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FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY
FADE IN: EXT. HIGHWAY - NIGHT The wail of a siren grows out of the distance and very faintly through the fog we see the headlights and flashing blue rack lights of a police car coming toward us. It drops into a dip, reappears almost immediately, hurtling down the center of the deserted highway. It gets closer and closer until the lights and siren fill our senses then zooms past us. INT. POLICE CAR - NIGHT A frightened SECURITY GUARD is tensed forward off the back seat, his hands clutched into the fabric between the two regular POLICE OFFICERS in front. GUARD (an edge of fear in his voice) It's coming up... Slow down... (he points out between them) There, right there... Through the windshield we can see the headlights pick up a billboard announcing a 'new' housing development. EXT. HIGHWAY - NIGHT The squad car skids off the asphalt in front of the sign and starts up a rutted dirt road. The sign tells us we are headed for 'Pinewood Estates,' a housing development financed by the Farmers Bank of Wisconsin. INT. POLICE CAR - NIGHT The Security Guard is becoming more agitated. He wipes a cold sweat off his brow. The blue flashers reflect off the fog onto the faces of the men. Suddenly the Security Guard lunges forward and slaps off the rack lights and siren. OFFICER (startled) Benny, God, take it easy... BENNY (GUARD) I don't want to scare them away. The two Police Officers exchange an indulgent look. EXT. HOUSING TRACT - NIGHT Using only its parking lights, the police car creeps up the dirt road between skeletons of unfinished houses. INT. POLICE CAR - NIGHT The windows are rolled down. Periodically one of the men leans out for a better look at the terrain around them. SECOND OFFICER Smells smoke... BENNY I told you. EXT. HOUSING TRACT - NIGHT The police car comes around a curve on the hillside and stops. Above them on the next hill, a necklace of embers from a grass fire and a burning tree flicker through the fog. The men get out of the car. BENNY (loud whisper) There!! Up on the hill!! The officer steps forward for a better look. Benny hangs on his shoulder. BENNY Right in line with that burning tree. OFFICER I don't see anything. BENNY It's there. The fog's thicker now, but it's there. What do you think started those fires? The officer strains to see through the fog. OFFICER Benny, there's nothing there. BENNY There is. They came out of the belly of the ship and then went to the first terrace and flew down into the houses. OFFICER Flew?! Oh, come on Benny... The second officer is peering intently at something down among the houses. OFFICER You hear that, Mike? Now he's telling us... MIKE (SECOND OFFICER) What's that? Benny and the officer look to where Mike is pointing. What appears to be the beam of a powerful headlight bobs among the houses below them. Further into the track another beam of light moves slightly from right to left but seems otherwise stationary. BENNY What did I tell you? OFFICER Probably kids. One of the lights rises over a house and settles on the other side. MIKE (not convinced) Probably... EXT. HOUSING TRACT - NIGHT A light shines directly into our eyes. As it swings away from us we realize that it was the searchlight on the police car which is idling along the dirt road with its running lights off. The fire on the hill gives the fog down here a red tint. INT. POLICE CAR - NIGHT The police officers are beginning to feel anxious. Benny's nervous fidgeting in the back seat doesn't help them any. BENNY Don't you think you should call a backup? OFFICER No, we can handle this. EXT. HOUSING TRACT - NIGHT The police car passes a road perpendicular to the one it is on. A couple of houses down that road a faint glow spills over the sides of an industrial dumpster. As we watch we hear an eerie high pitched whistle, a shaft of light slowly rises out of the metal box and seems to fly off between the houses. INT. FINISHED HOUSE - NIGHT As a humanoid silhouette passes in front of the picture window, a shaft of light floats by in the fog outside. The silhouette continues around to look at the kitchen. It raises a hand to eye level. There is a sharp "SNAP" and a hard-edged cone of light shoots out of the darkness to capture the inside of the kitchen and pulls back a three-dimensional image of stove, sink, cupboards, electrical fixtures and walls to the silhouette. EXT. HOUSING TRACT - NIGHT The police car is parked in the middle of the dirt road. Benny and the officers are intent on a light that reaches them only in strobes as it moves through the houses in the direction of the fire on the hill. The police searchlight swings onto the house. OFFICER (over outside speakers) This is the police. Identify yourselves. It is deathly silent. Carrying a shotgun the officer motions Benny and Mike to fan out on either side of him and, guns drawn, they cut across the tract to where they last saw the bobbing light. The fog quickly isolates them, heightening their fear. Each man becomes acutely aware of the loudness of his breathing and the crunch of his footsteps on the ground. They drift in and out of visual contact with each other. Benny freezes as he hears a burst of the high pitched whistle sweep by on his left. He turns slowly to see, through the ribs of an unfinished house, a shaft of the white light pointing at a cement mixer. BENNY (to the officers, his voice cracking) There's one over here... The brilliant light swings toward him. Benny, his hands trembling, raises the gun. BENNY Stop!! Police!! The light fixes on Benny and terrified he shakes off a couple shots. The light goes out immediately. MIKE (in Benny's direction) What happened? BENNY I think I shot one. MIKE Jesus, Benny. What are you doing? INT. FINISHED HOUSE (BEDROOM) - NIGHT We are looking at the back of the humanoid figure. It crosses to a high window and looks out. The reddish tinge of the fog outlines him. EXT. HOUSING TRACT - NIGHT The men strain to see something through the silent fog. OFFICER You see anything, Mike? Before Mike can answer, a strange percussive clicking sound is heard. He pumps a shell in the chamber of his shotgun and swallowing his fear moves toward the voices. They stop. OFFICER This is the police. Identify yourselves. Benny, his flashlight throwing a feeble beam in front of him, inches around the house looking for what he shot at. He gets to where it should be but it's not there. His light searches the area. There is nothing but a stack of lumber. Shaking visibly he shuffles to it and peers around its corner. Nothing. Benny relaxes and allows himself to breathe again. BENNY (shouts to the officers) You wanna give me some help over here. MIKE Okay... Benny continues around the house. He flashes his light into a doorway. There is nothing but framing. When he moves on, a figure steps out of the darkness to fill the space, then raises its arms. With a sharp snap cylindrical devices swing off its wrist into its hands. At the corner of the house Benny hears the snap and stops. The high pitched whistle starts behind him. He stumbles around to face a brilliant white light flying directly at him. Benny screams in terror and fires at it. The light swerves and a laser streak from one of the hand rockets sears Benny's chest and knocks him to the ground in pain. Holding his shoulder he watches the light rise and fall erratically between the houses. The officers watch in awe as the beam wobbles through the air, then crashes to the earth. OFFICER Mike, call for back-up. (shouting) Benny, you all right? BENNY I don't think so... (clutching his shoulder) OFFICER (waving the beam of his flashlight, shouts) Benny, this is me. I'm going to take a look. Benny's beam flashes back. BENNY Don't leave me. I'm coming. The two men begin to trot toward the light. It swings wildly around and, accompanied by the high-pitched whistle, starts to stagger back up the hill. Benny and the officer break into a run. They are on their way up the hill when the light in front of them crashes to the earth. It rolls over and lays still, the beam shooting straight up into the air. Benny and the officer slow their pursuit, terrified of what they might find. Suddenly a high-pitched whistle is bearing down on them from behind. Before they can turn a light rockets over their heads. With a rumble the hill begins to vibrate. As they follow its flight, they see lights beginning to ripple to life across the skin of a saucer-shaped spacecraft resting at the edge of the forest on top of the hill. With a rumble the hill begins to vibrate. Frightened, the officers stop. INT. FINISHED HOUSE - NIGHT The humanoid figure walks rapidly down the hall into the kitchen. An indistinct image plays on the inside of its faceplate and we hear the faint sounds of a percussive language. Through the window over the sink we can see the lights of the spaceship. The rockets flip into the humanoid's gloved hands and it is airborne out the open back door. EXT. HOUSING TRACT - NIGHT From the road Benny and the officer watch as the humanoid figure that just blasted over them flies between the trees and into the white light emitting from the underbelly of the spacecraft. The noise from the ship's power plant is deafening as it begins to rise above the trees. With Mike at the wheel the police car, its rack lights flashing, fishtails up the dirt road and slides sideways to a bone-jarring stop next to Benny and the officer. As they jump out of the way they find themselves facing into the super white beam of the figure that was in the house. They are between it and the ship. At the angle that it is coming up the hill, the light looks like it is heading directly for them. This is too much for the officer and in terror he raises his shotgun and fires wildly at it. The figure veers off and disappears into the fog. With an awesome roar the spacecraft reaches escape velocity and hurtles into the night sky. The concussion waves knock Benny and the officers off their feet. EXT. COUNTRY ROAD - NIGHT The escaped figure's light comes out of the fog at tree height. We hear the high-pitched whistle of its rockets. A burst of percussive language comes from behind the faceplate. SUBTITLE Lander four to Mapmaker Wind. Fix position for rescue. Repeat. Fix position for rescue. EXT. HOUSING TRACT - NIGHT The fires on the hillside have been renewed. Shaking, Benny and the officer rise to their feet and start toward the light shafting straight up from the figure lying on the hillside. The only sound is police chatter coming out of the radio in the open squad car. EXT. LOGGING ROAD - NIGHT An 18-wheeler with a load of logs lumbers past us. INT. TRUCK - NIGHT It feels cozy with the wipers slapping the rain off the windshield. The DRIVER is trying to steal a cigarette out of his snoring PARTNER'S pocket without waking him up. He gets one and reaches for the lighter. EXT. COUNTRY ROAD - NIGHT The escaped figure banks around a blind corner. INT. TRUCK - NIGHT The driver gets a glimpse of something in his headlights and slams on the brakes, but it is too late. The figure hits the spoiler above the cab. We hear the smack of impact. One of its boots scars the windshield. EXT. COUNTRY ROAD - NIGHT The figure bounces off the jack-knifing truck and like a wounded bird tumbles through the air into the trees. With the light spinning crazily, it plunges through the boughs and smashes face first into the mud at the bottom of an embankment. The strip lights on the sides of its helmet go out. EXT. TRUCK - NIGHT The driver and his partner, standing in the shafts of the high beams, are peering into the woods. PARTNER What the hell was it anyway? DRIVER Damned if I know. EXT. WOODS - NIGHT The figure thrashes over on its back and tries to close a shoulder-to-hip tear in its life-support suit. By the faint identification light that flickers on and off inside its helmet, we see a MAN FROM THE STARS. His skin is translucent coral. He is gasping as our atmosphere mixes with his and threatens to suffocate him. Under his translucent skin a maze of veins and arteries extend from a white mass that sits in the upper half of his head. He is hairless. Underneath a graceful fore-head, transparent eyelids droop over black pupilless eyes. The thin lips that delineate his mouth are chalk-white. He tries to clutch the edges of the tear together but is too weak. His hands drop limply from the suit, allowing the rent to gape open and reveal the translucent body underneath. PARTNER (V.O.) Come on. I'm getting wet. DRIVER (V.O.) It musta been a bird. PARTNER (V.O.) How about if I drive now? Behind the faceplate a piece of white light breaks off from the shining mass in the STAR MAN'S head and moves down his neck. Through the hole in the suit we see it arrive at the top of his single lung. The white light spreads throughout the organ like a phosphorescent tide. The STAR MAN lapses into unconsciousness as we hear the truck pull away. INT. HELICOPTER (COCKPIT) - DAWNBREAK A light rain is falling. We are looking through the windscreen at the gray landscape passing under the helicopter. MARC SHERMIN, a grizzled man in his mid-fifties with an honest stubborn face, shifts his attention from the right side to the left side of the craft. Below him he can see the road leading into the housing tract is blocked by police cars. The helicopter leans into a banking turn and the spacecraft's blackened landing site comes into view. Below it an orange nylon tent has been erected over the dead extraterrestrial. It glows from the inside. An Air Force helicopter is parked on the other side of the burn. EXT. HOUSING TRACT - DAWNBREAK A man in a white contamination suit is helping Benny and the two officers into the Air Force helicopter. The three men are glassy-eyed and wrapped in blankets. Benny has a bandage across his chest. They look up at Shermin's descending helicopter. They are still looking at it when they disappear inside. Shermin's unmarked S65 settles on the clearing. The nose door is open and Shermin, carrying the hood of his contamination suit, comes down the ladder. A tall homespun man, also in a hoodless contamination suit, steps forward to greet him. MAN (around a cigarette) Major Aaron Bell... SHERMIN Marc Shermin, National Security Agency. Shermin takes a moment to look over at the tent, the green hillside and the forest beyond. It is pastoral in the soft light of dawn. SHERMIN This has always been my favorite time of day. MAJOR BELL (MAN) Very beautiful country up here... SHERMIN Any signs of biological contamination, excessive radiation, anything like that? MAJOR BELL Not on the landscape. We're trying to get a tube under the faceplate for a reading on possible deadly lifeforms but it's hard going. SHERMIN Can you see under the faceplate? MAJOR BELL No. Bell's hands shake as he lights a new cigarette off the one in his mouth. SHERMIN There's a good chance you could be wrong about this thing then... MAJOR BELL Wait'll you see it. He throws away the cigarette and begins to put on his contamination hood. Shermin follows as they start for the tent. MAJOR BELL We had a flight of F16's play tag with the spaceship over Michigan for an hour. Then it shot straight up and disappeared. SHERMIN Was there visual contact? MAJOR BELL No, sir. Radar. SHERMIN It could have been anything. EXT. BLACKENED LANDING SITE - DAWNBREAK Hooded, Bell and Shermin make their way past three suited scientists examining the landscape with geiger counters and other sensing instruments. With the coming of dawn and Bell's handlight we can clearly see the pod indentations and the huge black glass cup of earth that was fused by the energy blasting out of the spaceship's power plant. MAJOR BELL After I called in, I had a chance to sit down with the three locals. They swear there's another one that didn't make the ship... It might be alive. SHERMIN People have made mistakes in these situations before. MAJOR BELL I've been investigating sightings for seventeen years, Mr. Shermin. This one's real. We have a dead extra- terrestrial in that tent and another one in the area that might be alive. We've been visited. It's finally happened and the sooner Washington accepts that and starts figuring out how we're going to deal with these beings, the better off we're going to be. EXT. FOOT OF EMBANKMENT - DAWNBREAK It is still raining. The STAR MAN stirs and awakens with a start. He parts the tear in his suit and looks at his lung through his translucent body. It has changed in color from brown to a rich yellow ocher. He takes several deep breaths of our atmosphere and his lung expands and contracts easily. He conducts a quick inventory of his damaged spacesuit, then struggles to his knees and stands up. INT. BIOQUARANTINE TENT (HOUSING TRACT) - DAWNBREAK The sound of a powerful slow-speed drill greets Bell and Shermin as they enter. The extraterrestrial is still on its back with its helmet lights shining straight up. A hose that extends from a portable gas chromatograph has been suction- sealed to a corner of the faceplate. A SCIENTIST is making adjustments at the chromatograph while his COMPANION is monitoring the progress of the drill into the faceplate. Both are wearing contamination suits. A foam-lined coffin-shaped metal box is on the ground next to one of the walls. Bell and Shermin approach the body. Shermin's first look is at the faceplate, but all he can see is his own reflection. His eyes travel down the body. MAJOR BELL Look at the hands. The gloved hands of the figure have only three fingers and a thumb. Shermin takes Bell's flashlight. He angles it at the faceplate. As he leans in to follow the beam, the pitch of the drill rises. He shifts the light. The drill breaks through and the faceplate explodes out of the helmet. The men throw themselves back in panic. When they turn back to look, distorted impressions of the face inside the helmet reflect on the glass of their contamination hoods. (Pause) SHERMIN Oh, Jesus. MAJOR BELL (moving toward the body) We better get it into the box. Come on... The other men approach the body but before they can bend to it a burst of percussive language, followed by a low buzz, comes from inside the extraterrestrial's helmet. The men freeze. There is another burst of percussive language and a projection beam shoots out of the helmet throwing the image of the escaped STAR MAN onto one of the scientists. He jumps aside and the beam falls out of focus and indistinct on the tent wall behind him. SUBTITLE Mapmaker Wind. Do you hear me? SHERMIN (incredulous) The other one is alive! EXT. FOOT OF EMBANKMENT - DAWNBREAK The STAR MAN is standing. We hear the sounds of his percussive language coming from behind his mirrored faceplate. STAR MAN (subtitle) Mapmaker Wind. Do you hear me? His answer is nothing but the low buzz. He taps a series of buttons on his chest panel and speaks again. STAR MAN Mapmaker Wind. Do you hear me? Again the buzz. STAR MAN Mapmaker Wind. Do you hear me? The buzz continues. He is very still for a moment. Then he presses the palms of his hands together, prayer fashion, and concentrates. When he pulls them apart, a blue force field pulses between them. He stops at shoulder width. A solarized aerial view of the United States forms on the force field. A green dot appears in the area of western Wisconsin, a red dot in the area of Death Valley, California. He drops his hands to his lap and sits very still. The solarized compass remains floating in the air in front of him. After a long moment he reaches up and squeezes it into a ball that disappears when his palms come together. INT. HELICOPTER - DAWNBREAK Shermin steps through the open bay door into a communications room. The radar and radio consoles each have a TECHNICIAN. A third technician, LYMAN, sits in front of a square of six medium-sized television screens. LYMAN Is it for real? SHERMIN Get Fox. Lyman taps a code into the computer keyboard. There's a shower of static on one of the TV screens. When it clears up GEORGE FOX, mid-forties, hair slicked straight back, round wire- rimmed glasses, is peering intently into the camera. SHERMIN (before Fox can speak) It's real, George. FOX There's no mistake? You're absolutely sure? SHERMIN I saw it with my own eyes. We've killed an extraterrestrial and... FOX Is there any possibility that it's a hoax? Could you be mistaken? SHERMIN None. And there's another one in the area that's alive. I don't know if it's the only one. I don't know if it was left here by accident or it's part of an inva... FOX Get the body out of there. Load it on the Air Force chopper and get it to Wright Patterson. They'll take it from there... We didn't expect this, Shermin. SHERMIN (answering the accusation) Neither did I. Major Bell enters the helicopter. FOX We're going... Damn! (he shakes his head in disbelief) We'll tell the press that there was an accident. Chemical warfare spill. That cover cannot be violated in any way. Understand me, Shermin? MAJOR BELL Major Bell here, sir. We have to tell these people that we're friendly. That this whole thing was a mistake. Is anyone trying to contact the ship? FOX (ignores this) Shermin, I want you and Bell to start looking for the one on the ground. SHERMIN We'll need a lot of help, George. You could hide an army up here. FOX I'm going to the White House right now. I'll try and get you everything you need. SHERMIN Wait, wait... What are my orders if we find this thing? Fox sits silently for a second. FOX Contain it and get back to me. SHERMIN What do you mean by 'contain?' Fox knows Shermin is looking for a definite order. FOX Just what I said. The television screen is reduced to static. Shermin stares at it blankly then Lyman turns it off. EXT. HOUSING TRACT - MORNING The lift off of Shermin's helicopter reveals contamination -- suited scientists slipping the dead extraterrestrial's coffin into the Air Force helicopter. EXT. WOODS - DAY The STAR MAN, still in his life-support suit, looks surreal in the twilight world under the canopy of firs. The morning rain has gone. A hum of traffic pulls him across the hill to a stand of alders that border the forest. Through the leaves he can see a highway entering the sprawl of Eau Claire, Wisconsin. The cars and trucks zipping along the asphalt are of particular interest to him. When he has absorbed them he walks through the trees to get a better look at the town. On the wind he can hear shouts from students boarding a line of yellow buses in front of a grade school off to his right. Suburban houses have begun to snuggle up to the base of the hill he is on. Keeping to the tree line well above them he continues his search for an avenue of escape. His head swivels to watch a Volvo station wagon come down the street. It swings into the driveway of the house directly below him and stops next to a Mustang Hatchback. The back door opens and JENNY HAYDN, a pretty girl in her mid-twenties, gets out carrying a crudely lettered be-ribboned sign 'Welcome Back, Mrs. Haydn.' Female voices drift up to the STAR MAN from inside the car. VOICES It was great to have you back... The kids loved it. We loved it. You're doing the right thing... EXT. HOUSE - DAY JENNY I hope so... We'll see... See you tomorrow... Bye. Bye. VOICE (as the Volvo backs out of the driveway) Remember you're required to have a lesson planned tomorrow. Jenny laughs and waves. With the Volvo moving away up the street Jenny picks her newspaper off her walk and goes into the house. EXT. HILLSIDE - DAY The STAR MAN presses on through the trees. He hears a light plane overhead. He stops and watches until the branches cut off his view. A path between two logs leads him to the tip of a promontory. From behind the cedars growing there, he sits and looks down on the center of Eau Claire. Arm in arm, a YOUNG COUPLE meander through the trees. The boy has a blanket over his shoulder and the girl's hair is disheveled. Without seeing him, they walk past the STAR MAN crouched in a thicket of small pines. After they've gone by, he straightens up and watches them walk down toward the highway. EXT. HILLSIDE - LATE AFTERNOON The sun is setting over suburban Eau Claire. The colors are reflected in the STAR MAN's faceplate as he watches Jenny push a hand mower over her back yard. He takes a dusty gray marble out of a leg pocket and while Jenny finishes the lawn he rolls it between his gloves. It turns a glowing gold as it grows in size. When it reaches the dimensions of a baseball, he brings it close to his faceplate and speaks into it. STAR MAN (subtitles) Iron channel message. Suit and rockets destroyed. Radical mixture of this atmosphere and ours in helmet allowed chemo-ion response time to adapt my body to this air. Am going to attempt extreme transformation in order to cross land mass to site of our practice landings. If transformation is not fatal, second message ball by next darkness. He opens his hands and the ball rises quickly into the sky. Jenny is dumping the grass clippings into a garbage can at the side of the house when the sudden motion of the message ball catches her eye and she watches it quizzically until it disappears. EXT. WISCONSIN SKIES - LATE AFTERNOON We are on the belly of Shermin's helicopter looking at the tree tops rushing underneath. INT. HELICOPTER - LATE AFTERNOON Shermin is standing back of Lyman and Bell who are seated in front of the square of television screens watching various shots of the wooded landscape flowing by under them. Shermin scrubs his hands over his face then bends over to stretch his back. SHERMIN Aghh... I'm supposed to umpire a little league game tomorrow. LYMAN I wouldn't worry about it... There might not be any little league tomorrow. Pause. MAJOR BELL I'm telling you they're probably friendly. LYMAN Then why did they try and sneak in the back door? Tell me that. Why didn't they contact us first and say... RADAR TECHNICIAN (loud) UFO coming out of the grass. SHERMIN Lock in. RADAR TECHNICIAN Got it. Lyman and the technicians tap out orders to their tracking units and the views of the forest on three of the television screens change to images from their microwave scanners, neutron back scatters and doppler radar. On a fourth screen the forward-looking infrared module begins creating a picture of the UFO. The men relax as they recognize the configurations of a light sea plane. LYMAN This is crazy. What were we going to do if that had been the ship? We have two thirty calibre machine guns, three M16's and some handguns. SHERMIN Give it a rest, Lyman. MAJOR BELL (after a pause) I've never once heard of anybody being hurt by an extraterrestrial... Shermin goes hand over hand along the overhead straps to the radio operator. He begins to flip through a stack of telex messages. LYMAN That's because the ones that were hurt, died. They couldn't talk to you. SHERMIN (to technician, after a look at Lyman) Any reports about monsters, people in Halloween masks, anything like that? TECHNICIAN No, but there sure were a lot of people who saw lights in the sky last night. Reports are still coming in. MAJOR BELL (under above) I've heard of blood being drawn, sometimes they were taken for a ride in the ship, a lot of times they said they had sex... But nobody was ever hurt... LYMAN But you decided those weren't real. This one is. There is a buzz and a red dot appears in the center of one of the screens. LYMAN (over his shoulder to Shermin) Fox. He taps a three digit code and Fox comes into view. FOX I've got something for you. A photograph of a very thin slab of yellow plastic pops up on a second screen next to Fox. Above lines of glowing colored dots are symbols of a hydrogen atom, pulsars, a nude man and a woman and Earth's position in our solar system. FOX Recognize this? MAJOR BELL It's a copy of the plaque NASA sent into space on the Pioneer probes. FOX Houston found it in the extraterrestrial's suit. MAJOR BELL They must have picked it up in space. SHERMIN Then it's not an accident that they found us. FOX We don't think that's necessarily bad. At least it's a point of contact. SHERMIN Not necessarily bad! If they knew we were here why didn't they let us know they were coming? FOX We'll get those answers when you find the one you're looking for. SHERMIN That's not going to happen, George, unless you get us the help you promised us. FOX We've been back and forth on this all day and keeping in mind the panic that would occur if this got to the general public, it's been decided not to expand the search at this time. SHERMIN Don't let them do it this way, George. It's too important. We can't find this thing alone. FOX You have to. We're trying to contact the ship. If we do, I'll let you know immediately. Good luck. The television screen is reduced to static. Lyman shuts it off. RADAR TECHNICIAN You get the feeling we're expendable? SHERMIN We always were. EXT. HOUSE - NIGHT We are looking through the living room window at Jenny watching television while she irons the clothes she plans to wear to work tomorrow. The STAR MAN stands just outside the light-fall in the back yard watching her. A commercial interrupts the old movie with a jolly fat MAN in a jumpsuit touting his used cars. The two words 'We have...' are repeated constantly during the pitch. 'We have automatics... We have sticks... We have colors... We have financing...' ... We move in close on the STAR MAN'S faceplate. STAR MAN (practicing the human sound) Wehave... (more precise) Wehave... (well-formed) Wehave... Jenny finishes the skirt, unplugs the iron, picks up the clothes, shuts off the television, the light and heads upstairs. Half way up she stops. JENNY (faint through the glass) Damn! She turns around and looks down indecisively, then hurries upstairs. A light goes on in the bedroom. The STAR MAN backs away to look up at it. He can't see anything. He is on his way to try and get in the side door when Jenny comes clumping down the stairs in an old sweatshirt and pulling on a pair of jeans. She disappears into the kitchen. Without warning the door ahead of him is swung open and Jenny rushes out. The STAR MAN barely has time to step into the shadows. Jenny grabs the handle of one of the garbage cans lined against the house and drags it down to the street. When she comes back for the second one we see that the STAR MAN is no longer in the shadows. INT. HOUSE - NIGHT Jenny comes in and locks the door. She passes through the kitchen and is on her way to the stairs when the STAR MAN steps out of the darkness in the living room. A scream catches in Jenny's throat. STAR MAN (precise) Wehave... Jenny bolts for the front door. At the end of the hallway her foot catches in a phone cord pulling the phone off an end table. The receiver is jarred out of its cradle. Jenny regains her balance and gets to the door ahead of the STAR MAN. She jerks it open, but the guard chain stops it three inches from the jamb. Frantically, she tries again but the chain holds. The STAR MAN slams the door shut and reaches out to grab her. She flails back at him. One of her hands strikes the panel on his chest and the identification light comes on inside his helmet. At the sight of the STAR MAN, Jenny begins to scream. He presses her back against the wall and puts a mittened hand over her mouth. STAR MAN Wehave... Jenny ceases her struggle and begins to cry. The STAR MAN takes his hand away from her mouth. JENNY Please don't hurt me... please... please. Holding her with his eyes he grasps one of Jenny's hands and lifts it up to look at it. He raises a piece of skin off her wrist, rolls it between his thumb and forefinger. Jenny lets out a blood-curdling scream and strikes out at him. Flashes of light erupt off his exposed chest where she hits. The ferocity of her attack knocks him aside and she sprints up the stairs. The STAR MAN recovers and starts after her. INT. BEDROOM - NIGHT Jenny gets there two steps ahead of the STAR MAN. She slams the door in his face and locks it. With him POUNDING ON THE OUTSIDE, Jenny throws open the closet and begins rummaging madly through the side pockets of her jackets and coats. The POUNDING STOPS. It takes her a moment to hear the silence. When she does, she whirls toward the door expecting the worst, but it remains closed. She waits. All she can hear is the sound of the rain. She intensifies her search. JENNY (hysteria creeping into her voice) It's got to be here... it's got to be here... She finds it in the pocket of a down jacket. The Army issue .45 looks big in her hand. She releases the safety and, with a wary eye on the door, reaches for the phone on the night table next to the bed. Long before the receiver gets to her ear, she can hear the "BLEET" caused by the PHONE BEING OFF THE HOOK for so long in the living room. She hangs up and walks around the bed to sit on the corner facing the door. In the distance, we can HEAR the THUMP OF AN APPROACHING HELICOPTER. After a moment's indecision, Jenny gets up and releases the lock. Again she waits. Nothing happens. With the gun ready, she turns the knob and opens the door a crack. The hallway is empty. She kicks off her shoes and lets herself out of the bedroom. INT. HALLWAY - NIGHT Jenny creeps toward the stairs in her stockinged feet. She looks in the bathroom. The STAR MAN isn't there. She decides to go downstairs. INT. HOUSE - NIGHT The STAR MAN isn't in the living room. Jenny sidles along the wall for the front door. At the archway to the den a hissing sound stops her. She peers around the molding. The spill from the stairwell light provides the only illumination. The STAR MAN is sitting on the edge of a chair with his back to her. He is naked. A dot of light is HISSING around his head. The shadows in the room make it difficult for Jenny to tell exactly what is going on. Pointing the .45 at the STAR MAN, she steps into the room for a better look. The floor creaks and the STAR MAN turns to her. Jenny shudders at what she sees. The STAR MAN is holding an 8x10 color photograph of Jenny and a man in his mid-twenties standing on a beach in their bathing suits. The dot of light is copying the man's features onto the STAR MAN'S translucent head. The top two-thirds of the face is already done. Everything is perfect, even the eyes. Jenny begins to tremble and lowers the gun. JENNY (in a small voice) No... please don't... She sags against the armchair, racked by sobs that are drowned out by the FLAP OF THE APPROACHING HELICOPTER. The STAR MAN, with the dot of light stopped on his left cheek, gets up and takes the gun from her. He drops it on the couch and raises his eyes to the sound of the helicopter NOW DIRECTLY OVER THE HOUSE. THROUGH THE WINDOWS, we can SEE the searchlight scouring the hillside next to the back yard. The STAR MAN returns to the picture and resumes his transformation. He completes the chin, then continues downward weaving skin and filling in the human characteristics over the entire body. DISSOLVE TO: INT. CLEAN ROOM (HOUSTON) - NIGHT We come down an electrical cord that ends in a micro-phone, then down further to DR. BERGEN, a tall thin balding man in his late fifties dressed in the medical equivalent of a contamination suit. DR. BERGEN The creature was hit three times... Using a laser light indicator Dr. Bergen shows us where. DR. BERGEN ...the arm, the abdomen and the upper chest, the one in the chest being the cause of death. It shattered, for want of a better term, the creature's backbone. It's not really, because it's not jointed. It's simply a hollow shaft of very pliable silicate material, as is its entire endoskeleton. The creature seems to have tremendous regenerative powers. Although it must have died within minutes of receiving the fatal wound, the arm and abdomen wounds are almost totally healed and the bullet here... (indicates with the light) has begun to dissolve... INT. SMALL RECTANGULAR ROOM - NIGHT Fox, another CIVILIAN and two MEN in uniform are watching the autopsy on a bank of screens which show Dr. Bergen, the room and various close-ups of the dead extraterrestrial lying on a white glass table lit from underneath. DR. BERGEN It has veins but no blood. We think, and this is just speculation, that some form of energy flows from the brain, which is much more sophisticated than ours, throughout the rest of the body... We don't think there is any danger of bacterial contamination. Our biochemistries are too different... INT. HELICOPTER - NIGHT Shermin and his crew are glued to the monitors, watching the autopsy from Houston. DR. BERGEN (V.O.) The flesh is gelatinous, the skin is very porous and very moist. This is another guess, but it probably comes from a planet that receives only reflected light, perhaps from a ring of moons. Its atmospheric pressure is slightly less than ours and it contains a great deal more water... FOX (V.O.) Dr. Bergen, George Fox here in Washington. Can you give us an idea of why they're here? DR. BERGEN (V.O.) They're so advanced... I... eh... can't imagine what they would want from us. I know they could be dangerous. But they could also be the greatest thing that ever happened to mankind... Shermin and his crew share mixed reactions. INT. JENNY'S HOUSE - BEDROOM - DAWNBREAK Jenny, sitting on the floor with her arms wrapped around her knees, is reflected in a mirror fastened to the back of the closet door. The STAR MAN edges around the door to look at himself in the glass. In baggy tan cords, a windbreaker and a plaid shirt, buttoned all the way to the neck and a button in the wrong hole halfway down the front, he looks like an innocent abroad. He notices the shirt is askew across his chest and, with his new hands, awkwardly resets the buttons. He looks himself over. His movements resemble a human's but are noticeably more precise. The clothes seem right so he leans into the mirror to inspect his face. He squeezes the skin on his cheeks, examines his eyes, turns his head as far as he can to inspect the sides of his face, folds his ears forward to check the skin behind them and he even gives a good two-fisted tug to his hair to see if it is on securely. He turns from the mirror and goes over to where the .45 and a leg pouch from his life-support suit are lying on the bed next to a snapshot of the man whose identity he has taken. In the picture the man is dressed exactly as the STAR MAN is now. The STAR MAN picks up the gun and the pouch and, speaking to Jenny in his own language, steps to the door and motions for her to follow. Jenny consciously ignores him. The STAR MAN comes over, reaches down and grabs her arm to pull her to her feet. Jenny squirms back, but he holds her tight. She looks at the hand, almost touches it, then up at the familiar yet disturbingly unfamiliar face above her. STAR MAN Please... JENNY Don't... don't do this... please... The STAR MAN gets her to her feet and hustles her out of the room. On the dresser is Jenny's wedding picture. The man the STAR MAN has become is her husband. INT. HOUSE - DAWNBREAK The STAR MAN pulls Jenny down the stairs. JENNY (struggles to free herself) You're hurting me. Stop. The STAR MAN guides her into the entryway and reaches for the front door. Realizing his intentions, Jenny increases her struggle and manages to pull away. JENNY Oh, God, no! I'm not leaving this house with you. You're going to hurt me, I know... The STAR MAN looks intently at her, then opens the front door. He taps his chest, points to Jenny and motions to the dawn outside. JENNY (through tears) I can't. I'd like to help. You look like Scott, but I know you're not. I don't know what you are. You gotta understand, I'm afraid of you... As Jenny backs into the living room, the STAR MAN closes the door. He raises the gun, examines it quickly, then with his finger around the trigger, points it at Jenny. STAR MAN Please. JENNY Why are you doing this to me? I'll give you whatever... The STAR MAN swings the muzzle sights across Jenny's body and FIRES. A FLOOR VASE EXPLODES. Jenny turns to look at the remains, then back to the STAR MAN. EXT. JENNY'S HOUSE - DAWNBREAK The Mustang is backing out of the driveway with Jenny behind the wheel and the STAR MAN perched nervously on the passenger seat. INT. MUSTANG - DAWNBREAK Wary of what will happen next, the STAR MAN watches Jenny move the gear selector to the drive position. The car jerks forward and he grabs the dashboard to keep from toppling back in the seat. During the ride up the block, his head swivels from side to side trying to take in as much of the darkened urban landscape as he can. When the car stops at a 'stop' sign, he looks at Jenny questioningly. STAR MAN Please... JENNY Which way do you want to go? She motions ahead and he turns to look at an inter-section with streets running in three directions off of it. His eyes question Jenny again. JENNY You can go that way... (points left) That way... (straight ahead) That way... She points right. After another look at Jenny, the STAR MAN presses the palms of his hands together, concentrates briefly, then slowly draws them apart. The force field appears between them. On it the solarized view of the United States rotates until the red destination dot is on his right. He drops his hands and points to the right. STAR MAN (measured) That way. The satel compass continues to hover over the dashboard. JENNY (staring incredulously at the compass) God, what are you? She starts her right turn without looking left and fails to see a little MG approaching from that direction. The WAIL OF THE AIR HORN startles Jenny and reflexively she slams on the brakes. The Mustang stalls and the MG squeals around them. Jenny checks the STAR MAN. He has pressed himself against the passenger door. The gun lies on the seat next to him. They both look at it. The STAR MAN recovers and picks it up. JENNY (starting the engine) I'm sorry... This time when Jenny puts the car into drive, the STAR MAN is ready for the acceleration. The car completes the turn and the compass rotates to its new heading. Looking at it from this angle, Jenny suddenly recognizes it for what it is: an aerial view of the United States. JENNY That green dot, that's us, isn't it... and the red's where you want to go?... You don't understand me, do you? The STAR MAN looks at her uncomprehendingly. JENNY (to herself) I gotta get out of here. EXT. STREET - DAWNBREAK The Mustang cruises through the industrial section of Eau Claire. INT. MUSTANG - DAWNBREAK The STAR MAN is watching Jenny drive. A set of headlights rushes TOWARD US in the other lane. Jenny twists around to follow the car as it goes by and we SEE the desperation on her face. When she returns her attention to the road, she sneaks a glance at the STAR MAN to see if her action has given away her state of mind. His expression hasn't changed. Jenny takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. Uttering a phrase in his own language, the STAR MAN touches the steering wheel. JENNY (startled) What? STAR MAN (thinking the steering wheel is called 'what," he repeats) What. With the same phrase in his language, he points to the 'gear shift.' JENNY (realizing her mistake) Ah... no... STAR MAN (repeats) Ah no. He points to the dashboard. Jenny senses there is going to be a great deal of misunderstanding if she uses more words. She shakes her head 'no' and touches the steering wheel. JENNY (enunciates) Steering wheel... STAR MAN (correcting her) What. Jenny shakes her head 'no.' JENNY Steering wheel. STAR MAN (repeats) Steering wheel. JENNY (points to the gear shift) Gear shift. STAR MAN Gear shift. JENNY (slaps the dashboard) Dashboard. STAR MAN Dashboard. Jenny sees a police car creeping across the intersection ahead of her and interrupts the lesson to stare at it. The STAR MAN looks to where she is looking. STAR MAN (alarmed) What?! JENNY Eh... police. STAR MAN (remembering) Police... He raises the gun off his lap. Jenny tries to distract him. JENNY (raps on the steering wheel) What?... With his eyes on the police car the STAR MAN ignores her. JENNY Steering wheel... (she points to the gear shift) What? The STAR MAN is intent on the police car. Jenny gives up trying to distract him. The patrol car passes out of their view. The STAR MAN lowers the gun and looks at Jenny. STAR MAN (unprompted, points correctly at each item) Steering wheel... gear shift... dashboard... JENNY (this frightens Jenny even more) Good. STAR MAN Good. EXT. INTERSECTION - DAWN We COME DOWN FROM a red light TO FIND the Mustang stopped behind the limit line. JENNY (V.O.) Which way? STAR MAN (V.O.) That way. The light changes and the car proceeds straight across the intersection. STAR MAN (V.O.) Good. INT. MUSTANG - DAWN While the STAR MAN picks through the contents of the glove compartment, Jenny looks for a way to escape. An all-night laundromat is a possibility, but it's deserted. The STAR MAN finds the switch on a flash-light and flicks it on and off. STAR MAN What? JENNY (distant) Flashlight. He puts the flashlight in his lap along with the owner's manual and gas slips and takes a stack of Discount Coupons out of the glove compartment. STAR MAN What? JENNY Coupons. Jenny sees a set of headlights turn into the oncoming lane. She slides her eyes toward the STAR MAN. He is busy looking through the Coupons. Jenny measures the distance between the Mustang and the oncoming lights. The STAR MAN holds up one of the Coupons and points to a picture of the product. STAR MAN What? JENNY (curt) Pancakes. STAR MAN Pancakes. He points to the cluster of letters that spells SAVE 35¢. STAR MAN What? Jenny doesn't answer. The distance between the two vehicles is narrowing rapidly. STAR MAN What? Jenny sets her jaw and wrenches the steering wheel violently to the left. EXT. STREET - DAWN The Mustang skids sideways across the center line. The oncoming van jams on its brakes and swerves to its left. Locked in a skid, it drifts toward the Mustang. INT. MUSTANG - DAWN The STAR MAN sucks himself back in terror as the van descends on him. It swings past his window and clips the rear fender of the Mustang. Both vehicles shudder to a stop. Jenny claws at her door. It swings open. She is halfway out before the STAR MAN manages to grab the tail of her sweatshirt. Jenny begins to scream at the top of her lungs and keeps it up while he tries to wrestle her down on the seat. EXT. STREET - DAWN A tall, raw-boned MAN in his late twenties storms around the front of his van. MAN You stupid son of a bitch!! He kicks the Mustang. JENNY (screaming) Help me!! MAN You could have killed us both!! JENNY (battling to maintain her grip on the door frame) He's kidnapping me!!! The Man bends down to look at the struggle. MAN Jesus Christ!! You crazy people... JENNY Call the police!! MAN (not sure he wants to get involved) Hey buddy... let her go... The STAR MAN increases his efforts and Jenny loses her grip on one of the door frames. JENNY Help me!!! MAN (grabbing her other arm) Hey, she doesn't want to go with you. Come on. The STAR MAN frees his right hand and blindly searches the floor for the gun. He comes up with it and, shoving the barrel in the Man's face, barks a harsh command in his language. The Man freezes and Jenny stops struggling. It's suddenly very quiet on the street. MAN Oh God, man... don't shoot me... My mistake... I'm sorry... JENNY He doesn't understand... just walk away... The STAR MAN claps a hand over her mouth. MAN I promise I'm not going to tell anybody about this... None of my business... I'm going to move now, okay... (takes a step to one side) You guys want to fight, that's up to you... (takes another step) I'm leaving now... I won't say a word... He keeps his eyes on the STAR MAN until he reaches the back of the Mustang, steals a quick look at the license plate, then blots for his van. The STAR MAN takes his hand off Jenny's mouth and slams her back into her seat. Uttering an expletive in his language he points the gun in her face and keeping it there indicates the red dot on the satel compass floating undisturbed above the dashboard. STAR MAN Go. EXT. STREET - DAWN The Mustang moves back into the correct lane and continues on. INT. MUSTANG - DAWN JENNY Could you put the gun down? The STAR MAN just stares at her. She points to the gun. JENNY Gun... Down... Down. Slowly, he lowers it to his lap. JENNY Thank you. EXT. ABANDONED LOGGING CAMP - EARLY MORNING Shermin's helicopter is taking on fuel from an Army tanker truck. The pilot and co-pilot are catching forty winks on the grass next to the old bunkhouse. INT. HELICOPTER - EARLY MORNING Major Bell, bleary-eyed and unshaven, is huddled in front of the television screens eating a breakfast off a styrofoam plate. On the top left screen is a satellite picture of Northern Michigan and half of Wisconsin taken with a Doppler radar. On the lower left screen is an infrared view of the same area. Over both these views is a schematic of the state boundaries and major cities. On the screens to the right of these views are blow-ups of smaller sections of the overview. Lyman and the radar technician are asleep on the floor. Seated in front of the radio console Shermin is going through the telex messages. Next to him the radio technician is bent over the desk with his head in his forearms. SHERMIN There's nothing... No reports of sightings or landings or anything... in the other parts of the country or overseas... Seems like a totally isolated incident. MAJOR BELL It was only an accident that we discovered them. SHERMIN I know, but... Shermin continues on through the messages. Bell asks the computer to change the pictures on the screens. Rhythmically, a sequence of images appears and disappears. SHERMIN You married, Major? MAJOR BELL Twenty-eight years. SHERMIN To the same woman? MAJOR BELL (smiling) Yes. SHERMIN I tried it once... Fourteen years ago... 'I was a lousy husband and a worse father. The only thing I'm good at is this... At least until yesterday. Bell stuffs his breakfast plate into a garbage bag and goes to get a breath of fresh air in the open doorway. Shermin stops at a point on the telex sheet. He reads the message to himself again. SHERMIN How would you describe the sounds we heard coming out of that thing's helmet? MAJOR BELL (after trying to imitate them) It was kind of like clicking, maybe a language wasn't it? SHERMIN Listen to this. (paraphrasing the telex) A woman was kidnapped in Eau Claire this morning. When a citizen went to her rescue the kidnapper threatened him with a gun and shouted at him in a strange 'clicking gibberish'... MAJOR BELL It was a man though... right? SHERMIN The police think he was high on drugs... Bell shrugs. SHERMIN What do you think? EXT. WISCONSIN FOREST - EARLY MORNING With a rush the helicopter rises out of the trees and thunders away. EXT. JENNY'S HOUSE - MORNING There are Eau Claire police cars on the street. Shermin is out back watching Bell pick his way down the hill. Through the windows we see uniformed policemen in the living room. MAJOR BELL (slides the last few feet down the hill) Nothing up there... The grass is matted down in a few places, but that could have been anything. SHERMIN It was the husband. The police finally got a hold of the witness at work and showed him a picture of the woman. The man standing next to her in the picture was her husband and the witness said that was the guy who kidnapped her. MAJOR BELL It's the right area, that's for sure. Throughout the above, Shermin has noticed a WOMAN in the house next door peeping through her blinds at the activity around Jenny's. She closes the drapes suddenly when she realizes Shermin has spotted her. SHERMIN Why the clicking language though? EXT. NEXT-DOOR HOUSE - EARLY MORNING Shermin knocks and waits on the steps with Bell for someone to answer. We hear a chain being pulled off and the door is opened by a freckled-face MAN in his late thirties, dressed in a business suit and wiping the traces of a breakfast from around his mouth. SHERMIN Sorry to disturb you, sir, but there's been some trouble next door. I'd like to ask you a few questions. MAN What happened? SHERMIN There's a possibility that Mrs. Haydn's been kidnapped. We're hoping you might have seen something. A WOMAN in a robe opens the door a little wider to include herself in the conversation. She is as freckled as the man and about the same age. WOMAN (to the Man) I told you... MAN Judy, that's stupid. WOMAN Well, maybe these men won't think so. We were asleep when a helicopter woke me up. It made me so nervous I went into the kitchen for something to eat. I happened to look out the window and there was Scott Haydn with this green thing draped over his arm pulling Jenny down the walk to the car. MAN You know that's impossible! WOMAN I know what I saw. I've seen him enough times. MAN (giving up on his wife and addressing Shermin and Lyman) Scott Haydn is dead. He died about three months ago. We went to the funeral. Shermin and Bell exchange a glance. EXT. INTERSTATE - DAY Jenny's Mustang is sailing through the beautiful Wisconsin farmland. STAR MAN (V.O.) R-r-S-s... INT. MUSTANG - DAY The STAR MAN is copying the letters, upper and lower case, from the Owner's Manual he found in the glove compartment, onto the back of an envelope. STAR MAN T-t-U... He draws the upper case but has to check the manual for the lower case. STAR MAN u-V-v... The STAR MAN looks up as they go by a farm. STAR MAN (pointing correctly to the various animals) Cow... Dog... Pig... He looks to Jenny for confirmation. She nods absently. He returns to the alphabet. STAR MAN W-w... He forms both the upper and lower case 'X-x' and shows them to Jenny. STAR MAN What? JENNY (knows what's coming) X... Without smiling the STAR MAN opens his mouth and emits a short chirping laugh. JENNY What's so funny about X? The STAR MAN laughs harder. Jenny watches him warily. He starts to hiccup. He is unable to control it through the laughter. DISSOLVE TO: INT. SMALL RECTANGULAR ROOM - DAY Shermin's image waits on the television screen. He is gaunt, tired and visibly shaken. The picture sizzles and breaks up intermittently. Fox and the three men who watched the autopsy stride quickly into the room. SHERMIN (V.O.) (his voice quavering) George, we've just confirmed the existence of the live extraterrestrial. FOX (after a beat) When can we expect containment? SHERMIN (V.O.) Well, we're in pursuit of a green Mustang... FOX (very controlled) It's in a green Mustang? SHERMIN (V.O.) Yes. It's kidnapped a woman at gunpoint and from what we can make out is forcing her to drive it somewhere. MILITARY MAN (to the room) This one has a weapon. SHERMIN (V.O.) No, no... A .45, it probably got it in the woman's house. They were last seen in downtown Eau Claire... FOX Why did you let it get into a populated area? SHERMIN (V.O.) It's taken on a disguise. FOX Clarify that. SHERMIN (V.O.) It's made itself look like the woman's dead husband. Static breaks up the t.v. picture. When it returns, Fox leans toward the screen. FOX Repeat the last item. Almost reluctantly Shermin holds up Scott Haydn's picture. SHERMIN (V.O.) The extraterrestrial now looks like this. FOX (softly) Oh shit!!! EXT. INTERSTATE - AFTERNOON Jenny's Mustang moves along through the traffic. INT. MUSTANG - AFTERNOON We are CLOSE ON the back of a ten-dollar bill. STAR MAN (O.S.) (reading slowly) The United States of America. In God We Trust. Ten dollars. We pull back as he holds the ten up to Jenny. JENNY Money. STAR MAN Money. He holds up a quarter. JENNY Money. Confused, the STAR MAN puts the money back into Jenny's wallet and reads the first card through its plastic window. STAR MAN Mi-chi-gan driver li-see-ens... Jennyhaydn... Money? JENNY (shaking her head 'no,' exhausted) We're going to have to stop for gas soon. Under the license is a picture of Jenny smiling broadly. The STAR MAN looks at Jenny, back at the picture, then imitates the smile for Jenny. STAR MAN What? JENNY Smile. STAR MAN Smile... good? JENNY Yes. He practices curling the corners of his mouth up into a smile. One of them freezes as the Interstate curves and a glistening skyline backlit by the afternoon sun comes into view across a river. STAR MAN (impressed) What?! JENNY Minneapolis. STAR MAN (reaching into the leg pouch he took from his life-support suit) Minneapolis... Minneapolis... JENNY What are you doing? He takes out his camera. JENNY ...What's that? He points the white disc at Minneapolis. With a 'POP,' a cone of light flashes out. It sucks back, almost instantly, bringing with it a three-dimensional image of the skyline. STAR MAN Minneapolis... good. JENNY You're full of tricks, aren't you? The car starts across the twin cities' bridge. JENNY (taps the fuel gauge) We need gas. The STAR MAN looks at the gauge. Jenny scrunches against the door to avoid contact with him. JENNY No gas. STAR MAN No gas. JENNY This car runs on gas. She presses the accelerator to the floor. The car jumps forward. JENNY Gas... She takes her foot off the accelerator and the car quickly slows down. JENNY No gas. EXT. BRIDGE - AFTERNOON JENNY (V.O.) Gas. The Mustang spurts forward a few yards. JENNY (V.O.) No gas. It staggers down to a crawl. JENNY (V.O.) Gas. The car leaps forward again. JENNY (V.O.) No gas. It drops back to a crawl. INT. MUSTANG - AFTERNOON JENNY No gas... car dead. (her head lolls forward on her chest) We need gas. I don't want to get shot for running out of gas. STAR MAN Gas good? JENNY Yes. Very good. INT. MUSTANG - AFTERNOON We are LOOKING DOWN Jenny's arm AT a gas station just off Interstate 169 in the Minneapolis suburbs. JENNY Gas... The STAR MAN contemplates the station as they pass it, then turns to Jenny, puzzled: STAR MAN Go. JENNY It's closed... closed. We need one that's open. STAR MAN Closed? JENNY You'll see. There are no more gas stations in sight. The STAR MAN becomes bored with the silence. He picks up Jenny's wallet. The driver's license is familiar so he flips to the next window. In it is a picture of an older man and woman standing in front of a church. STAR MAN What? JENNY (snaps) Not what. Who. What is for things. (touching the steering wheel, dashboard, seat, gear shift) What? What? What? What? For people you use who. Who is he? (points to the man in the picture) Who is she? (points to the woman) Who are you? (points to the STAR MAN) Who am I? She touches her chest. STAR MAN (mirrors her gestures) Who is he? Who is she? Who are you? Who am I? (pause; it clicks for him and he points at Jenny) Who are you? JENNY I am Jenny Haydn. STAR MAN (flips back to her license and reads) Jennyhaydn. Jenny nods. JENNY Who are you? STAR MAN I am... We HEAR MODULATED CLICKS of his percussive LANGUAGE. JENNY That's a big help. Where are you from? STAR MAN From? JENNY (leans forward and points through the windshield at the sky) Are you from up there? Space? STAR MAN (leans forward to look with her) Space? JENNY Up there... I... eh... can't explain... (leans back) But that's the only place you could be from. The STAR MAN spots a station on the other side of the Interstate. STAR MAN Gas. JENNY (shakes her head 'no') Closed. He taps the fuel gauge which has dipped below empty. STAR MAN No gas. JENNY I know. They both scan the horizon for a gas station. When one doesn't come up immediately, the STAR MAN flips to the next picture in the wallet. It is of the man he has become. He is leaning against a fire truck, in uniform. STAR MAN Who? JENNY My... husband. STAR MAN I am husband? JENNY No. I don't know what you are, but you're not Scott. Silence. The STAR MAN catches her mood. A tear rolls down Jenny's cheek. JENNY (brushes it away angrily) Shit. STAR MAN Shit? JENNY No, no... don't say that. Bad word. STAR MAN (likes the sound of it) Shit... shit... what shit? JENNY (screams) Stop!! Enough!! Jesus! You're worse than a parrot!! Like closing a zipper, she slides her fingers across her mouth. JENNY Mouth closed... closed. The STAR MAN does as he is told. He doesn't like it, but he does it. With his lips puckered, he looks straight down the road. The car rises out of a gulley. Topping a knoll straight ahead is a gas station with an enormous Exxon sign revolving above it. With his lips firmly pressed together, he tugs Jenny's sleeve and points. JENNY I see it. The STAR MAN reaches forward and squeezes the satel compass back into his palms. EXT. GAS STATION - AFTERNOON The Mustang comes up the off-ramp toward the pumps. INT. MUSTANG - AFTERNOON The STAR MAN'S hand closes around the butt of the .45 when he sees the ATTENDANT step out of the office. STAR MAN Who? JENNY Attendant. He'll give us gas. Put the gun down. Under the seat. Under the seat... STAR MAN No. JENNY Oh God! You're going to get us both killed. Okay... in your pocket... She shoves her hand into the pocket of her slacks showing him what to do. JENNY In your pocket... pocket... Jenny eases in next to the pumps and stops. The Attendant is already coming around the front of the car. JENNY In your pocket, please... STAR MAN (draws his fingers over his lips) You. Mouth closed. JENNY Okay. The STAR MAN stuffs the gun into the left pocket of his baggy cords just as the Attendant arrives at the driver's door. ATTENDANT Morning, folks. Fill her up? The STAR MAN looks at Jenny for help. She sweeps her fingers across her mouth to indicate her lips are sealed. The STAR MAN peeks around her at the Attendant. STAR MAN (overly loud) ...Gas... ATTENDANT You got it. He leaves the window. The STAR MAN watches him until the nozzle is in the Mustang, then pleased with himself, turns to Jenny and lifts his face into a 'smile.' JENNY I'm going to the ladies' room. You stay here. EXT. GAS STATION - AFTERNOON Jenny gets out of the car. When she straightens up, she finds the STAR MAN staring at her over the roof. She slams the door and strides rapidly in the direction of the ladies' room. Stuffing the green pouch in his pocket, the STAR MAN trots after her. JENNY (wheels on him as he catches up) Go back to the car. The STAR MAN looks at her but doesn't move. Jenny snarls in frustration, then with the STAR MAN on her heels, stalks to the ladies' room and throws open the door. INT. LADIES' ROOM - AFTERNOON The STAR MAN follows Jenny inside. JENNY See. It's a bathroom. I'm not trying to escape. I just have to go to the bathroom. He checks out the stall. JENNY Satisfied? Now get out. Out. STAR MAN No. Furious, Jenny steps around him and opens the door. She points to the sign on it. JENNY Women... me. She continues out. The STAR MAN goes after her. EXT. RESTROOMS - AFTERNOON Jenny points to the sign on the next door. JENNY Men. You go in here. She cracks the door for him. JENNY Come on. He takes the door from her and pushes it open for a look inside. Jenny ducks into the ladies' room. He is confused for a moment then takes a long look at the men's room. It means nothing to him. He backs out and tries the ladies' room. It is locked. Not knowing what to do, the STAR MAN stands uncomfortably in front of the door, then like a child waiting for his mother, he sits on the curb. He watches the Attendant lift the Mustang's hood and reach in for the dipstick. The numbers on the pumps turn over, adding up the gallons and the cost of the gas. Everything is peaceful and quiet within the circle of light cast by the gas station. The STAR MAN pulls the camera disc out of his pocket and points it at the pumps. The cone of light flashes out and pulls back its three-dimensional image. The Attendant turns around and waves genially at the STAR MAN, who waves back a perfect imitation of the gesture. The SHARP RUMBLE of a SOUPED-UP HONDA MOTORCYCLE coming up the off-ramp shatters the mood and the STAR MAN gets to his feet. He is startled by the image of the RIDER. In a one piece driving skin and helmet he looks amazingly like a space traveller. The STAR MAN steps cautiously forward for a better look and mutters something to himself in his language. The rider stops his bike at the second row of pumps and swings himself stiffly out of the seat. RIDER Do I need a key for the head? ATTENDANT It's open. Without taking off his helmet, the Rider sets out for the men's room. RIDER (over his shoulder) Fill it up. ATTENDANT You got it. The rider's approach frightens the STAR MAN. He backs up to the ladies' room door and knocks. There is no answer. He tries the knob. With the other hand he inches the gun slightly out of his pocket. INT. LADIES' ROOM - AFTERNOON Jenny is bent over the sink dabbing nail polish around the corners of a paper towel. Her head snaps around to look at the doorknob. It holds. JENNY Just a minute. EXT. RESTROOMS - AFTERNOON The STAR MAN tenses and forces a smile as the Rider passes in front of him. A VOICE comes from behind the faceplate. RIDER Howdy... can't get her out. STAR MAN (thru the smile) Gas. RIDER I know how she feels. The rider enters the men's room. As the door closes behind him, the STAR MAN's face falls and he knocks frantically on the ladies' room door. Jenny opens it under his knuckles. He blocks the doorway and she backs up as he steps inside. INT. LADIES' ROOM - AFTERNOON The STAR MAN looks around. Jenny's eyes widen at what is happening behind him. The pneumatic arm above the door is pulling it shut to reveal her paper towel pasted to the back. The message on it, written in red lipstick, reads: KIDNAPPED GOING W ON 169 JADE MUS. LIC#PXV237. JENNY (stepping around him) It's still a toilet. Hasn't become a ballroom. She tries to swing the door open and hide her message against the wall, but she is too slow. The STAR MAN sees it and steps forward to read. STAR MAN Kid-nap-ped... go-ing W o-n... Jenny realizes he doesn't know what it means. JENNY (on her way out) That's very good. Other graffiti on the door helps convince the STAR MAN Jenny's message has nothing to do with him and after a last look at it, he follows her. EXT. GAS STATION - AFTERNOON A CAN of Coke CLATTERS DOWN the chute of a drink dispenser. Jenny picks it up and, with the STAR MAN hovering at her shoulder, moves on to the candy machine. He watches a quarter disappear into the slot and when Jenny picks another one out of her purse, he points to it. STAR MAN Money. JENNY Yes. She inserts the quarter and makes her selection. A Reese's Peanut Butter Cup drops from its position into the pickup bin. STAR MAN What? JENNY Candy. Using the change from this and another quarter, she selects an Almond Joy. STAR MAN (as it tumbles into the bin) Money... candy. ATTENDANT (to the STAR MAN) That'll be fifteen fifty, sir. JENNY Here. She hands him a twenty. ATTENDANT Thank you. He goes to make change. STAR MAN (to himself) Thank you. Jenny pops the top on the Coke can and on the way to the car takes a sip. STAR MAN What is... (reads off the can) ...Coke? JENNY A drink. STAR MAN (holds his hand out for it) I... JENNY You want to try it? STAR MAN I want to try it. JENNY This stuff could kill... (changes her mind and smiles) Be my guest. The STAR MAN fills his mouth, swirls it around and swallows. STAR MAN (after a loud burp) Good. He hands the can back to Jenny. She looks at it and knows there are alien bacteria there her body would not like to meet. JENNY Eh... you keep it. I've had enough. The STAR MAN takes another drink. He stops dead when he lowers the can. Jenny continues for a few steps before she realizes he isn't with her. She looks back over her shoulder. Her eyes go immediately to where he is looking. The license plate PXV 237 hangs like an accusation on the front bumper of the Mustang. Jenny decides to brazen it out. JENNY What's the matter? STAR MAN (throws the can to the ground) Shit! INT. MUSTANG - AFTERNOON Jenny and the STAR MAN ride along in tight-lipped silence. STAR MAN What is kidnapped? Jenny ignores him. STAR MAN (yells) Kidnapped!!! She flinches but remains silent. The STAR MAN snatches the paper towel off his lap and flaps it in her face, jabbing at the word violently with a forefinger. STAR MAN Kidnapped!!! What is kidnapped?!! Jenny can't take it anymore and screams back at him through tears. JENNY Kidnapped is what you're doing to me now!!! Kidnapped is pointing a gun at me and taking me from my house! Kidnapped is changing yourself into my husband. I don't know what you are and I don't care. I just want to get away from you! Jenny's outburst rocks the STAR MAN back into silence. He waits for her to calm down, then slowly takes the gun out of his pocket. STAR MAN Jennyhaydn. She doesn't dare look at him. STAR MAN I am good. (and he slides the .45 under his seat) EXT. INTERSTATE - NIGHT Jenny speeds up to pass a truckload of horses. STAR MAN What is that? She doesn't answer. The car passes the truck. The highway before them is empty. JENNY (finally) Horses. STAR MAN (without looking at her) Horses. Jenny TURNS ON the RADIO and finds a COUNTRY AND WESTERN STATION. STAR MAN What? JENNY Music. It is pleasing to him and he listens for a while, then reaches in his pouch and takes out one of the dusty gray marbles. He rolls it between his palms. It changes to a glowing gold as it grows to the size of a baseball. JENNY (alarmed) What are you doing?! The STAR MAN brings the globe close to his mouth and speaks into it. STAR MAN (subtitles) Iron channel message. Transmute was successful. Have captured one of them. It is taking me to the pick-up point in a land vehicle. (eyeing Jenny) I think I can control it by mastering its language, which is primitive and easy to learn. Will arrive on time. Wait for me. The STAR MAN opens his hands and, to Jenny's astonishment, the ball rises quickly and seeps through her roof without leaving a trace. EXT. INTERSTATE - NIGHT The Mustang swerves violently, then straightens itself as the ball comes through the roof and surges into the sky. EXT. SKY - NIGHT Unexpectedly, Shermin's helicopter storms into view. It is so close we can count the rivets. As it clears, we go to: INT. HELICOPTER - NIGHT The flow of traffic on the Interstate below is being fed into the six television screens from infrared cameras on the belly of the craft. The image on the screen under the master begins to move and ends in a close-up of a green Mustang. It's not Jenny's. With a buzz the red dot appears and Fox's face interrupts the view of the Mustang. FOX (V.O.) I just came from a meeting with the Security Council and (the picture breaks up, but the voice continues) in view of the extraterrestrial's radical change and the fact that all our efforts (the picture re- assembles) to contact its ship remain unanswered, it was decided to issue a ten state 'all points bulletin' for Scott Haydn, Jenny Haydn and the green Mustang. The officers have been instructed not to approach the people or the vehicle but to contact you. You will then move in and contain the subjects. Shermin rubs his hands over his face while he digests this. SHERMIN (sorting it out) You sure you want this, because... that's putting an awful lot of faith in people we have no control over... FOX (V.O.) I'm afraid the situation demands that kind of risk. SHERMIN I don't like it, George... FOX (V.O.) Dammit Shermin. Earlier you were asking for help. What's changed? SHERMIN It's messy... the thing's got a gun... We're just asking for somebody to get killed... FOX (V.O.) We don't know what else to do. We need results. SHERMIN (accepting) You'll get results one way or the other, that's for sure... Okay. FOX (V.O.) I'm gonna be here if you need anything. His image is replaced by one of the highway. MAJOR BELL They're gonna let some local cop blow him away. LYMAN Save us all a lot of trouble. MAJOR BELL Jesus Lyman, you're an ignorant fool. LYMAN Bullshit! MAJOR BELL You have no conception of this, do you? LYMAN You jerk! You look at all the sweetness and light and goodness you think'll come out of this. You know what's gonna come out of this... The end of religion, the end of civilization, the end of the earth. We could become slaves, we could become a colony of these things. Don't you see that? Are you too stupid to see that? SHERMIN Are you ladies through?... Bell and Lyman look at their feet. SHERMIN Good... It looks like we might be the welcoming committee, so I think we should try and figure out what we're gonna do if we have to come face to face with this creature. LYMAN Bell wants us to get down on our knees and bow. SHERMIN (to Bell) Did your people have any contingencies rehearsed? MAJOR BELL No... I guess we never thought it would happen. It's Shermin's turn to look at his feet. SHERMIN Terrific. On one of the screens behind him the camera has picked up a lighted billboard advertising 'Kellogg's Corn Flakes' with its slogan 'HAVE A GREAT DAY.' EXT. HIGHWAY - EARLY MORNING Jenny's Mustang is barreling along well over the speed limit. As it PASSES US, we PAN WITH it TO a sign: SLOW FOR INTERSECTION. EXT. INTERSECTION - EARLY MORNING A truckload of corn is hurtling down ON US from the north. An empty semi is rumbling up from the south. The light is in their favor. INT. MUSTANG - EARLY MORNING The STAR MAN is driving. It is obvious that he doesn't see the red light facing him. But Jenny does. And she also sees the trucks closing in from either side. JENNY (loud) Red light! The STAR MAN doesn't see it, doesn't believe her, doesn't slow down. JENNY (screams) Stop!!! EXT. INTERSECTION - EARLY MORNING It is as if all three vehicles have heard Jenny. They slam on their brakes at the same time and begin to skid toward each other. It's going to be close. INT. MUSTANG - EARLY MORNING The prows of the trucks loom over Jenny and the STAR MAN and, for a fleeting instant, it looks like they will join the bugs imbedded in the radiators. EXT. INTERSECTION - EARLY MORNING The Mustang barely squeaks through and the trucks slam into each other behind it, spilling corn all over the highway. INT. MUSTANG - EARLY MORNING It finally comes to a stop on the center line. JENNY That was a red light!! I told you you have to stop at a red light!! STAR MAN (sheepish) It was yellow. JENNY You didn't even see it. The STAR MAN looks back for the traffic light. It is hanging from a pole in the middle of the road. Under it the truck DRIVERS are climbing out of the cabs. STAR MAN I will see it next time. JENNY You better. The STAR MAN angles back into his lane and begins to pick up speed. EXT. SIOUX FALLS - SOUTH DAKOTA - DAY Deftly, the STAR MAN moves in and out of the afternoon traffic. A bus coming in the other direction hits a pothole filled with water and the SPLASH covers the Mustang. INT. MUSTANG - DAY Jenny watches the STAR MAN calmly turn on the wipers and the washer and clean the windshield. The light above the intersection ahead turns red and, even though he is still fiddling with the wipers, the STAR MAN manages a smooth stop back of the crosswalk. JENNY (indicating the red dot on the satel compass) Why are you going here? What is here? STAR MAN My... (searches for word) ...car will take me... (pokes finger toward sky) ...up there... home. The light changes and the STAR MAN continues down the street. JENNY (at the red dot again) When do you have to be here? STAR MAN I do not understand. JENNY (rubs her temples and laments to herself) How will I do this one?... The answer is hovering above the city in front of them. JENNY (pointing to the sun) Sun... STAR MAN Yes. JENNY Sun... day. No sun... night. You understand? STAR MAN Yes. Day... night. JENNY How many days and nights do you have to go... (prods the red dot) ...here? STAR MAN Three nights... two days. JENNY That's not much time. I'll just slow you down. I have to sleep. I'm very tired. And I have to wash and eat. You don't... STAR MAN I need you. JENNY I won't tell anybody if that's what you're worried about. I promise. You'll keep... STAR MAN No. JENNY You'll keep the car. I'll take a bus... (an awful possibility occurs to her) Am I going up there with you... in your ship... up there? STAR MAN No. JENNY Then let me go. You don't need me. STAR MAN No. JENNY I feel like I'm going crazy here. You're Scott. But he's dead. I don't know what's real anymore. I can't be here with you. The STAR MAN is unyielding. JENNY Do you understand what I'm saying to you? You can keep the car. (she hands him some money) That should be enough for gas from here to there. Please let me go. STAR MAN (taps the red dot on the satel compass) When we get here. Jenny slams herself angrily back in the seat. JENNY You bastard. Her upper lip trembles and, in spite of herself, she might cry. The STAR MAN sees the center lane is open. He checks his side mirror and drifts over, only to be caught by a light. The car is still rolling when Jenny makes her move. She throws open the door and, by the time the STAR MAN turns around, she is out and running. STAR MAN Jennyhaydn! He takes his foot off the brake to go after her and the car lurches into the cross traffic. He clambers back behind the wheel, regains control and cuts a hard right in front of the other car waiting at the light. EXT. STREET - SIOUX FALLS - DAY Over her shoulder, Jenny can see the Mustang coming. She dodges up a brick walkway toward a J.C. Penney shopping mall. The Mustang skids to a stop at the curb. The STAR MAN jumps out in time to see Jenny push her way past a stream of pedestrian traffic and enter the mall. He leaves the car and zigzags through the people in that direction. INT. SHOPPING MALL - DAY As he barges in, the STAR MAN accidentally knocks a cup of Coke out of a YOUNG MAN's hand. YOUNG MAN Hey!! In a panic to find Jenny, he continues jostling past people to look in the shops that border the atrium. MEZZANINE Jenny warily approaches the railing and peers over. Below her the STAR MAN comes out of a record store. She turns away and gets on the escalator to the second floor. ON THE GROUND FLOOR The STAR MAN thinks he sees Jenny in an electronics store, but when the girl turns around, it is obviously not her. Backing out of there, he knocks over a sandwich board advertising a restaurant. The LOUD THWACK it makes when it hits the cement turns faces in his direction. Jenny's is not among them. His eyes raise to the mezzanine. Maybe she's there. He looks wildly around for a way up. He spots the escalator and, trying to keep the upper floor in view while he runs for it, he slams into an unattended pram. It begins to tip over. The BABY INSIDE SCREAMS. The STAR MAN manages to snatch it out of the carriage before it hits the floor. He is looking for a place to put it when the MOTHER comes charging out of a plant store. MOTHER My baby!!! He's stealing my baby! Burt!! The STAR MAN holds the baby out to her. She grabs it out of his hands and he turns to leave. MOTHER Burt!! Somebody stop him!! He was stealing my baby!! Two tough-looking MEN in T-shirts step in to block the STAR MAN's way to the escalator. MAN Where you think you're going? Not understanding, the STAR MAN tries to get by them. They push him back. STAR MAN Please. A tall, skinny blond man with spectacles elbows his way to the Mother. MOTHER He was trying to steal Gloria. Two steps and Burt is on the STAR MAN. He spins him around. BURT Is that right? Huh? He throws him back against the crowd that has gathered. STAR MAN (stutters) Please. Burt pulls the STAR MAN up by his shirt front and shakes him. BURT Is that right? Come on. Answer me. Fear erases the STAR MAN's tenuous grasp of English and he begins to jabber in his own language. This makes Burt even madder. BURT Were you trying to steal my baby? Huh? Answer me! STAR MAN Jennyhaydn! SECOND FLOOR Jenny has just gotten on the escalator to the third floor when she hears her name. She knows she shouldn't but she gets off and joins the crowd at the railing. From there, she can see the STAR MAN trapped in a circle of people. He clubs Burt away from him and tries to thrash his way out of the mob. STAR MAN Jennyhaydn! One of the T-shirts throws him back and Burt begins to punch him. We MOVE IN UNTIL we are CLOSE ON Jenny's face. GROUND FLOOR Some of the onlookers have joined Burt in his attempt to bring the STAR MAN down. Growling in his own language, the STAR MAN fights back as best he can. The sleeve of his windbreaker is torn. One of the T-shirts lands a blow on his right shoulder that turns the STAR MAN around. He takes a blow on the chest. Another in the kidneys. Burt gets a grip on the STAR MAN's left wrist and holds on. The attackers close in. Jenny's voice cuts through the din. JENNY (O.S.) Stop it!!! Stop it!!! She barges into the fray and starts peeling the men away from the STAR MAN. JENNY Get away from him!! Leave him alone!! You stupid jerks!! He's retarded!! Can't you see that?!! Get away from him!! The men do. Jenny pushes the sleeve of the torn wind-breaker back up on the STAR MAN's shoulder. MOTHER He was stealing my baby... JENNY You're wrong!! He would never do anything like that!! (takes STAR MAN's hand) Let's go... MOTHER He had Gloria in his hands! JENNY He's retarded! I shouldn't have left him alone! She starts to push out of the circle. Burt steps in to block her. JENNY (hisses) Get out of my way. She stares at him until he does, then leads the STAR MAN down the path that opens for them in the crowd. They pass a MALL GUARD who has just arrived. EXT. STREET - SIOUX FALLS - DAY JENNY Are you okay? Still shaken, the STAR MAN nods. Jenny realizes that it is comforting to him to have his hand in hers and she leads him like a child down the sidewalk to the Mustang. STAR MAN (as Jenny puts him in the passenger seat) Thank you. The Mall Guard follows them down the walk-way and watches them drive off. He scribbles the license number in his notebook. INT. GREYHOUND BUS STATION - SIOUX FALLS - DAY At the counter Jenny puts her Visa card back into her wallet while the CLERK staples the pages of a ticket into a travel folder. CLERK (handing it to her) Gate three. It's boarding now. JENNY Thank you. CLERK Have a nice trip. We FOLLOW Jenny THROUGH the people milling around the benches in the waiting area TO the STAR MAN seated in an open-faced coffee shop. He is watching a MOTHER feed her baby in the booth across from him. A map of the United States is spread out on the formica. Jenny plunks herself down catty-cornered from him. The tear in his sleeve has been closed with safety pins. JENNY The closest I was able to get you was Lathrop Wells... STAR MAN (pointing to baby) Is that a baby? JENNY Yes. STAR MAN A baby is a new person? JENNY Eh... yes... STAR MAN Do you have a baby? JENNY No... The closest... STAR MAN Why? JENNY I'd love to have a baby. But I can't... STAR MAN Why? JENNY I can't... Forget the baby. Okay? The closest I was able to get you was Lathrop Wells. You'll have to hitchhike the rest of the way. The STAR MAN looks at the map. Lathrop Wells is a small town north of Las Vegas on Highway 95. From there he runs his finger to a spot in the Funeral Range of Death Valley. STAR MAN But I must go here. JENNY I know that. But the buses don't go there. STAR MAN (suspicious) What is hitchhike? JENNY That's easy. I'll explain that in a minute. This is your ticket. When you get on the bus here, the driver will take this part. You will ride to Omaha. When you get to Omaha, ask the driver. 'Salt Lake City, please. I do not speak English.' The STAR MAN nods that he understands. JENNY Say it. STAR MAN 'Salt Lake City, please. I do not speak English.' JENNY The driver will... STAR MAN But I speak English. JENNY Will you please do it my way? You'll get into trouble if you don't. If anybody talks to you, tell them... I do not speak English. STAR MAN (indignant) I do not speak English. JENNY Right. In Omaha the driver will put you on the bus for Salt Lake City and the new driver will take... (bends back second portion of ticket) ...this part. When you get to Salt Lake City, ask the driver, 'Las Vegas, please'... STAR MAN (impatient) 'Las Vegas, please. I do not speak English.' What is hitchhike? JENNY You want this ticket? STAR MAN Yes. JENNY Then don't be smart. P.A. SYSTEM (V.O.) Last call for bus 33 to Vermillion, Sioux City and Omaha... loading at Gate 3. JENNY That's your bus. (picks up the map and folds it) When you get to Las Vegas, ask the driver. 'Lathrop Wells, please. I do not speak English.' STAR MAN (falling into step next to her) 'Lathrop Wells, please. I do not speak English.' JENNY (hands him the map) You keep this. Now this is hitch- hike... (stops in the middle of the waiting area to illustrate) You stand on the side of the road, the highway... you understand? And you face the cars going in the direction you want to go. When you see a car or a truck coming, you stick out your thumb like this... Jenny takes a few sweeps at an imaginary highway with her thumb. The stares this pantomime draws make the STAR MAN more nervous about the bus trip than he already is. JENNY Your thumb tells the driver that you want a ride. STAR MAN The car will stop? JENNY (continuing toward the loading platform) Not every car, but... a car will stop... Maybe not the first car... maybe number eight, number fifteen... The STAR MAN stops. STAR MAN When do I get to Lathrop Wells? JENNY Tomorrow morning. Start hitch-hiking right away and... Jenny pushes open a glass door to: EXT. LOADING PLATFORM - DAY JENNY ...you'll have plenty of time to get to where you want to go. The STAR MAN hangs back when he sees the security guards. JENNY Don't worry. They're not going to hurt you. Come on. (gives him ticket) Only show this to the driver. Nobody else. And don't lose it. STAR MAN Can I have the gun? JENNY No. She maneuvers him into the end of the line. JENNY You might need this. She takes some of the paper money out of her wallet and stuffs it in his pocket. JENNY Don't be afraid. Do what I told you and you'll be okay. STAR MAN (nervous) Yes. The line moves forward a step. JENNY Well... I'm going to go now. STAR MAN Go? JENNY Yes. I have a long ride ahead of me... (takes his hand) Goodbye. STAR MAN Goodbye. He watches her walk away. STAR MAN Jennyhaydn. JENNY Yes? STAR MAN Please stay. Jenny comes back and takes his hand. JENNY I'll stay till you get on the bus. A family of four climbs aboard and the line moves up. The STAR MAN is alert to everything happening on the platform. Jenny sneaks him an affectionate look. No one in front of him has baggage to check and they move quickly past the DRIVER until the STAR MAN is next in line. DRIVER Ticket? The STAR MAN hands the Driver his ticket. The Driver rips out the first coupon and hands it back. JENNY See? You're going to be okay. When they stop at the door, she impulsively kisses him on the cheek. JENNY Goodbye. STAR MAN (touches his cheek) What? JENNY It's a kiss... (she motions for him to get on the bus) Goodbye... DRIVER Let's go. The STAR MAN climbs the steps just ahead of him. The door closes. Its ENGINE REVVING, the bus backs out of its stall. Jenny catches a glimpse of the STAR MAN bent over in the aisle looking out at her. She waves until the bus rounds the building. EXT. GREYHOUND PARKING LOT - DAY Jenny's green Mustang loops around the end of a row of cars and heads for the street. INT. MUSTANG - DAY LOOKING OVER Jenny's SHOULDER, we SEE the Star Man waiting for her at the curb. JENNY (softly) Oh no... She stops next to him and rolls down her window. JENNY What happened? STAR MAN I was afraid. Jenny moans and lays her head on the vinyl of the window sill. When she raises up, he smiles at her. JENNY Okay, you win. Get in. INT. SHOPPING MALL - DAY Shermin is standing next to the security guard in the middle of a knot of shouting people. SHOPKEEPER This kind of thing's real bad for business... TOUGH He couldn't even speak English. MOTHER Those kind of people should be shot. ONLOOKER What happened? WAITRESS I think he was just lost... BURT Who's side are you on? TOUGH No way he was going to get away from me. We move in on a lapel mike pinned to the front of Shermin's shirt. INT. HELICOPTER - DAY The hubbub in the shopping center is being recorded on a tape deck. Lyman, a phone to his ear, is seated in front of the television screens. LYMAN Where's that?... And it was one person, one way... He hangs up and heads for the rear door. Jenny Haydn's current Visa statement occupies the upper left screen. The last two items are circled: The charge for the Greyhound ticket and the credit for the return of that ticket. EXT. SHOPPING MALL - DAY The security guard tags Shermin into the parking lot. SECURITY GUARD Eyewitnesses are the worst. You get two of them together. You got three stories. You know what I mean? Shermin sees Lyman come out of the crowd surrounding the police cars in front of the helicopter. SECURITY GUARD Is there a reward in this? SHERMIN Huh?... Eh... no, there isn't SECURITY GUARD Because I'm the one who called the police, you know. SHERMIN Yeah, thanks. We appreciate that. SECURITY GUARD Hey, it's none of my business why you're chasing a retard... You want my opinion, it's the girl. She had to hold the guy's hand all the way to the car like he was a kid. SHERMIN You saw that? SECURITY GUARD Hey... he didn't look like no big time criminal to me. Lyman meets them. It is obvious he has something to tell Shermin. SECURITY GUARD Eh... the store tells you to call when there's trouble, so they won't get sued... But that shouldn't matter if there's a reward, right? SHERMIN I wouldn't think so. SECURITY GUARD (peeling off) That's what I thought. So remember it was me because sometimes rewards come late, you know. SHERMIN We will. (he turns to Lyman) Something's wrong here. She's helping him now. LYMAN (alarmed) I know. She bought him a ticket for Lathrop Wells and put him on the bus. He didn't stay on though and they drove off together. SHERMIN (shaking his head) Doesn't make sense. LYMAN Maybe he's turned her into one of them. They enter the crowd around the helicopter. EXT. INTERSTATE 29 - DAY The Mustang cruises along between fields of corn. JENNY (V.O.) Why did your ship land on this planet... on Earth? STAR MAN (V.O.) It was a mistake. INT./EXT. MUSTANG - DAY The following conversation will be played over various views of Americana: a station wagon load of kids, waving and laughing, lovers kissing at a bus stop, billboards, car lots, a dog taking a leak against a tree, cheerleaders practicing on a football field, a funeral cortege, a telephone repairman up on a pole. JENNY You thought we were a different planet?! STAR MAN No. My ship was doing a map of all the suns and... JENNY Stars... When a sun is far away, we call it a 'star.' STAR MAN We were doing a map of the stars and all the other things up there when we saw a small ship. My... eh... we kidnapped it. On it there was a map that said how to come to Earth. This was very important. Before then, we thought we were the only people in all the stars. JENNY You did? That's funny. So did we. STAR MAN Yes? JENNY Yes. STAR MAN We told our home, and the people who tell us what to do on my planet said to come and look but not to talk, not to land, not to shoot. Just to look from up there. We came and... the driver of my ship... JENNY The captain... STAR MAN The captain wanted to land to see close and to get some things from Earth to take home. The police came and shot at us. One of the people from my ship was killed. JENNY Oh, that's terrible. I'm sorry. Was he a good friend? STAR MAN I don't understand 'friend.' JENNY A friend is a person that is good to you... someone you like to be with... someone you like to laugh with... STAR MAN He was a good friend... The captain took the ship away fast and I was not in the ship. JENNY The police shouldn't have started shooting. But you can hardly blame them. You surprised them. They didn't know you were up there. When they saw you, they thought you were here to hurt us. STAR MAN I understand. JENNY Sounds like your captain's going to get hell when he gets back home. STAR MAN What is hell? JENNY It's bad. STAR MAN He will. Pause. Jenny feels the STAR MAN staring at her. She turns to look at him. His gaze doesn't waver. She looks back at the road, then back at the STAR MAN. JENNY What are you doing? STAR MAN Are you my friend? JENNY Yes. STAR MAN (smiles) I am your friend. EXT. INTERSTATE 80 - NIGHT Jenny's Mustang is whipping west out of Lincoln, Nebraska. We HEAR A JUMBLE OF RADIO STATIONS as the SELECTOR is RUN THROUGH THE FREQUENCIES. INT. MUSTANG - NIGHT Jenny is driving. The STAR MAN finds a RELIGIOUS STATION ON the RADIO. PREACHER (V.O.) (on radio) God is your creator. God is your master. God is you savior. God is the only reason that you exist. If God... STAR MAN (during the above) Who is God? Jenny is tired. She doesn't want to get into that. JENNY Nobody knows. STAR MAN Why? JENNY I don't know. The STAR MAN lets it drop and finds a COUNTRY AND WESTERN STATION. STAR MAN I like this music. JENNY I've noticed... Do you understand what they're saying? STAR MAN Not all... but it feels like a kiss. Jenny smiles at him, then: JENNY Do you have music up there? STAR MAN Yes. JENNY I'd like to hear it. Can you sing something? STAR MAN I do not want to. JENNY Don't be afraid... I'd really like to hear it. She TURNS OFF the RADIO. JENNY Please. He turns away from her, clears his throat and begins. His singing is like nothing we have ever heard. Vibrations of tones and glottal stops blend into a haunting, seductive fugue. The STAR MAN stops. STAR MAN I am not a good singer. JENNY That was beautiful. STAR MAN (incredulous) You liked my singing? JENNY Yes. Sing some more. EXT. INTERSTATE 80 - NIGHT With the STAR MAN's SERENADE WAFTING over the Nebraska plains, we FALL BACK TO FIND a Highway Patrol car tagging along at a safe distance behind the Mustang. EXT. BEST WESTERN MOTEL - NIGHT The STAR MAN stops the Mustang in front of the office. He and Jenny get out and go inside. As the door closes on them, three Nebraska Highway Patrol cars speed up the off-ramp. The lead car turns right on a surface street and enters the motel parking lot at the far end. The middle car goes straight across the intersection and positions itself at the curb next to the driveway, giving access to a frontage road which leads to an on-ramp. The last car also turns right on the surface street, but parks in a restaurant parking lot directly across from the office. INT. OFFICE - BEST WESTERN MOTEL - NIGHT In answer to Jenny's bell, the night CLERK comes out of the living quarters in the back, finger combing his sleep-rumpled hair. CLERK What can I do for you folks? JENNY How much are your rooms? CLERK Thirty-seven fifty for one person, forty-nine fifty for two. Drawn by the bright colors on their covers, the STAR MAN wanders over to the magazine rack. By chance, he selects a copy of 'Playgirl' and begins to look through it. JENNY You have one with two beds? CLERK Sure. JENNY I'll take that. CLERK (slides her a registration card) Fill this out. (as Jenny writes) Will this be cash or credit card? JENNY Credit card. CLERK I'll have to run your card off now. JENNY (digging through her purse) We're only going to be here a few hours... CLERK It's still the full price. STAR MAN Jenny, look... From behind the STAR MAN, we WATCH Jenny react to the open Playgirl centerfold that he is holding up. JENNY Put that back. STAR MAN But I have never seen this before. I am not complete. Although we cannot see it, we know what he is pointing at. JENNY Put it back. The STAR MAN swivels the picture around so that he can see it. Jenny hands the smirking Clerk her credit card. He steps to the side and inserts it into the imprinter. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees a dot of light leave the STAR MAN's forehead to drop behind the magazine and into his trousers. The Clerk glances over at Jenny to see if she hears the HISSING that is going on behind the STAR MAN's fly. She does and she hopes it'll stop soon. His eyes on the STAR MAN, the Clerk fumbles the key to 117 off the rack. CLERK You can park your car in front of the room. He drops the key on the counter. INT. MIDDLE PATROL CAR - NIGHT Through his side window, the DRIVER can see the motel office. DRIVER (into microphone of his radio) What did these two do? INT. LAST PATROL CAR - NIGHT SECOND DRIVER All anybody knows is that they're armed and dangerous. In the office, he can see Jenny and the STAR MAN leave the counter and head for the door. He raises a pair of binoculars to his eyes for a good head-on look at them. THROUGH THE BINOCULARS We SEE Jenny and the STAR MAN come out of the motel office. BACK TO SCENE The Second Officer lowers the glasses and looks down at the telex pictures of Jenny and the STAR MAN taped to the dashboard. SECOND OFFICER Be a piece of cake for us to take 'em. INT. LEAD PATROL CAR - NIGHT THROUGH the WINDSHIELD, we can SEE Jenny and the STAR MAN approaching the Mustang. THIRD DRIVER National Security folks should be here any minute. Let them take care of it. That's what they get the big bucks for. EXT. BEST WESTERN MOTEL - NIGHT STAR MAN I want a drink. May I have two quarters? At the passenger door, Jenny sets her purse on the car roof to take out her wallet. JENNY (handing it to him) You shouldn't drink so much of that stuff. It's bad for you. STAR MAN On the radio they say it's good. JENNY Hurry up. Over her purse she notices the patrol car facing her from the restaurant parking lot. There is certainly nothing unusual about a patrol car in a restaurant parking lot. She shrugs it off and gets in the Mustang. INT. MUSTANG - NIGHT Jenny's behind hasn't even hit the seat before she sees the patrol car parked on the frontage road off to her left. She looks at the STAR MAN. He's busy pounding on the drink machine. She turns around to check the lot behind her and spots the patrol car there. STAR MAN (coming to the car with a drink can in each hand) The machine gave me two. Should I put one back? JENNY No. Get in. STAR MAN (rounding the hood) You can have one. JENNY (as he gets in) I'm not sleepy anymore. Let's drive for a little while longer. The STAR MAN stiffens when he sees the patrol car on the frontage road. STAR MAN Are you angry at me? JENNY No. I'm just not tired. Let's go. EXT. BEST WESTERN MOTEL - NIGHT The Mustang moves toward the frontage road. INT. LAST PATROL CAR - NIGHT SECOND DRIVER (as the Mustang rolls onto the frontage road) They made us. Let's get 'em. EXT. BEST WESTERN MOTEL - NIGHT All three patrol cars jam on their rack lights and, with their SIRENS HOWLING, peel out after Jenny and the STAR MAN. INT. MUSTANG - NIGHT At the SOUND, the STAR MAN snaps his attention to the rear view mirror. It's ablaze with police lights. He tromps on the gas. JENNY No. INT. HELICOPTER - NIGHT Shermin is patched into the Nebraska Highway Patrol and is listening to the pursuit. EXT. INTERSTATE 80 - NIGHT The Mustang careens down the on-ramp and squeezes into the traffic a hair's breath ahead of an 18-wheeler. This cuts off the patrol cars momentarily, but the Mustang doesn't have the speed to stay ahead of them. Using the other cars on the road as shields, the STAR MAN dodges from lane to lane trying to keep the police from coming alongside. INT. MUSTANG - NIGHT The lead patrol car feints forward on the STAR MAN's side. The STAR MAN sways over to cut it off and the middle patrol car slips in next to Jenny. The STAR MAN grabs the gun from under the seat. JENNY No!!! No!!! INT. MIDDLE PATROL CAR - NIGHT DRIVER He's got a gun!! INT. MUSTANG - NIGHT Jenny screams. A shotgun blast from the middle patrol car rips through the door and into Jenny. Part of the FRONT WINDOW is BLOWN OUT. Bleeding badly, she slumps against the STAR MAN. STAR MAN Jennyhaydn! Jennyhaydn!! Her eyelids flutter open and she tries to speak, but can't. The middle patrol car is lining up for another shot. The STAR MAN slams the Mustang into it, sending it spinning onto the shoulder and into a ditch. The last patrol car speeds up to replace it. The lead patrol car slips in next to the STAR MAN. They've got him in a sandwich. The STAR MAN stands on his brakes. EXT. INTERSTATE 80 - NIGHT Caught by surprise, the patrol cars rocket ahead of him. The Mustang cuts across the swatch of land that acts as a center divider in the highway and races west in the eastbound lanes. INT. MUSTANG - NIGHT The STAR MAN squints against the headlights of the on-coming traffic as he calmly wedges his way straight through it. EXT. INTERSTATE 80 - NIGHT The lead patrol car tries to follow him but is clipped by a Cadillac swerving to avoid the STAR MAN and bounced back into the center divider. The last patrol car parallels the Mustang in the westbound lanes. INT. MUSTANG - NIGHT The STAR MAN realizes he's still boxed in. A car carrier swerves by on his left. The lane behind is open. The STAR MAN takes advantage of the opportunity. EXT. INTERSTATE 80 - NIGHT The Mustang vaults off the shoulder of the highway into an open field and bullets away through the weeds. The rush of oncoming traffic traps the three patrol cars in the center divider. INT. MUSTANG - NIGHT Jenny moans as the car jostles over the rough ground. The STAR MAN puts out a hand to cushion her ride. His headlights pick up a gravel road splitting the field and he turns onto it. In a quick look back, he sees the patrol car shooting across the highway after him. EXT. GRAVEL ROAD - NIGHT We FOLLOW the Mustang as it winds upward through the grazing lands sparsely dotted with clumps of trees. The plume of dust kicked up by the fleeing car is turned silver by a full moon. The WAIL OF the PATROL CARS is DISTANT BUT CLOSING. EXT. PASTURE - NIGHT The Mustang barrels around a curve and slides to a surprise stop before a gate in a barbed wire fence that ends the road. With the .45 in his hand, the STAR MAN jumps out of the car and tries the gate. It is locked. When he turns back to the car, he sees something that frightens him more than the approaching patrol cars. A helicopter has joined the chase. He looks for a place to hide. A stand of cottonwood and elm fifty yards on the other side of the gate offers the only protection. The STAR MAN opens the passenger door. Jenny is soaked in her own blood. He hooks the strap of her purse over his shoulder, lifts her tenderly and, cradling her in his arms, wiggles between a fence post and the gate and jogs into the trees. EXT. PASTURE - NIGHT The helicopter sets down behind the Mustang. Shermin leads Bell, Lyman and the technicians to the car. LYMAN (seeing the blood on the passenger seat) One of them must be pretty badly hurt. Shermin pushes the seat forward. The STAR MAN's life-support suit is stuffed in the space behind it. The patrol cars skid around the curve. SHERMIN (to Bell, indicating the suit) Get this back to the copter. Shermin takes a bullhorn from Lyman and goes around to the front of the Mustang. The highway patrolmen get out of their cars behind him. SHERMIN (bullhorn to woods) Mrs. Haydn, please come out. We don't want to hurt you or your friend. Please put down your weapon and come out. EXT. TREES - NIGHT Jenny's limp weight is beginning to slow the STAR MAN. He hears the bullhorn but doesn't stop. EXT. PASTURE - NIGHT Shermin lowers the bullhorn and speaks to the patrolmen. SHERMIN Okay, fan out. These people have a gun but we want them alive. Understand? EXT. TREES - NIGHT A deep shadow on the other side of an elm offers a likely hiding place. He moves through the underbrush toward it. Without warning, his feet begin to slip out from under him. He struggles to regain his balance. When he does he looks down to find himself staring at a RAGING RIVER 150 feet below. The bank on the other side is just a few feet above the water and in the moonlight he can see a flat plain cut by a highway that stretches into the distance. Slowly, he backs away from the edge of the cliff. From under the elm he watches the helicopter sweep out over the ravine. Its searchlight darts toward him bleaching the treeline. The overhanging branches cloak him and Jenny and the light passes without picking them up. The STAR MAN adjusts his grip on Jenny and starts off in the opposite direction from the helicopter to look for a way down the cliff. EXT. TREES - NIGHT Shermin, his people and the patrolmen are combing the woods with flashlights in a picketline search. The Third Driver stops at the mouth of a clearing that runs between the cottonwood and elm to the cliff. He takes a bite off a block of chewing tobacco. As he replaces it in his pocket, he sees a shadow flit across the far end of the clearing. He swings his flashlight in that direction. The beam catches a piece of Jenny and the STAR MAN. THIRD DRIVER Over here! They're over here! EXT. TREES - NIGHT Standing on the rim of the gorge, the STAR MAN sees the rays of his pursuers' flashlights choking off any possible escape. He eases Jenny to the ground behind a boulder. She whimpers with the pain. STAR MAN (strokes her cheek) You will be all right. He stretches over the top of the boulder and scatters FOUR SHOTS at the lights. EXT. TREES - NIGHT The patrolmen, the technicians and Shermin all hit the ground and kill their lights. SHERMIN Mrs. Haydn, we don't want to hurt you. Put down your gun and come out. We just want to talk to your friend. THE STAR MAN AND JENNY The STAR MAN peers around the boulder. At that instant the searchlight from the helicopter happens to splash across the men in the field. He sees that their guns are drawn and pointed in his direction. The STAR MAN pulls back and takes a marble from his pouch. It grows and glows gold as the STAR MAN rolls it between his palms. When it reaches the size of a baseball, he clutches it firmly in his right hand and EMPTIES the .45 toward Shermin and the police. This time, there is a BARRAGE OF ANSWERING FIRE. With the BULLETS RICOCHETING around him, the STAR MAN lifts Jenny to his shoulder. He massages the golden orb until it becomes the size of a soccer ball, then takes two quick steps to the edge of the cliff and leaps into the abyss. EXT. ABYSS - NIGHT The upward thrust of the ball supports their fall and under its glow they begin a slow descent to the other side of the river. Above them, the helicopter dips back and locks its searchlight on the shelf of boulders they just left. EXT. PLAIN - NIGHT The STAR MAN sets down with the smoothness of a man stepping off an escalator. He looks over his shoulder. The helicopter is still concentrating its spotlight on the ridge. He speaks to the ball in his language. STAR MAN (subtitles) Iron channel message. Almost caught by pursuers. This may hinder escape. Wait for me. He lets the ball go and, with even more velocity than the others, it zips into the sky. DISSOLVE TO: EXT. TRUCK STOP - NIGHT A WOMAN in a Frederick's of Hollywood negligee lets a TRUCK DRIVER out of one of the Winnebagos parked to the side of the main building. WOMAN Don't forget to tell the boys where you had a good time. DRIVER (calling back to her) You weren't that good. Her rusty laugh follows him into the parking lot. He walks between the trucks to a semi which has half of a pre-fab mobile home tied onto its flat-bed. The polyethylene that covers the open side of the house flaps in the WIND at the lower corner next to the cab. The Driver opens his door. He takes out a staple gun and refastens the dark green plastic to the house frame. INT. HALF HOUSE - NIGHT In the middle of the empty bedroom, the STAR MAN tries to cushion Jenny against the sudden JOLTS made by the semi as it lumbers out of the parking lot. EXT. HIGHWAY 76 - NIGHT With the Driver taking it smoothly through the gears, the semi picks up speed. INT. HALF HOUSE - NIGHT The STAR MAN moves Jenny into a rectangle of moonlight shaped on the floor by a high, wide window and strips off her blouse. The cold light marbles Jenny's skin and makes the blood from her wounds appear black. With her blouse, the STAR MAN wipes away the blood on the right side of her head and neck. He finds a deep glass cut on her cheek and two entry points in her neck. He concentrates on her cheek and we can SEE the glow of his brain through his human skin. A bit of the white light comes out of his forehead. It tumbles across to Jenny's cheek and settles into the wound. The STAR MAN watches intently as one end of the wound flares brightly for an instant, then dies. The flesh left behind has been closed without a scar. A larger piece of light drops out of his forehead into what's left of the gash. With that area suffused in a healing glow, he shifts his focus to the pellet holes on her neck. He sends two pieces of light plunging into the wounds. Immediately, they spread into halos which we can SEE radiating from under the skin. Out of the night comes a LONG BLAST ON the AIR HORN and the STAR MAN has to steady Jenny as the truck swerves around something in the highway. When it settles back into its ride, the STAR MAN wipes the blood off Jenny's shoulder. The beams of the passing cars through the plastic catch the fatigue on the STAR MAN's face as he works over Jenny. EXT. HIGHWAY 76 - NIGHT With its pre-fab house, the semi rumbles through Julesburg, Sterling and Ft. Morgan. By the time it gets to Denver, dawn is beginning to color the tips of the Rocky Mountains. INT. HALF HOUSE - DAWNBREAK It's still dark in here. With a chunk of light in his left hand, the STAR MAN dabs at the last of Jenny's wounds, leaving behind a phosphorescent bandage. More of these patches glimmer up and down her right side. He checks her over to see if he's missed a wound. He hasn't. He covers her with his windbreaker and, exhausted by his efforts, sits back against the wall. He waits to see that Jenny is sleeping comfortably, then presses the palms of his hands together. The satel compass appears between them. The green dot tells him he is still on course. EXT. INTERSTATE - SUNRISE Colorado Highway PATROLMEN are dropping orange fluorescent cones across two of the three westbound lanes to form a roadblock. The sound of a harmonica draws us to Shermin's helicopter parked in a meadow beside the road. EXT. HELICOPTER - SUNRISE As the radio technician plays the harmonica, Lyman clangs down the steps and bends to wake Shermin who is sacked out under the fuselage. SHERMIN Tell him I'm not here. LYMAN I did. Shermin sighs and rolls over on his back. He looks terrible. SHERMIN Get me a radio. At least I won't have to look at his face. EXT. MEADOW - SUNRISE Shermin is holding a field radio to his ear. FOX (V.O.) We're growing very concerned back here. There's no use pretending otherwise. We're rapidly approaching a 'condition red.' People are beginning to ask difficult questions. SHERMIN I'll make this as simple as I can, George. They disappeared. FOX (V.O.) I don't care where you're from you just can't disappear into thin air. SHERMIN (through a punchy hysterical laugh) George, listen to what you're saying. This thing's changed itself into a man. Disappearing may not be that big a deal. FOX (V.O.) So far you've let it cross the heart of America. For two days it has been absorbing information that is detrimental to our security. I don't see the humor in that. Stung, Shermin takes a deep breath, controls himself and returns the radio to his ear. SHERMIN Maybe... look, this is just something to think about... from what I got at the shopping center, it was more scared than anything else... I don't feel it's as big a threat as you think it is... FOX (V.O.) Is that what's affecting your performance? SHERMIN I'm not being unpatriotic, and I'm doing my damndest to catch them. Bell's up on 80 and I'm down here on 70 past Grand Junction. They're heading west. If they're not flying we have a damn good chance of getting them. All I'm asking is that you people think about it. FOX (V.O.) You just do your job, Shermin. We'll make the policy. EXT. HIGHWAY 70 - DAY The semi is in the slow lane. Its right rear turn signal blinks steadily telling US that it is leaving the highway and going north at the intersection ahead. INT. HALF HOUSE - DAY Jenny stirs awake under the windbreaker in the bedroom as a sloppy DOWNSHIFT JOLTS the house. Her eyes flutter open and she looks around the room trying to figure out where she is. The truck leans into the turn. Jenny braces herself on one arm and sits up. Catching the windbreaker as it slips off her front, she remembers that she was shot and examines her right side. She runs her fingers over her cheek and neck, across her shoulder and down her side, feeling for traces of the wounds she knows she sustained. She has been completely healed and there are no scars. She leans forward and looks down the hallway. JENNY Hello... hello. The WIND snapping the polyethylene is the only answer she gets. She picks her blouse off the floor next to her purse, but throws it aside and shrugs into the windbreaker when she sees the blood and bullet holes. Her sudden rise to a standing position makes her light-headed and she has to lean against the doorway until the spinning stops. With her hands outstretched, as guards against the sway of the truck, Jenny shuffles down the hallway. JENNY Hello. Where are you? There is no one in the kitchen and she continues into the living room. It is empty. Jenny opens the door to an enclosed back porch. It is also empty. The STAR MAN is gone. She returns to the living room and stands there not really knowing what to do next. The countryside rushes by outside a floor- to-ceiling picture window. A WAIL FROM the semi's AIR HORN jars Jenny out of her reverie and she goes to press her cheek against the window. She is looking past her left hand at the road when she notices a wide green ring on her finger above her wedding band. She steps back from the window to examine it, then with some trepidation, twists it off. As it clears the end of her finger, the STAR MAN's VOICE SPEAKS OUT OF IT. STAR MAN (V.O.) Jennyhay... Jenny drops the ring as if she'd been stung. The STAR MAN's voice stops as soon as she does and the ring bounces across the floor until it hits the baseboard. It looks innocent enough lying there, but Jenny has a great deal of trouble making herself approach it. When she finally picks it up, it does nothing. She turns it in her hand and when the side of the ring hole that was facing her when she took the ring off faces her again, the STAR MAN's VOICE CONTINUES. STAR MAN (V.O.) ...nd. You are all fixed. I'm sorry you were shot. I was a big problem for you. Thank you for your help. I can go to my ship alone now. EXT. HIGHWAY - DAY The semi is picking up speed as it heads north. EXT. SEMI'S CAB - DAY The Driver checks his side view mirror to see if the lane next to him is clear and is astonished to see a woman's arm sticking out of the polyethylene waving a blouse at him. EXT. HIGHWAY - DAY Smoke billows from under the tires as the semi skids to a stop. EXT. SEMI - DAY Jenny, her purse over her shoulder, is running toward the cab as the Driver steps out with a wrench in his hand. JENNY Where did you stop last? DRIVER What the hell do you think you're doing? JENNY Where did you stop last? DRIVER Stay right there... JENNY What was your last stop? DRIVER Elmo's... JENNY Where's that? DRIVER About five miles back. Jenny's thumb is already out for a ride as she sprints across the highway. DRIVER (shouting after her) Are there any more in there? EXT. HIGHWAY 70 - DAY A passing car TAKES US TO the STAR MAN as he runs along the shoulder to a maroon and white '57 Chevy that has pulled off to pick him up. EXT. '57 CHEVY - DAY A swarthy, bald MAN with hairy arms leans across the seat. MAN Where are you going? STAR MAN Las Vegas, please. I do not speak English. MAN Hop in. INT. '57 CHEVY - DAY MAN (re-entering the flow of traffic) I can only take you to Grand Junction, but you'll have a better chance to get a ride from there. The STAR MAN smiles. MAN Where you from? The STAR MAN starts to point to the sky, then catches himself. STAR MAN I don't understand. MAN Parlez vous Francais?... Habla Ingles?... Sprechen zie deutsch? These are foreign words to the STAR MAN and he pastes on his smile. MAN Good job, neither do I. What do you do for a living? STAR MAN (pretending) I don't understand. MAN I'm a cook. Do you understand 'cook?' STAR MAN No. COOK (MAN) Food. Eat. I prepare food. I work as a cook. That's how I make money. STAR MAN I understand. COOK What do you do? STAR MAN (searches for an answer, then) I make maps. COOK Hey, that sounds interesting. You like it? STAR MAN Eh... yes. COOK Make any money? STAR MAN No. COOK (takes a pack of Camels out of his pocket) You don't get rich as a cook, either, believe me. I got a girl going to college this fall. The wife had to go back to nursing to help pay for it. He sticks a cigarette in his mouth and flips one up for the STAR MAN. COOK Smoke? The STAR MAN takes it, quickly examines it, then positions it in his mouth at the exact angle the Cook did. His eyebrows raise when the Cook flicks his Bic and puffs an ash on the end of his cigarette. The butane flame is swung in his direction and he flinches back before allowing the Cook to singe his Camel. He copies the Cook's puffing and the end of his cigarette begins to glow. COOK She wants to become a doctor. She's a bright kid. Hard worker. I think she'll make it. But the damned inflation's driven the tuition up so high it makes it real tough on a family like ours. The Cook inhales deeply from his cigarette and blows smoke at the windshield. The STAR MAN mimics the inhalation, then chokes. His eyes bulge and his cheeks puff out as he tries to be cool and not cough. The Cook takes no notice of his struggles. COOK I got two other kids. I don't know what we'll do when they get old enough for college. Smoke starts to dribble out of the Star Man's nose and mouth. Puzzled, he re-examines his cigarette. COOK Everybody blames it on the oil crisis. That might be where it starts. But I think a lot of people are just using that as an excuse to rip the rest of us off. I see it every day in the kitchen. Peaches. We use the gallon cans. The price has gone up three times in the last year. And now the cans are only half full. The Cook takes another drag. As if etiquette required it, the STAR MAN hurries to copy him. This time there are no ill effects. COOK Do you have children? STAR MAN No. COOK They're damned expensive and a pain in the ass sometimes, but I wouldn't trade having them for anything. The Cook flicks his ash out of the window. A moment later, the STAR MAN mirrors his action. COOK What do you think of America? STAR MAN It is beautiful. EXT. ELMO'S - DAY A truck stop set back as little as the law allows from the BUZZ OF INTERSTATE 70. JENNY (O.S.) I'm looking for a guy about this tall, with brown hair and really gray eyes... We FIND Jenny at the set of fuel pumps nearest the highway dogging an ATTENDANT while he services an 18-wheeler JENNY He had on tan cords, a plaid shirt and a baseball cap... probably hitchhiking. ATTENDANT I don't pay much attention to those guys. JENNY (taking out her wallet) In the last hour or so... ATTENDANT Nope. Jenny folds back the plastic windows to the picture of her husband. JENNY This is him. ATTENDANT (shakes his head) Sorry. We FOLLOW Jenny as she wends her way through the trucks questioning other attendants. The RUMBLE OF TRAFFIC DROWNS OUT their CONVERSATION, but the answer is always the same. Finally, we FOLLOW the picture as Jenny hands it up to an ATTENDANT cleaning the windshield on a Peterbilt cab. SECOND ATTENDANT (looking at picture) I don't know... I'm not sure. I might have seen him up the road a piece on my way in. He's long gone by now. He hands the snapshot back to Jenny. She nods a 'thank you' and looks wistfully around the yard. There is nothing she can do. Fitting the picture back into her wallet, she walks away. After a few steps she turns back. JENNY You know if anybody here's going to Wisconsin? SECOND ATTENDANT Ask inside. INT. ELMO'S DINER - DAY It's bustling, loud and smoky. Jenny is standing just inside the entrance. She licks her lips and tries to clear the frog out of her throat. JENNY (small voice) Anybody going to... Nobody pays any attention to her. Her voice trails off. She swallows hard and tries again, this time booming out. JENNY Anybody going to Wisconsin? The activity in the diner comes to a screeching halt and in the silence Jenny adds in a normal voice: JENNY I need a ride. An OLDER MAN, with a face seamed by cigarettes and weather, waves at her from the counter. OLDER MAN I'm going to Des Moines. If you can wait till I finish here, you're welcome to ride along. This gets some good-humored cheers and catcalls. JENNY I can wait. Smiling self-consciously, she takes a seat at the end of the counter and orders coffee from the waitress. While she is waiting for it to come, she happens to glance outside and sees a Colorado Highway patrol car stopped in the yard. The officer on the passenger side is talking to one of the attendants. Jenny turns away from the window and finds that she is able to watch the conversation in a strip of mirrors that runs around the top of the pie case. The squad car leaves and her coffee arrives. JENNY (to the waitress) Where's the phone? INT. SIT-DOWN PHONE BOOTH - DINER HALLWAY - DAY Jenny drops a dime in the slot and dials 'O.' OPERATOR (V.O.) Operator... may I help you? JENNY Could you give me the highway patrol, please? After TWO RINGS, the phone is picked up on the other end of the line. MALE (V.O.) Sergeant Packert, Highway Patrol. JENNY My name's Jenny Haydn. I think you're looking for me. I was kidnapped in Eau Claire, Wisconsin a couple of days ago. But I'm free now. SERGEANT (V.O.) What was your name again? JENNY Jenny Haydn. I'm on my way home and I don't want anybody I'm with shot at when you... SERGEANT (V.O.) Hold on. EXT. ROADBLOCK (INTERSTATE 70) - DAY Standing back of the officers, Shermin watches them check to cars passing through the squeeze point. Every car trunk is opened. Vans and campers are looked into. Lyman runs up and whispers in Shermin's ear. Shermin is startled by what he hears. He leaves Lyman in charge and hurries to the helicopter parked in the field beside the roadblock. INT. HELICOPTER - DAY A TECHNICIAN gives Shermin a headset phone as he enters. SHERMIN (hand over the mouth- piece) You trace it yet? TECHNICIAN All we know right now is that it's east of here. Shermin puts on the headset and the technician starts a tape recorder. SHERMIN This is Marc Shermin. Where are you, Mrs. Haydn? INT. SIT-DOWN PHONE BOOTH JENNY I don't know. Someplace called Elmo's. Look, I just wanted to tell you that I'm all right and I'm on my way home. SHERMIN (V.O.) You've been through quite an ordeal, Mrs. Haydn. Why don't you stay where you are and let us pick you up? We'll fly you home. JENNY No. You'll want to ask a lot of questions I don't want to answer right now. I already have a ride. INT. HELICOPTER - DAY The Technician hands Shermin a note which reads: ELMO"S TRUCK STOP/ABOUT 30 MILES EAST. JENNY (V.O.) I only called to tell you I was free and not to shoot anybody I was with if you see me. Shermin jabs his thumb upward, indicating that the helicopter should lift off. SHERMIN Is the man who kidnapped you there now? JENNY (V.O.) I told you. He let me go. I'm on my way home. SHERMIN (his hand over the mouthpiece) Get a highway patrol unit over there. EXT. ROADBLOCK - DAY Shermin's helicopter lifts off. SHERMIN (V.O.) Mrs. Haydn, I'm going to have to ask you to stay where you are. INT. SIT-DOWN PHONE BOOTH A sharp rap on the glass startles Jenny and she turns around to see her ride. OLDER MAN Ready? Jenny holds up a finger that asks for a moment longer on the phone. JENNY (into phone) Mr... I'm sorry, what was your name again? SHERMIN (V.O.) Marc Shermin. JENNY Mr. Shermin, I'm hanging up now. If you want to ask me any questions, call me at home in a couple of days. I'm in the book. SHERMIN (V.O.) Do you know what you were kidnapped by? Pause. SHERMIN (V.O.) Mrs. Haydn... JENNY He doesn't want to hurt anybody. Please leave him alone. SHERMIN (V.O.) Is he on his way to Lathrop Wells? This hits Jenny like a kick in the stomach. She leans her head back against the wall. Her ride is pacing outside the booth. SHERMIN (V.O.) What's he planning to do in Lathrop Wells? Is he meeting someone there? Jenny smashes the receiver back in its cradle and throws open the door. JENNY (on her way past the weathered driver) I changed my mind. Thanks. She rushes down the hallway to the dining area where again she stands just inside the entrance. JENNY (at the top of her lungs) It's me again... The place goes quiet except for a smattering of laughter. JENNY I need a fast ride west. INT. PORSCHE - DAY The speedometer reads 90. The driver, a bespectacled, pimply- faced SIXTEEN YEAR OLD, shifts into fifth gear. Jenny is harnessed in the passenger seat. Chatter from a CB under the dash COMPETES WITH ROCK N' ROLL ON THE TAPE DECK. JENNY You sure this is your car? TEENAGER (with a stutter) My grandmother's rich. JENNY (as they come up on a station wagon) Slow down, slow down. TEENAGER Geez, Mrs. Haydn, we just got going. But he downshifts. The Porsche is going a mere 80 when they pass the station wagon. JENNY (peering at its occupants) I told you I'm looking for someone. TEENAGER In the cars, too?! JENNY I don't know where he is. TEENAGER This is going to be a real drag. I thought you wanted to go fast. Howling at full throttle, three highway patrol cars rush past them in the opposite direction. Jenny swivels around to follow their progress until they are out of sight. TEENAGER They after you? JENNY What? No, of course not. TEENAGER (his stutter thicker than before) Would be kinda neat if they were. I think I could outrun them. Maybe get my picture in the papers. Jenny takes a second look at this guy. He flashes her a gap- toothed grin. EXT. OVERPASS - DAY The Cook's '57 Chevy makes a left on the street intersecting the off-ramp and stops at the curb. Behind it a large plastic yellow chicken twirls on a pole above the restaurant it advertises. COOK Well, here we are... You go down that ramp there, you're sure to get a ride. STAR MAN (getting out) Thank you. COOK And don't be shy about your English. You speak better than a lot of people I know. (leaving) Take care of yourself. As an afterthought, the STAR MAN duplicates the Cook's wave, then heads down the ramp. As he clears the frame, our VIEW ZOOMS AND ZOOMS AND ZOOMS UNTIL we can SEE a piece of the roadblock in the valley below him. During the MOVE-IN, we BEGIN TO PICK UP CB CHATTER. VOICES (V.O.) Flash for all you good buddies heading west on 70. Smoky's got a roadblock just beyond Grand Junction... Better dump your dope, they're going through everything... He's right. I was just there and I'm still sore... INT. PORSCHE - DAY Jenny TURNS DOWN the ROCK 'N ROLL to listen to the CB. VOICES (V.O.) Ah loves to be frisked! What are they looking for? I'm holding. Any way around it? Where are you? Oh no!! There it is!! TEENAGER I bet you we find your friend at the roadblock. Jenny doesn't answer immediately. She takes her time checking out the people in a VW they are passing. JENNY (to the road ahead) We better find him before that. EXT. INTERSTATE 70 - DAY In the style prescribed by Jenny, the STAR MAN raises his thumb to a dilapidated Vega shimmying down the on-ramp. The two blue-haired ladies inside are afraid to look at him as they go by. He has the same luck with an attractive blonde secretary that passes on the highway. EXT. ELMO'S - DAY A highway PATROLMAN is standing behind the open door of his car speaking into the mike of his radio. PATROLMAN The girl's not here, Mr. Shermin. Seems right after she talked to you, she got a ride west with a kid. INT. HELICOPTER - DAY All six TV screens display the road rushing under it. SHERMIN (into mouthpiece of his headset) You get that, Lyman? LYMAN (V.O.) We're ready. EXT. SKY ABOVE INTERSTATE 70 - DAY Shermin's S65 banks through a U-turn and chases west. EXT. INTERSTATE 70 - DAY A dun-colored Roadrunner gurgles down the ramp and stops in front of the STAR MAN. Two grubby LONG HAIRS in worn western clothes are inside with boxes of house-hold utensils and duffle bags. LONG HAIR Where you going? STAR MAN Las Vegas, please. LONG HAIR We're going to L.A. He looks at his buddy stretched on the jumble in the back. The buddy nods. LONG HAIR Sure. Get in. We can drop you in Vegas or get you darn close. The STAR MAN opens the door and gets in. INT. PORSCHE - DAY The CB CONTINUES TO CRACKLE with news of the roadblock. Jenny's eyes restlessly search the overpass under the whirling yellow chicken for any sign of the STAR MAN. She sees the dun-colored Roadrunner waiting at the foot of the on-ramp for a break in the traffic, but she is too far away to see who's inside. As the Porsche gets closer, it overtakes an 18- wheeler and Jenny's view of the Roadrunner is cut off entirely. She passes without seeing the STAR MAN. EXT. INTERSTATE 70 - DAY The Porsche weaves through the traffic giving Jenny a chance to look into the cars and trucks it shoots by. INT. PORSCHE - DAY Jenny is turned around looking back at a camper. TEENAGER I'm telling you, you're going to find him at the roadblock, or right after, or not at all. JENNY If he didn't want to go through the roadblock, is there any other way to get to Vegas? TEENAGER Fly. Jenny gives him a withering look. TEENAGER The five-fifty. We already passed it. But it'll take him way out of his way. JENNY Pull over. I've got to get back there. TEENAGER Why wouldn't he want to go through the roadblock?... What did you guys do?... I won't tell anybody. JENNY It's easier not to tell if you don't know. EXT. INTERSTATE - DAY The Porsche slows to a stop on the shoulder. TEENAGER (as Jenny opens the door) Wait. Could I have your autograph? JENNY Sure. She leans back and gives the startled Teenager a kiss on the mouth, then gets out. TEENAGER I have nothing to do. I'd like to help you. JENNY Don't worry. I'll be all right. She closes the door. The Teenager takes a last look at her before pulling back on the highway. Jenny waits for a car in the slow lane to go by, then runs across to the line and waits for cars in the fast lane to go by. INT. ROADRUNNER - DAY The STAR MAN spots Jenny standing on the line peering into the on-coming cars for signs of him. He becomes agitated and his mouth begins to move soundlessly. There is a break in the traffic and Jenny dashes to the center divider. The STAR MAN leans across his driver and yells as the Roadrunner plunges by her. STAR MAN JENNYHAYDN!!! EXT. INTERSTATE - DAY Jenny spins around to see the Roadrunner skid to a stop on the shoulder and the STAR MAN get out. A motorcycle bombs by. He starts across the lanes of traffic toward Jenny. A truck blasts past him in the slow lane. He is buffeted into the fast lane. Jenny runs down the center divider to meet him. A VW honks, its tires squeal on the pavement as it swerves around him. He reaches the safety of the center divider. Jenny throws her arms around him and lays her head against his chest. He stands there uncomfortably not knowing how to respond to this human emotion. STAR MAN I told you goodbye. Why are you here? JENNY The police are waiting for you up ahead. There's a roadblock. You have to go back. STAR MAN This car will take me to Las Vegas. I cannot go back. JENNY The police know about Lathrop Wells. We have to go another way. Come on. She grabs his wrist but he hangs back. STAR MAN If I don't meet the ship, my people will go home without me. JENNY Please understand. If you go this way, you'll never get to your ship. The police know about Lathrop Wells. We have to go another way. I'll get you to your ship. I promise. STAR MAN I will go. But not you. JENNY You shit! I'll decide if I go or not. Not you. I don't know what you do on your planet, but I didn't think that was very nice walking out on me like you did. STAR MAN I don't want you to be hurt. JENNY Come on. Holding the STAR MAN's hand, Jenny pulls him toward the road. JENNY I didn't ask to come along on this trip, but I sure as hell am going to be the one to say when I get off. They bolt across the lanes of traffic to the other side of the road where she flags down an old black pickup truck. She says something to the driver and she and the STAR MAN climb into the back. As the truck returns to the highway, the CLACK OF AN APPROACHING HELICOPTER OVERPOWERS the TRAFFIC SOUNDS. EXT. SKY - DAY Shermin's helicopter slices around a pine-dotted peak following the twists of Interstate 70 below. In the near distance, we can SEE the roadblock. INT. HELICOPTER - DAY Unnoticed by Shermin or the Technicians, the black pickup passes off the television screens carrying their quarry east. SHERMIN (into headset) Any sign of either of them yet? The roadblock appears on the television screens. EXT. ROADBLOCK - DAY Lyman, wearing a headset plugged into a belt pack, is walking down the line of cars. LYMAN I don't think they're going to show. INT. HELICOPTER - DAY A swift kick from Shermin sends a stool clanging into a bulkhead. The Technicians won't meet his eyes when he turns back to them. SHERMIN Okay. Tell the highway patrol to block all major arteries off 70 from here to Elmo's. EXT. INTERSTATE 70 - DAY Two highway patrol cars scatter the traffic in front of them with their rack lights and SIRENS. EXT. PICKUP - DAY Jenny and the STAR MAN are sitting against the cab, a horse blanket drawn up around their shoulders. They can see the flashing lights coming from way down the road and watch helplessly as the patrol cars eat up the distance between them. EXT. INTERSTATE 70 - DAY The pickup makes the turn onto Highway 550. EXT. PICKUP - DAY For a moment, Jenny and the STAR MAN think they're safe. That hope turns to despair when the two patrol cars loop after them. They keep getting closer. The STAR MAN inches the blanket up over his nose. Unexpectedly, the patrol cars are thrown into a skid. When they stop, they are facing each other ready to inspect the traffic coming off 70. They lower the blanket from their faces. Jenny lays her head back against the cab, exhausted. STAR MAN The Cook said I speak good English. DISSOLVE TO: EXT. HIGHWAY 550 - LATE AFTERNOON A RUMBLE OF DISTANT THUNDER follows the lightning that flashes from the dark clouds hanging on the horizon. Looking incomplete without its trailer, the tractor/cab of a Mack truck makes a turn on a farm road, revealing Jenny and the STAR MAN standing on the gravel. The STAR MAN looks back to where they came from. There is nothing coming so he sets out in the other direction. JENNY Where are you going? STAR MAN I must meet my ship. JENNY Why can't we wait here for a ride? STAR MAN I feel better if I move. JENNY We're hundreds of miles from where you have to be. The STAR MAN ignores her and continues to walk. JENNY (shouts at him) Even if we walk five miles, it's not going to make any difference. Jenny turns toward an oncoming car and sticks out her thumb. The STAR MAN falls into the same pose just back of her. The car honks at them as it breezes by. STAR MAN (screams after it) Asshole!! JENNY (shocked) Where did you learn that? STAR MAN The cook. EXT. ROADSIDE - LATE AFTERNOON A torrential rainstorm lashes the countryside. The STAR MAN and Jenny splash along the edge of the asphalt. Their heads are lowered against the weather. They are both drenched to the skin. JENNY (after a few steps) We're not going to get a ride tonight. STAR MAN I can't stay on this planet. JENNY No one's traveling in this weather. STAR MAN You promised you would get me to my ship. JENNY (shouts after him) I will. I will. We still have another day. STAR MAN You promised. JENNY What do you want from me? There are no cars on this road. I didn't ask for this stupid storm. The STAR MAN mutters in his language. JENNY What are you saying? STAR MAN You can stop. I will go on alone. JENNY We're too far away to walk. Don't you understand? The STAR MAN looks at her. With the rain streaming off his face, he looks at her. For the first time, the reality of the situation hits him. He turns and, swearing in his own language, flails at the rain. A distance from Jenny, he stops and cries out in English. STAR MAN I can't stay here. I want to go home. I don't want this skin. I don't want to look like this. Jenny can see him standing with his head bowed. She walks over to him. JENNY (trying to ease his pain) Why don't you send one of your radio balloons and tell your captain that you might be late? STAR MAN I used the last one to jump off the cliff... JENNY Let's find a place out of the rain. I'm sure we'll get a ride in the morning. STAR MAN I can't be late. I don't know if the radio balloons work above your planet. I don't know if my words went to the ship. If I'm not there, the captain will think I'm dead and go. JENNY We'll get a ride in the morning. A flash of lightning shows us: EXT. DESERTED RAILROAD SIDING - DUSK Jenny and the STAR MAN are following the tracks to an abandoned boxcar. INT. BOXCAR - DUSK The STAR MAN climbs in and pulls Jenny after him. Jenny is shivering badly. JENNY Can you close the door? The STAR MAN scrapes it forward. He activates the satel compass which lights the interior of the boxcar. While he is doing this Jenny turns her back to him and takes off her jacket. Her teeth chattering, she tries to wring the water out of it. STAR MAN You are cold. JENNY You're damn right I am. STAR MAN I do not get cold. Clutching the windbreaker to her breasts, Jenny looks at the STAR MAN over her shoulder. It doesn't take her long to make up her mind. JENNY (crossing to him) Open your shirt. She waits while he struggles with the buttons. After two she brushes away his hands and undoes the rest. She lets the windbreaker drop and, slipping her arms around his waist, presses her bare chest against his. JENNY (savoring it) Oh, you're warm... put your arms around me. The STAR MAN does and Jenny jumps as the wet sleeves touch her back. JENNY Take your shirt off. It is difficult with Jenny around his waist, but he manages. He drapes his arms over her. She snuggles into him. The RAIN POUNDS ON THE ROOF. Gradually, Jenny responds to the STAR MAN's warmth and relaxes. She lifts her head off his chest and looks at him. STAR MAN What? JENNY Nothing. She brushes her lips against his. The STAR MAN's not sure what's happening. But he's not offended. Her next kiss is full and long. He accepts it with his eyes open and when she eases back he leans in for more. Jenny responds. As if on command, the satel compass comes from around behind the STAR MAN to hover in back of Jenny. He takes it between his palms and extinguishes it. INT. BOXCAR - MORNING Jenny awakens and looks around. The STAR MAN is not with her. As she stands up she hears his VOICE OUTSIDE. He is speaking to something in his language. She goes to the door to find out what and sees him standing beside a fenced-in pasture talking to the horses inside. EXT. PASTURE - MORNING Jenny joins the STAR MAN at the fence. JENNY Good morning. STAR MAN Horses. JENNY You don't forget anything, do you? STAR MAN No. Jenny pets one of the horses on the nose. JENNY (to the horse) Hello... hello. How are you this morning? STAR MAN Do they talk?! JENNY (laughs) No, they don't talk... We talk to them. STAR MAN I understand. An appaloosa nudges her way through the others to the fence. JENNY Oh, you're pretty... STAR MAN I gave you a baby last night. Shocked, Jenny looks at him from around the appaloosa's nose. The STAR MAN is combing a horse's mane with his fingers and he doesn't see her expression. STAR MAN (meaning the horses) They are beautiful. JENNY Yes, they are. STAR MAN You have been very good to me, Jennyhaydn. (turns to face her) You said you wanted a baby, so I gave you one. JENNY (shakes her head 'no') But... STAR MAN It will be human and it will look like this. (touches his face) But when it comes it will know everything I know and everything you know. That is something from my planet that I want your baby to have. JENNY I told you it's impossible for me to have a baby. STAR MAN You will have this baby. If you want it. If you don't, I can stop it now. Jenny comes over and puts her arms around the STAR MAN. JENNY I want it. EXT. SKY - DAY A formation of six black Bell Cobra helicopters rush at us out of the blue. From above them we can see that they are heading for a small desert town. 'Welcome to Lathrop Wells' is spelled out on a hillside in white-washed stones. EXT. AIRSTRIP - DAY Grubby, unshaven and unwashed, Shermin, Bell, Lyman and the rest of the crew watch the seven Cobras land in sequence. Fox, immaculate in a freshly pressed black flight suit, climbs out of the first one down and he and Shermin meet in the middle of the runway. SHERMIN Hello George. FOX Shermin... SHERMIN What's all this for? FOX We have a new directive. I'm taking over. SHERMIN (scans the Cobras) We don't have to do it that way. We can catch him this time. FOX Washington thinks it's too late for that. SHERMIN I've never been taken off an assignment in my life. Give me twenty- four hours and I'll have him for you. FOX You're not hearing me. SHERMIN You can change a directive, George. You've done it before. Listen to me. He's going somewhere in Death Valley. Lathrop Wells was never anything but a bus stop. East is the nuclear site. There are no roads in there. She was teaching him to hitchhike. I'm telling you. We block the four roads into Death Valley and we got him. FOX We'll do that. But how are we going to hold him? He can change himself into a man. He can disappear. SHERMIN That's the chance we have to take. FOX No, we don't. SHERMIN Then you're going to have to do it without me. FOX You're a career intelligence officer, Shermin. You'll be in the air with us. SHERMIN You're talking about taking a life. The most unique life form on this planet. I think we're better than that. EXT. LAS VEGAS - LATE AFTERNOON A fire-engine-red Pontiac convertible with two COWBOYS (late fifties) in the front and Jenny and the STAR MAN in the back moves with the traffic along the main drag in the downtown area. The STAR MAN's head swivels from side to side trying to take in the neon that juts up around him. The convertible stops at a light. The cowboy on the passenger side opens the door and tips his hat to Jenny as she and the Star Man get out of the back seat. EXT. SIDEWALK (LAS VEGAS) - LATE AFTERNOON The STAR MAN is afraid of the crush of people and wants to stay close to Jenny, but is fascinated by the whir and click and jingle of the one-armed bandits that seem to be everywhere. STAR MAN Is this gambling? Jenny nods. A LADY in curlers and pedal pushers hits a twenty dollar jackpot. Hanging onto Jenny's hand the STAR MAN turns around and walks sideways to watch the quarters tumble out into the lady's shopping bag. STAR MAN The cowboys were right. You can make money fast gambling. JENNY You don't make money gambling. You lose it. INT. DRUG STORE - LATE AFTERNOON The STAR MAN hangs back to examine a one-armed bandit inside the front door while Jenny goes to the counter. An almost imperceptible blue haze seems to seep from under the STAR MAN's palms as he runs his hands up and down the sides of the machine. JENNY (V.O.) (to the clerk) Do you have a good map of Death Valley? CLERK (V.O.) We should have. Let me see. While the clerk searches for the map the STAR MAN comes up to Jenny. STAR MAN May I have twenty-five cents, please? JENNY What for? STAR MAN I want to gamble. Jenny sighs and rolls her eyes and fishes two quarters out of her purse and hands them to him. JENNY Here are two quarters. When you lose these, you're not going to get anymore. STAR MAN I understand. (heading back to the machine) Thank you. He drops a quarter into the slot and pulls the handle. While the pictures of fruit spin behind the view window, his hands stroke the sides of the machine. An orange, a pear and a cherry stop in the view window. At the counter Jenny explains to the clerk that she is hitchhiking and wants the busiest route into Death Valley without going through Lathrop Wells. The STAR MAN looks long and hard at the machine before putting in his last quarter. He pulls the handle. The blue haze flows from his palms, three cherries lock into a line and the one- armed bandit begins to spit quarters. INT. CASINO - LATE AFTERNOON Jenny is nervous about being here. She feels every face that looks at them could be a cop. The STAR MAN is pulling her through a Maginot Line of slot machines toward a 'Super Jackpot' machine that advertises a $275,000 payoff. JENNY This is crazy. We don't have time for this. STAR MAN I know how to gamble now. JENNY You won ten dollars. Big deal. If we don't get a good ride before dark we could miss your ship. STAR MAN I want to get money for you and the baby. JENNY I don't need any money for the baby. I'll be fine. STAR MAN Inflation, tuition, college. Children are damned expensive. I know. JENNY The cook again? STAR MAN (stepping up to the 'Super Jackpot') Yes. JENNY If I ever run into that guy, I'm going to kick his ass. The STAR MAN pops a gleaming silver dollar into the machine, pulls the handle and places his hands against the metal. Jenny, knowing it can't work, but hoping that it will, stands back and gnaws on her thumb. Then she sees the blue haze vibrating out of the STAR MAN's palms. Jenny stifles a scream. She looks around to see if anybody else has noticed. They haven't. The STAR MAN smiles at her. The force field does it's work. A picket line of 7's fills the view window. Amid the jangle of bells and flashing lights that accompany a winner Jenny doesn't know whether she should jump for joy or hide her face. EXT. DESERT HIGHWAY - DUSK A dot in the distance becomes a brand new Camaro. As it blasts away from under us we see a paper license in its back window. The cabin light is on inside the car. INT. CAMARO - DUSK In the passenger seat the STAR MAN is riffling through a Columbia "History of the World." A Webster's Dictionary is on the dash in front of him. Wedged between his legs and the transmission well is a shopping bag full of money. JENNY It'll tell you pretty much everything about us... STAR MAN This is very interesting. We are born knowing our history. We have other books. But not a book like this. JENNY Any words you don't know you can find in the dictionary. STAR MAN I understand. JENNY It'll give you the different countries, how they came to be, what they are now, how America came to be, the governments, the languages... everything. STAR MAN (chuckles) Many of my people will not believe those things are possible. On my planet there is only one government, one people, one language. I will be asked a lot of questions. JENNY What will you say about us? STAR MAN I will say that we can be friends. JENNY We can. She notices the green ring on her left hand and takes it off. JENNY This is yours... STAR MAN If you want to keep it, you can. JENNY I'd like to... She slips it back on her finger above her wedding band. They drive in silence. The STAR MAN sets the history book on the dash. JENNY (takes the ring off again) Would you put some of your singing in this for the baby? STAR MAN You want the baby to laugh at me. JENNY Yes. EXT. DESERT HIGHWAY - DUSK With the STAR MAN SINGING IN HIS LANGUAGE, the Camaro moves further into Death Valley. The SONG FADES and we: DISSOLVE TO: EXT. DESERT HIGHWAY - NIGHT The Camaro blows by a gas station, closed for the night. INT. CAMARO - NIGHT The STAR MAN shifts restlessly in his seat as he searches the ghostly landscape for something familiar. He activates the satel compass. The red and green dots are touching. JENNY How long will it take you to get home? STAR MAN (absently) Many, many days and nights... He presses the satel compass into his palms. JENNY Would you like to listen to some music? The STAR MAN shakes his head "no." JENNY I'm sure we could find a country and western station. STAR MAN No, thank you. Jenny takes his hand in hers. JENNY Don't worry. Everything's going to be fine. The STAR MAN smiles wanly at her. JENNY (leans forward to look up at night sky) Which star is yours? It only takes the STAR MAN an instant to find his home. STAR MAN There. JENNY Where? He directs Jenny's attention to the constellation Auriga. STAR MAN (meaning the star Capella) The yellow one. JENNY Oh, wow... I'll tell you what. When the baby is born, we'll go out in my back yard and wave to you. STAR MAN (smiles) I will wave to you. All we can HEAR are the TIRES HUMMING over the road. The Camaro rounds the side of a low hill. STAR MAN Oh, shit! Jenny slams on the brakes. One of the Cobra helicopters, lit from the inside, is parked next to a line of flares across the road ahead. EXT. CLOSED GAS STATION - NIGHT The STAR MAN is looking through a window at the repair bay, lit by a work light. Jenny is standing in a phone shell on the front of the garage, the receiver to her ear. The STAR MAN moves to the office door. He tries the knob. It is locked. JENNY (to the STAR MAN) They're trying to get him. Suddenly the STAR MAN slams his shoulder against the door. It swings open. JENNY What are you doing?!! Fox's voice comes out of the receiver in her hand. FOX (V.O.) Mrs. Haydn... INT. COBRA - NIGHT FOX (speaking into a headset) This is George Fox... JENNY (V.O.) I want to speak to Marc Shermin. FOX You can speak to me, Mrs. Haydn. I'm in charge of this operation now. EXT. CLOSED STATION - NIGHT JENNY If I don't speak to Mr. Shermin, I'm hanging up. FOX (V.O.) (a beat) Okay... Tethered by the phone cord, Jenny tries to see what the STAR MAN is doing inside the repair bay. INT. REPAIR BAY - NIGHT Using an air filter top as a basket, the STAR MAN scavenges from the work bench and the car up on the lift, fuses, lengths of wire, circuit boards from a radio, tubing, metal pipe and a Black and Decker drill. While he is doing this we get glimpses of Jenny pleading his case on the phone. Finally, leaving the receiver dangling at the end of its cord, she comes around to stand in the doorway. JENNY Mr. Shermin wants to speak to you. INT. SHERMIN'S HELICOPTER - NIGHT JENNY (V.O.) Here he is. Shermin looks warily at the headset. When the STAR MAN doesn't speak immediately, he takes the initiative. SHERMIN Hello... STAR MAN (V.O.) I must get to my ship, Mr. Shermin. SHERMIN We can't let you do that. STAR MAN (V.O.) I don't want to hurt anybody. I just want to go home. INT. COBRA - NIGHT Fox is listening to the conversation. SHERMIN (V.O.) All the roads into Death Valley are blocked. We'd like to talk to you. STAR MAN (V.O.) If I talk to you, I will miss my ship. SHERMIN (V.O.) Hold on a minute... Let's take the chance, George. FOX No deal. EXT. CLOSED GAS STATION - NIGHT SHERMIN (V.O.) I'm afraid we can't let you go. STAR MAN I understand. He hangs up. INT. REPAIR BAY - NIGHT The STAR MAN shaves the rubber off the electrical lines leading into the fuse box and clips two wires of his own onto the exposed copper. With Jenny watching we have a montage of the STAR MAN working through the night: modifying the insides of the Black and Decker drill, cutting out the mid- section above the trigger, fitting electrical components into that area, screwing a pipe into the bit-clamp, welding it together with the spark that arcs between the electrical wires. INT. OFFICE (GAS STATION) - NIGHT Jenny folds a sheaf of money into a sheet of yellow paper and props it on the cash register. 'For Damages. Thank You' is scribbled on the front. She runs out to catch the STAR MAN who is on his way to the Camaro. EXT. CAMARO - NIGHT Carrying the modified Black and Decker drill the STAR MAN opens the driver's door. JENNY Where do you think you're going? STAR MAN Thank you, Jennyhaydn. You are good. I must go alone now. JENNY I said I would get you to your ship and that's where we're going to say goodbye. INT. CAMARO - NIGHT Both hands on the wheel, Jenny is burning down the center line. The STAR MAN bends two thin wires trailing out from the grip of the drill. Jenny winces as he buries them into the flesh on either side of his left wrist. The car skates around the corner of a low hill. They can see that the Cobra is still sitting next to the road. JENNY (glancing at the modified drill) I hope that works. The STAR MAN is lost in concentration. Jenny kills her lights and glues the accelerator to the floor. Three MEN scramble from the helicopter with M16s. A BURST OF SLUGS RIPS THROUGH the Camaro's WINDSHIELD. The STAR MAN leans out the passenger window and with an other-worldly scream, fires. The helicopter is BLOWN TO SMITHEREENS. The concussion throws the men to the ground. EXT. BURNING HELICOPTER - NIGHT The Camaro whizzes through the falling DEBRIS. INT. CAMARO - NIGHT JENNY It works. The STAR MAN slumps in exhaustion and pain. STAR MAN I do not know how many times I can do this. INT. SHERMIN'S HELICOPTER - NIGHT It is filled with the radio voices of the Cobra crews setting up to attack the Camaro. EXT. DESERT HIGHWAY - NIGHT The Camaro becomes airborne at the crest of a dip. Only its new shocks save the landing. INT. CAMARO - NIGHT The STAR MAN draws the satel compass out between his palms. The green dot now covers the right half of the red dot. He presses his palms together and looks past Jenny at the rugged foothills. The first light of day is starting to color the sky behind them. Jenny and the STAR MAN are startled by the DRUMMING WHOMP OF A HELICOPTER. The STAR MAN looks out the window for its source. He can't see anything. The SOUND FADES. In a moment, it is REPEATED ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CAR and AGAIN IT FADES. STAR MAN If my ship is not here, we are in trouble. This is a truism that Jenny doesn't want to hear and she flexes her fingers on the wheel. STAR MAN (points at a distinctive cone peak) That's where we landed last time. Right under that mountain. Jenny and the STAR MAN steady themselves for the last leg of their journey. Suddenly, their silence is exploded by a COBRA dropping out of the sky in front of them. Its searchlight bangs into their faces and, with its thirty-calibre MACHINE GUNS BLAZING, it comes straight at them. Jenny yanks the Camaro onto the shoulder. The SLUGS CHEW UP the asphalt beside it. She fishtails back onto the road. A SECOND COBRA surprises them from the STAR MAN's side. Its MACHINE GUN KNOCKS OUT the BACK WINDOW before he can FIRE. The STAR MAN crawls over his seat and arranges himself in the hole that was the back window to meet the Cobras' next FIRING RUN. It doesn't take them long. The first two have been joined by a THIRD. They swoop down on the Camaro. INT. LEAD HELICOPTER - NIGHT The gunsights lock on the car below. The CO-PILOT squeezes the trigger. EXT. CAMARO - NIGHT SHOTS THUMP INTO the trunk in front of the STAR MAN and he FIRES. The lead HELICOPTER ERUPTS, raining pieces of hot metal over the desert floor. The other helicopters are jarred out of their run and their BULLETS harmlessly KICK UP SAND on the shoulder. Before they can regroup, the STAR MAN BLOWS THEM OUT OF THE SKY. JENNY In front!!! In front!!! The STAR MAN has to hang on as Jenny dodges the car out of the path of a Cobra skimming over the highway toward them. As it goes over, he is able to get off a SHOT directly INTO its UNDERBELLY. The BALL OF FLAME almost engulfs the Camaro. INT. CAMARO - NIGHT The STAR MAN slumps down into the back seat breathing hard. Jenny looks over her shoulder at him and is shocked at the strain that shows on his face. JENNY Hang on. She throws the car into a skid and leaves the blacktop for a dirt road winding between two low hills. EXT. DESERT - NIGHT At the base of a sandstone cliff, the Camaro slides to a stop. Jenny helps the STAR MAN out. She supports him as they struggle toward the protection of the boulders. Fox's Cobra roars over the hill. INT. COBRA - NIGHT FOX (spots the car) Over there. EXT. DESERT - NIGHT The STAR MAN turns toward the Cobra. Weakly, he raises his weapon and pulls the trigger. Nothing happens. The searchlight from the Cobra finds them. Its machine guns begin to raise puffs of gravel around them. Jenny grabs the STAR MAN's arm and pulls him into the relative safety of the rocks. The STAR MAN collapses against the cool stone. STAR MAN (gasps) I can't shoot anymore. Jenny looks out between the crags. Shermin's helicopter arrives to join the Cobra. With their searchlights flicking over the sagebrush, they move cautiously toward the cliff. Jenny turns back to the STAR MAN. He is too weak to run anymore. JENNY (touches his shoulder lightly) I won't let anyone hurt you. INT. FOX'S HELICOPTER - NIGHT FOX Watch it. They're coming out. INT. SHERMIN'S HELICOPTER - NIGHT Six images (close-up to full shot) of Jenny and the STAR MAN stepping out of their hiding place fill the television screens in front of Shermin. FOX (V.O.) End it, Shermin. Lyman taps his keyboard. The screens all change to a long- shot of Jenny and the STAR MAN with cross-hairs superimposed on them. EXT. DESERT - NIGHT Shermin's helicopter moves toward Jenny and the STAR MAN standing helpless in the circle thrown by the searchlight. INT. SHERMIN'S HELICOPTER - NIGHT The cross-hairs have locked on Jenny and the STAR MAN. Shermin knows he can't do it. He picks up a headset. SHERMIN George... Do you hear me, George? FOX (V.O.) What? SHERMIN I just retired. FOX (V.O.) Shermin!! Shermin!!! Shermin flips a switch on the console that cuts Fox off. SHERMIN (to his crew) Let's get out of here. EXT. DESERT - NIGHT Shermin's helicopter passes over the heads of Jenny and the STAR MAN and rises into the dawn sky. INT. COBRA - NIGHT FOX Shermin!!! He throws down his headset. FOX (to the pilot) Lock in. The gunsights lock in on Jenny and the STAR MAN. Fox's grip tightens on the trigger. Suddenly the helicopter begins to vibrate and drift off its target. Fox looks toward the sound coming from his right and his eyes widen in fear as he sees the STAR MAN's ship looming over him. EXT. DESERT - NIGHT The spacecraft passes over the top of the helicopter. The whirling downdraft emanating from the spaceship's underbelly yanks the Cobra away from Jenny and the STAR MAN and whips it into a spin which gets faster and faster until it disintegrates and falls to the desert floor. EXT. DESERT - NIGHT Jenny and the STAR MAN shield their faces against the DUST STORM that billows under the WHINING DESCENT of the spacecraft. It settles into a landing across the dirt road resting on its three pods. With a crack, a cone of bright white light blasts from the underside. JENNY Well... STAR MAN I must go. Jenny nods. STAR MAN What do I do now? JENNY You say you love me and kiss me 'goodbye.' The STAR MAN puts his arms around her and holds her tight. STAR MAN I love you. JENNY (her head on his shoulder) I'm never going to see you again, am I? STAR MAN No. He kisses the tears out of her eyes, then full on the mouth. JENNY I love you. The STAR MAN steps back and places a hand on Jenny's stomach. STAR MAN Tell the baby about me. JENNY I will. STAR MAN Goodbye. He turns from her and walks to his ship. Jenny watches him go, then remembers something. JENNY Wait!! She gets the Webster's Dictionary and the Columbia History of the World from the Camaro and runs to the STAR MAN. He takes them and kisses her again. STAR MAN Thank you, Jennyhaydn. Jenny backs away as the STAR MAN walks under the ship into the white light. He waves one last time to Jenny and is swallowed into the ship by the light. EXT. DESERT - NIGHT Jenny turns away from the stinging sand as the space-craft lifts off. When she looks again, it is high and moving over the foothills. A banking turn brings it back. The ship dips low over her, rocks itself in a gesture of farewell, then shoots off into the stars. When she can no longer see it, Jenny drops her wave with a sigh and starts back toward the Camaro. Over her walk, we SUPER: JENNY HAYDN GAVE BIRTH TO AN EIGHT-POUND, SEVEN-OUNCE BABY BOY ON MARCH 10TH. FADE OUT: THE END