heading fairly easterly so far.
He has decided that since the Nemesis is unfinished, he will try to go ahead
and surround the FB with everything he's got and hope that through sheer bulk
one plane will destroy Runes' ship. Knowing what he knows about the FB's
abilities, this is pure murder for almost all of his pilots, but Strickland is
now obsessed. He was always on the edge; now he's gone over, and will stop at
nothing for what he sees as his personal vengeance.
Wilhelmina has gone all over the
ship, asking questions of each crew member. After a particularly long one with
Runes, in which she questions his motives and actions so far, Runes calls
everyone together and announces that instead of running now, they will pursue
one of his goals and go off to the arctic circle to explore and examine the
effects of the so-called "ozone hole." All agree to go, and Runes
turns the FB sharply north-westerly, to avoid the more densely populated and
strategically located areas, and also escaping Strickland's trap by sheer good
luck.
The scene switches to the base on
the eastern seaboard, where Strickland is tensely pacing his command room. When
Batard enters the room with the news that the FB was seen heading north, he
explodes and berates Batard for being too slow. When the scientist protests,
Strickland beats him up and demands he work faster. Batard leaves, quivering
with fear and hate, and Strickland glares out at the night sky. There we leave
him until the end of the FB's arctic adventure.
[And whither then? I cannot say. An arctic adventure surely, but what?
Bigfoot? Flying saucers? The only sure thing would be an inevitable encounter
between the Flying Behemoth and the Nemesis, and Strickland and, ultimately,
Jim.
The influences are obvious. James P. Blaylock and The Digging Leviathan,
George Bernard Shaw and Heartbreak House. G. Gordon Liddy and Dabney Coleman are writ
in Strickland's portrayal, and probably a large dollop of Christopher Lloyd in
Dagobert D. Runes (whose name comes from the author of Dictionary of Philosophy).
John and Halbardier in the sewers, Mike on the school paper, eating fried pies
from our own milieu. The whole story smells of Mr. Gatti's in my mind. I can
see it all with late-Eighties special effects, and the whole thing had a
soundtrack of Roger Waters' Radio Kaos to it, and a dab of Paul Simon.
{While I worked on the "script" I also produced a tape as a
soundtrack for the action. I remember the opening song was Paul Simon's
"The Boy in the Bubble" for Jim's travel through the city to the base,
Pink Floyd's "Learning To Fly" for the launch of the Behemoth, and
General Strickland's theme was "The Powers That Be." There were more,
and I probably still have the cassette tape somewhere, but that's what I recall
off the top of my head.} The "so-called" ozone hole? The pre-eminence
of newsprint? Archeological clues.
I originally organized it in Scenes; I now see that Acts, or indeed Beats
or Arcs, would be a more appropriate term, and have changed that accordingly.
This treatment was made to be applicable to producing either a novel or a
film script.
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