Scene 4.21 - Brave New World
INT. Penthouse Suite, October 31 - Post 9/11, Pre-Apocalypse
SLOW FADE IN, POV HEAD LYING ON FLOOR, GOOD-SMELLIN' CARPET, DAYTIME, BRIGHT OUT
POV: CLARKE
(It is hazy. CLARKE sits up and sees WELLS and HEINLEIN staring at him, wide-eyed. VERNE is in a corner of the room at the windows, looking away from us, out toward a cityscape, unseen for now. The apartment is atop a twenty-five-story luxury hotel in lively Los Angeles, Third Millennium. SIMAK helps CLARKE sit up.)
CU: SIMAK
SIMAK
Are you all right, Mr. Clarke?
CLARKE
I feel fine, why?
HEINLEIN
His-
CLARKE
Why are you all staring at me like that?
HEINLEIN
We've been physically altered, do you think this is permanent, sir?
VERNE
(Not looking back, smoking a cigarette, calm:) It's who we truly are inside, it's the way it is, get over it. If he looks like that, he's gonna look like that.
SIMAK
But Mr. Clarke, he's-
CLARKE
What? What's happened to me?
WELLS
Let's just say you're different than us, somehow. There's a mirror over there, Clarke, but I don't think you-
CLARKE
Lemme see! Lemme see!
(CLARKE rushes to the mirror, pushing the squatting men aside. We don't see anyone's costume yet, just their faces. We don't see CLARKE'S until-)
ECU: CLARKE'S face in the mirror
CLARKE (Cont'd)
Now just who on Earth am I supposed to be?
(CLARKE'S got them pointy ears like there ain't another way to wear them. We might think he's in some kind of Vulcan robe as he surveys the room. His shirt just happens to be blue with a black, V-neck collar. WELLS is in a minstrel outfit, cod-piece, bells and all. SIMAK is dressed to move more silently; in a fringed, rusty-colored, leather tunic in the Native-American style. He has a thin leather headband, moccasins and carries a tomahawk, but is not dressed like POCACHICALOT. HEINLEIN is in a cool superhero's outfit which just happens to be in the vein of the kind a four-year-old boy could muster: PJs, tube socks and a towel around the neck. He's got a yellow, black-collared shirt, red cape and black bikini hot-pants over yellow tights that have white leather boots with two blue stripes across the top that make the boots look like, well... tube socks.)
HEINLEIN
We've become monstrosities. (Looks at his black set of brass knuckles; keeps them fastened to his belt; just in case:) What kind of place is this?
SIMAK
Aye, this is madness. Is it the Wild West or the Middle Ages now?
WELLS
Julie, what do you see out the window, what time-period are we in?
VERNE
Post-atomic America, possibly Third-Millennium, perhaps earlier, there's still gas-powered automobiles down there.
CLARKE
The skyscrapers suggest the late Twentieth Century, perhaps.
HEINLEIN
Oh, brave new world with such people in it! The Baron, the concubines, what do you supposed has happened to them?
WELLS
Forget the others, why are we in a penthouse? Are we supposed to be here? Who are we really? Why the outfits? Just what kind of sick people are we supposed to be?
(VERNE takes the joint, facing away. His mask gives Clayton Moore a run for his money. Of course, VERNE is the Lone Avenger, the masked ranger who rides Gold Dust, his swift, golden steed; a vigilante whose signature pieces are those rare, golden bullets. Close to him is his trusty sidekick, Pronto, the one-quarter Mexican-American, one-quarter Native-American, one-quarter Amerasian and one-quarter Scottish scout. Near him is Lovejoy, the Gaelic merry minstrel from the fair lands of Aquataine. His Gasconian manner is apparent as he begins tuning up his little mandolin-thing. Near him is Ghetto-Man, hero to the underprivleged and champion of justice in the dark, crime-ridden streets of Haarlem.)
VERNE
(Hits deeply, exhales, turns, revealing his masked face to the camera:) I don't know, but it's high-time we find out.
BLACKOUT
MUSIC: Rossini - Finale: The William Tell Overture
RUN END CREDITS CHAPTER FOUR