THE DYATLOV PASS INCIDENT by Vikram Weet

Inspired by True Events

WHITE PRODUCTION DRAFT - 01/31/12

Midnight Sun Pictures 73 Market Street Venice, CA 90291 (310) 902-0431 K.JAM Media 2425 Colorado Blvd Suite B-205 Santa Monica, CA 90404 (310) 828-6767 THE DYATLOV PASS INCIDENT

1 EXT. URAL MOUNTAINS - DYATLOV PASS - DAY 1

Helicopter footage of a dozen RESCUE WORKERS searching a snowy pass. An exceptionally tall, desolate MOUNTAIN towers over them to one side, a handful of trees litter the landscape to the other.

NEWS ANCHOR (V.O.) This footage emerged from the Ural Mountains of Russia three days ago, where the search is still underway for five missing American students.

2 INT. NEWSROOM - DAY 2

A perfectly coiffed male NEWS ANCHOR speaks to the camera as the footage continues to play in a small window.

NEWS ANCHOR Among the missing is the son of real estate magnate John Patrick Halvorsen, who organized and is funding the search. The rescue workers have had no luck locating the Oregon University students - who were making a documentary • recreating another ill-fated trip to the area - although they have uncovered footage from two cameras and a cell phone which they believe were with them. That footage was carefully reviewed by authorities, who decided against releasing it to the public. But today, a group of hackers calling themselves FreedomLeaks gained access to it and posted the footage on their site. The hope was that the tapes might provide an answer to the mysteries surrounding what's known as Dyatlov's Pass. Instead, they seem to have only raised more questions.

3 BLACK SCREEN. 3

FADE UP TEXT: ONE MONTH EARLIER 2.

4 INT. APARTMENT - DAY 4

A sparse, unkempt two bedroom apartment. JUSTINE KING, 21, talks directly to the camera. She has a casual demeanor and style that belies her fierce intelligence.

Justine stands in front of a pile of equipment - steel-framed backpacks, trekking poles, snow shoes. The wall behind the equipment is plastered with BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOS, MAPS, and NOTES. The photos show a snowy mountain pass, hikers, others that look like crime scene photos. The maps are of Ural mountains, east of Moscow, and have paths traced across them.

In her right hand, Justine is holding a creased, official- looking letter.

JUSTINE My name is Justine King. I'm a psychology student at the University of Oregon. In 2008, I saw a news report about 30 elite scientists that had gotten together in a remote area of the Ural Mountains in Russia. They were hoping to solve a mystery that had baffled the world for fifty years. It has become known as the Dyatlov Pass Incident, after the leader of an expedition there in 1959 named Igor Dyatlov. They failed. But I was riveted by the story. So when my favorite professor, Dr. Kittles, assigned the class a project on that very same incident, I couldn't believe it. I mentioned it to my best friend, Jenson, a film student, and he said we should make a documentary about it. So we applied for a grant.

She holds up the letter, and lets loose a beaming smile.

JUSTINE (CONT'D) We got it.

5 INT. PROFESSOR KITTLES’S OFFICE - DAY - INTERVIEW 5

PROFESSOR MARTHA KITTLES, a petite woman in her late 40’s, is smartly dressed and seated in front of a bookshelf in her office. Sunlight streams in from a window to her right.

(CONTINUED) 3. 5 CONTINUED: 5

JUSTINE (O.C.) Okay?

Prof. Kittles nods and forces a smile.

JUSTINE (O.C.) (CONT'D) Tell us what happened.

SMASH CUT TO:

6 ROLL CREDITS OVER BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOS OF NINE RUSSIAN 6 HIKERS - IGOR DYATLOV, ZINAIDA KOLMOGOROVA, LYUDMILA DUBININA, ALEXANDER KOLEVATOV, RUSTEM SLOBODIN, GEORGYI KRIVONISCHENKO, YURI DOROSHENKO, NICOLAS THIBEAUX-BRIGNOLLEL, AND ALEXANDER ZOLOTAREV - FIRST IN INDIVIDUAL HEADSHOTS OUTDOORS AND DRESSED FOR EXTREME COLD - CULMINATING IN A GROUP PHOTO, EVERYONE SMILING AT THE CAMERA, BUNDLED UP AND CARRYING PACKS FOR A LONG TREK.

It’s followed by the image of a TENT on a snowy pass ripped open from the inside.

The remains of a campfire under a large tree, with Russian OFFICIALS standing next to it. Official reports on faded, yellowing paper, filled in with scrawled Russian words. Then the BODIES of the nine hikers, all of them wearing next to nothing - socks, underwear, T-shirts.

END CREDITS.

7 INT. PROFESSOR KITTLE’S OFFICE - DAY - INTERVIEW 7

CHYRON: DR. MARTHA KITTLES: PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF OREGON

PROFESSOR KITTLES I first heard of the incident when a Russian journalist named Yuri Yarovoi published a fictionalized account of it in a book.

8 INSERT - STILL PHOTO OF YURI YAROVOI’S ‘OF THE HIGHEST RANK 8 AND COMPLEXITY’ (TITLE IN RUSSIAN).

CUT TO: 4.

9 INSERT - COLOR PHOTO OF A RUSSIAN CAR WRAPPED AROUND A TREE 9 ON A DESERTED MOUNTAIN ROAD. BELOW THE PHOTO IS A HEADLINE:

“Russian author Yuri Yarovoi killed in a car accident on an empty road January 28, 1980.”

10 INT. EDITING BAY - DAY - INTERVIEW 10

JENSON DAY, a good looking kid in his early 20’s with an effortless, unkempt charm, sits in front of two screens displaying the interview footage with Professor Kittles.

JENSON Of course they had him killed.

CHYRON: JENSON DAY - CO-DIRECTOR; CONSPIRACY THEORIST

JENSON (CONT’D) It didn’t matter that he fictionalized it. They didn’t want anyone talking about Dyatlov.

11 INT. PROFESSOR KITTLE’S OFFICE - DAY - INTERVIEW 11

PROFESSOR KITTLES I began using the facts of the incident as a teaching exercise in psychology because we know so much about what happened at Dyatlov’s Pass, so many details, and yet the whole thing is shrouded in mystery. It really is a kind of narrative Rorschach test. If you ask someone what they think happened, you learn more about them than you do what happened that night.

JUSTINE (O.C.) What are some of the explanations you get?

PROFESSOR KITTLES The cold, rational, scientific answer is a condition called hypothermic dementia. It would account for the group’s partial undress. 5.

12 INT. EDITING BAY - DAY - INTERVIEW 12

JENSON Hypothermic dementia? Yeah, that’s what everybody says. But my favorite is “paradoxical undressing”. What a joke.

JUSTINE (O.C.) But that does happen to people with severe hypothermia. They get disoriented, start tearing off their clothes-

JENSON C’mon, Justine! These were nine experienced backpackers! They all came down with severe hypothermia at the same time on the same night? They’d been out there for two days already. Why then?

13 INT. PROFESSOR KITTLE’S OFFICE - DAY - INTERVIEW 13

PROFESSOR KITTLES An avalanche is another common answer. Usually from someone with control issues, seeking to impose a rational order on an irrational situation.

JUSTINE (O.C.) It would explain the tent.

PROFESSOR KITTLES It would, if they heard-

14 INT. EDITING BAY - DAY - INTERVIEW 14

JENSON That’s even stupider than “paradoxical undressing.” If they heard an avalanche coming, why did they stay away from the campsite for three hours with no shoes? 6.

15 INT. PROFESSOR KITTLE’S OFFICE - DAY - INTERVIEW 15

PROFESSOR KITTLES But the truth is, there are innumerable answers to the question. Many students project their own fears into it.

16 INT. EDITING BAY - DAY - INTERVIEW 16

JENSON The Russian government-

17 INT. PROFESSOR KITTLE’S OFFICE - DAY - INTERVIEW 17

PROFESSOR KITTLES I expect my students to do more than just find a believable explanation.

18 INT. EDITING BAY - DAY - INTERVIEW 18

JENSON Aliens-

19 INT. PROFESSOR KITTLE’S OFFICE - DAY - INTERVIEW 19

PROFESSOR KITTLES I want them to put themselves in the place of those people, to try and understand why they did what they did.

20 INT. EDITING BAY - DAY - INTERVIEW 20

JENSON We’re going to find out the truth.

21 INT. PROFESSOR KITTLE’S OFFICE - DAY - INTERVIEW 21

PROFESSOR KITTLES Even though they'll never find it.

JUSTINE (O.C.) What do you mean?

Professor Kittles smiles at her, just off-camera.

PROFESSOR KITTLES There is no truth.

(CONTINUED) 7. 21 CONTINUED: 21

FREEZE FRAME.

FADE TO:

22 INSERT: STILL IMAGE - A MAP OF THE WORLD, BUT TIGHT ON A 22 SPECIFIC AREA, SO THAT THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST IS EVIDENT IN THE BOTTOM RIGHT, AND THE URAL MOUNTAINS OF RUSSIA IN THE TOP LEFT.

JUSTINE (O.C.) So the first leg of our journey will take us from Eugene, Oregon to Chelyabinsk, Russia.

Red dots appear on the two cities.

JENSON (O.C.) You’re not going to use that stupid dotted red line to show us traveling, are you?

A dotted red line begins tracing their path from Oregon to Chelyabinsk.

OC, Justine giggles.

JUSTINE (V.O.) Our ultimate destination is the Kholat-Syakhl.

Another red dot appears in the heavily mountainous region of the Urals.

JUSTINE (V.O.) Literally translated... the mountain of the dead.

Beat.

JUSTINE (V.O.) Seriously.

23 INT. APARTMENT - DAY 23

Same apartment, but this time shot on a real camera.

JUSTINE So we found an audio engineer-

(CONTINUED) 8. 23 CONTINUED: 23

The camera pans to the left to reveal DENISE EVERS, a petit girl with a boom in her hands. She is a bit of a tomboy, but curvaceous enough to be seductive at the same time.

JUSTINE (CONT'D) Denise Evers.

JENSON (O.C.) She's the only audio person on campus who can handle the... physical requirements.

Denise smiles.

DENISE Lot of skinny nerds in the audio department.

Jenson lets the camera linger on her for a moment, until Denise rolls her eyes at him. The camera reluctantly finds its way back to Justine.

JUSTINE Then we found two capable guides-

24 EXT. QUAD - DAY 24

ANDY THATCHER, 26, a tall and toned outdoor enthusiast, is seated on the steps of a large class building with a thick coat and hat pulled over his ears.

ANDY I’m Andy Thatcher - president of the Northwest Trail Association. I’ve climbed just about every mountain worth climbing in the U.S. I also hiked the A.T.-

JUSTINE (O.C.) The what?

ANDY The Appalachian Trail. It runs from Maine to Georgia. Took me all summer.

JUSTINE (O.C.) So you think you can handle this?

(CONTINUED) 9. 24 CONTINUED: 24

Andy smiles and winks at Justine behind the camera. We can almost feel her swoon.

JUSTINE (O.C.) (CONT'D) Why do you want to do this, Andy?

Andy grins.

ANDY Like I said, I've climbed everything worth climbing in the U.S. Time for a new challenge.

JUSTINE (O.C.) Are you scared?

Andy shakes his head.

ANDY Nah.

JUSTINE (O.C.) It’s just... we’re recreating a trip in which nine people died.

ANDY Yeah, what... fifty years ago? Even if it was the Abominable Snowman-

25 INT. EDITING BAY - DAY - INTERVIEW 25

JENSON -Yeti...

26 EXT. QUAD - DAY 26

ANDY -he’s dead or moved on by now.

She moves on to the guy sitting next to Andy - JOHN PATRICK HALVORSEN (J.P.), 25, a shorter guy, with a little crunchy/hippy vibe to him. His hair is longer, and he sports a goatee and an earring.

JUSTINE (O.C.) And you are...?

J.P. J.P. Halvorsen.

(CONTINUED) 10. 26 CONTINUED: 26

JUSTINE (O.C.) Like, Halvorsen Hall?

J.P. nods, but looks away, not entirely comfortable with the name.

JUSTINE (O.C.) (CONT'D) Like, this building that we’re standing in front of. Right now.

J.P. That’s the one.

The camera tilts up to reveal HALVORSEN HALL etched into the proscenium above them.

JUSTINE (O.C.) Oh.

27 EXT. ROCKY MOUNTAINS - DAY 27

Shot on a cheaper, hand-held DV camera held by Justine. She’s watching Jenson struggle up a mountain in snowshoes while carrying a pack.

A hundred yards ahead of him Andy is moving across the snow with effortless grace.

JUSTINE (V.O.) We trained with the guys on some nearby mountains.

JENSON I hate these fucking snowshoes.

Ahead of him, Andy stops and calls back to him.

ANDY I think you’re getting the hang of it!

JENSON Almost as much as I hate him.

28 INT. APARTMENT - DAY 28

Back to Justine in front of the pile of equipment.

JUSTINE And now it’s January 25th.

(CONTINUED) 11. 28 CONTINUED: 28

She pulls a plane ticket from her back pocket.

JUSTINE (CONT'D) Time to go.

There’s a beat as she stares at the camera. For the first time, she looks a little afraid.

29 BLACK SCREEN. FADE UP TEXT: 29

DAY 1: IVDEL

30 EXT. URAL MOUNTAINS - DAY 30

FOOTAGE FROM A CAMERA PHONE - Andy shoots footage on his phone, looking out the window of a speeding train at a mostly barren, rocky landscape. No trees, occasional splotches of green. Every once in a while, the Kama river is visible between the mountains.

JUSTINE (O.C.) So we’ve landed in Russia, and now we’re taking the train to Ivdel, where we’re going to interview a man named Yuri Yudin, technically the only survivor from the Dyatlov group. He was supposed to go on the trip with them, but got sick and had to turn back the first day.

Andy turns the camera to the seat across from his, where we see Justine turn on the DV camera, and angle it out the window.

Andy zooms in on the viewfinder on the side of the camera, until its image gradually fills the screen-

31 INT. TRAIN - DAY - CONTINUOUS 31

JUSTINE (O.C.) What are you doing?

She turns the camera away from the window to him, revealing the passenger compartment of a train moving through the Ural Mountains. Andy has his phone pointed back at her.

ANDY You're not the only one with a camera, you know.

(CONTINUED) 12. 31 CONTINUED: 31

JUSTINE (O.C.) But your phone won't work in the mountains, right?

ANDY That's true. But this is equipped with a universal GPS. There's no cell signal, but the GPS satellite can navigate for us anywhere in the world.

He turns the phone on DENISE, sleeping in her seat across the aisle.

ANDY (CONT'D) Besides, you never know when it might come in handy.

J.P. looks up from his book and rolls his eyes.

Beside Denise, Jenson has the camera case open, and is carefully cleaning the lenses, checking the various parts of it, and WHISPERING TO IT.

ANDY (CONT'D) Dude... are you talking to your camera?

JENSON Her name is Lucille.

Jenson notices the phone pointed at him.

JENSON (CONT'D) And why don't you take a picture. It'll last longer.

Click. The phone snaps a photo.

JUSTINE (O.C.) The film guys get attached to their cameras.

Jenson strokes the camera...

JENSON Don't listen to him, baby. He's just being a dick.

(CONTINUED) 13. 31 CONTINUED: (2) 31

JUSTINE Very attached.

Justine turns the camera toward the window, taking in more of the breathtaking, if dauntingly remote, landscape.

JUSTINE (O.C.) (CONT'D) So why is it that you guys see all... that, and think ‘I just want to strap on a backpack and spend a week out there!’?

Andy turns off his phone and puts it in his pocket.

ANDY It's a test. Man against the elements. People survived for thousands of years without any of this stuff. Still got it in you to do without? Go up against mother nature? You bet your ass I do.

JUSTINE (O.C.) You're awfully confident.

ANDY You go out into all... that less than confident, you don't come back. I don't want to spoil your movie, but that's what happened to those people.

She turns to J.P.

JUSTINE (O.C.) What about you?

He looks up from his book and thinks a beat before answering.

J.P. I just figure, we only get one go around, you know? I’d like to see and do as much as I can. I’ve got everything I need in that pack-

He points to his pack stashed on a shelf above them.

(CONTINUED) 14. 31 CONTINUED: (3) 31

J.P. (CONT'D) -to survive for months. Years, maybe. How many people can say that?

JUSTINE Hope we don't need to survive that long.

ANDY You never know.

Outside, the desolation continues, seeming to stretch on forever. It's broken up by the brief, unsettling image of a MAN standing near the tracks, staring blankly as the train rockets past.

The camera bounces as Justine leaps away from the window-

32 EXT. SOBOREV HOSPITAL - DAY 32

The camera is being jostled violently as Justine tries to get it in the face of a large Russian ORDERLY, flanked on both sides by HOSPITAL PERSONNEL.

ORDERLY No... turn that off - no recording.

JUSTINE (O.C.) I just want to get you saying that on camera.

More jostling as she, Jenson, and Denise are SHOVED onto the sidewalk.

ORDERLY You must go now. Please.

JENSON Come on, Ivan! Didn't you hear? The Cold War's over! We're friends now!

JUSTINE (O.C.) Why can’t we interview Yuri Yudin?

ORDERLY He’s dead. Now-

(CONTINUED) 15. 32 CONTINUED: 32

JENSON What?

JUSTINE (O.C.) How did he die?

The orderly starts to answer, but the hospital personnel quickly pull him back inside and close the door.

JUSTINE (O.C.) (CONT'D) Damnit!

In all the jostling, the camera tilts briefly upward, and an OLD MAN is seen peeking through the curtains of a window down at them.

HE PRESSES A SHEET OF PAPER TO THE GLASS. Several words are scrawled on it, but they're in Russian.

JUSTINE (O.C.) (CONT'D) It's him.

Justine calls up to him-

JUSTINE (O.C.) (CONT'D) I don't understand!

But HANDS pull him away from the window, and the curtains fall back into place.

JENSON What the hell was that?

33 EXT. CAFE - EVENING 33

On a busy street in the mid-size town of Ivdel, the group is gathered with their gear outside a cafe, bundled in thick winter jackets, gloves, and hats.

JUSTINE (O.C.) I know I’m starting to sound like Jenson, but I really think that was Yuri that we saw in the window. And I really want to know what was on that paper he held up.

The camera pans over to the cafe, zooms in on Jenson chatting with some very blue collar gentlemen inside.

(CONTINUED) 16. 33 CONTINUED: 33

JUSTINE (O.C.) (CONT'D) But since we were unable to interview him, and the trains don’t run there, we’re trying to find a ride to a town called Vizhay, where we’ll begin our hike.

ANDY I’m not sure we should have sent Jenson as our American emissary. That guy could restart the Cold War.

JUSTINE (O.C.) Trust me. If there’s one thing Jenson’s good at, it’s introducing himself to strangers.

DENISE Yeah, but what happens after the introduction?

J.P. and Andy laugh. The camera turns back toward the cafe, and Justine is startled to find Jenson STANDING RIGHT IN FRONT OF HER, smiling.

JENSON Those guys said we should ask around in there-

He indicates a run-down BAR a few doors down from the cafe, with a pair of large, burly DOGS sitting outside, waiting patiently for their owners.

The group approaches the bar.

DENISE Wait. We should take a picture!

Grumbles from the group.

DENISE (CONT'D) C'mon!

JUSTINE Yeah, alright.

ANDY I've got a timer on my phone. Here-

(CONTINUED) 17. 33 CONTINUED: (2) 33

He presses a few buttons while everyone arranges outside the bar. The dogs scarcely seem to notice.

ANDY (CONT'D) Okay.

He runs over and joins the group.

Click.

INSERT: The group photo, Justine holding the DV camera, the two dogs on the edge of the frame.

34 INT. NIKITO-IVDEL BAR - EVENING 34

Justine carries the DV cam into a dark, secluded BAR on the edges of Ivdel. The interior is barely occupied, with a couple of burly RUSSIANS at the bar and a COUPLE at a table in the back. An old jukebox plays "Sweet Home Alabama".

The BARTENDER, early forties, sees them enter, and smiles a friendly smile.

BARTENDER (subtitled) Hello! What can I get you?

They approach the bar, and Jenson smiles back at the bartender.

JENSON Do you speak English?

BARTENDER Of course! Something to drink?

JENSON Yes, please.

JUSTINE (O.C.) Jenson - we’re looking for a ride, here.

JENSON We are young, attractive people in a foreign land, and we'd like a drink.

BARTENDER Where are you headed?

(CONTINUED) 18. 34 CONTINUED: 34

JUSTINE (O.C.) Vizhay.

JENSON Now, about that drink...

The bartender gives them a look.

BARTENDER Vizhay? What for?

JUSTINE We’re making a documentary about the Dyatlov Pass Incident.

BARTENDER Ah! Then you must try this-

He searches the rows of bottles behind him, finally finds what he’s looking for buried behind a few others, and dusts off a bottle of absynthe.

He sets six shot glasses down on the bar, pours into each, then lights a match and lights each one. The group looks at the flaming shots skeptically, until the bartender picks his up and holds it out like a toast.

BARTENDER (CONT'D) (subtitled) To the success of your trip!

Jenson is the first to pick his up, then the others follow suit.

JENSON Nastarovija!

The Bartender gives him an impressed smile. The others just look confused.

JENSON (CONT'D) What? I may not know anything about the people, culture, or history of Russia, but I did my homework on good bar etiquette.

The Bartender blows our the flame, and throws down the shot. After a pause, the others do the same... followed immediately by GASPS and COUGHS.

(CONTINUED) 19. 34 CONTINUED: (2) 34

JENSON (CONT'D) Wow! That is no bullshit!

Denise, however, looks unaffected. She smiles at the others’ reactions.

DENISE What? You guys never had absynthe before?

Andy smiles at her, impressed.

JUSTINE (O.C.) (to bartender) Why absynthe?

BARTENDER It’s what they had in this very bar, before they left for Vizhay. January 31st, 1959.

He points at a black-and-white photo behind the bar... of the Dyatlov group collected outside the bar in pretty much the same position as they just were. There are even two dogs on the edge of the frame.

The group falls silent, staring at it.

Jenson begins humming THE TWILIGHT ZONE music. Denise steps forward and hits him on the arm.

DENISE That's not funny!

Which actually triggers the group to laugh.

J.P. That's not a bad omen at all.

JUSTINE (O.C.) C'mon, you guys. It's just a coincidence.

JENSON I believe we’ll take another round, my friend.

The bartender nods, and obliges, refilling their glasses.

(CONTINUED) 20. 34 CONTINUED: (3) 34

The door opens, and a MIDDLE-AGED MAN with dark hair and nicer clothes than the other patrons’, walks in carrying a book. He stomps the snow off of his boots, sees the camera, and goes quickly to the bar with a brief smile for the kids.

He has a brief exchange with the Bartender, who pours him some vodka, and the man takes his book to a table in the back.

ANDY So, how did they get to Vizhay from here?

The bartender shrugs. One of the drinkers down the bar, SERGEI, late forties, bearded and stocky, cocks his head at the question, and sidles over next to them.

He smiles into the camera.

SERGEI You’re making movie?

JUSTINE (O.C.) That’s right.

SERGEI And going to Vizhay, yes?

JUSTINE (O.C.) Do you know how we can get there?

SERGEI I will take you!

JUSTINE (O.C.) You will?

Sergei nods, beaming.

SERGEI We leave tomorrow?

JUSTINE (O.C.) Yes! That would be great! Can you take all of us?

He looks over the group.

(CONTINUED) 21. 34 CONTINUED: (4) 34

SERGEI No problem.

JENSON See. I told you it would work out.

He turns to the bartender.

JENSON (CONT'D) Barkeep! Get this man a drink!

Smiles all around as they clink glasses before doing another shot. Justine steps forward and shakes the man’s hand.

JUSTINE (O.C.) Thank you. Very much.

SERGEI No problem. I’m Sergei.

JUSTINE (O.C.) Well, thank you, Sergei. I'm Justine.

SERGEI Of course. We leave around eight in the morning?

She nods.

SERGEI (CONT'D) Good. Dress warm.

35 BLACK SCREEN. FADE UP TEXT: 35

DAY 2: VIZHAY

36 EXT. TRUCK BED - MORNING 36

Justine, J.P., Denise, and Andy are huddled in the back of a pickup truck, the sides having been built up with cross hatches of wood that do nothing to block the freezing cold wind. Jenson sits in the cab with the driver, chatting and laughing, oblivious to the suffering going on just behind them.

Everyone speaks between chattering teeth, bouncing around on the pothole-riddled road.

(CONTINUED) 22. 36 CONTINUED: 36

DENISE How far... how far is it... to... Viz... Vish...

JUSTINE (O.C.) Vizhay. About 40 miles.

DENISE Oh... Jesus...

37 EXT. VIZHAY - DAY 37

The truck pulls up outside the tiny town’s only inn. Everyone piles out, hauling their packs. Only Denise is left in the bed of the truck.

JUSTINE (O.C.) Come on, Denise. Let’s go.

DENISE Oh my god.

Her voice is not quite panicked, but close.

JUSTINE (O.C.) What?

DENISE My eyelids are frozen shut.

The guys crack up.

DENISE (CONT'D) Stop laughing! It’s not funny! What do I do?

Andy sets his pack down and climbs into the truck.

ANDY Hold still.

He removes his gloves and puts his hands on her face, one thumb on each eyelid. Then he rubs them back and forth very gently. The friction and body heat generate enough warmth to melt the ice. Her left eye pops open.

DENISE Ow! Shit!

(CONTINUED) 23. 37 CONTINUED: 37

Then she sees Andy’s handsome face right in front of hers and smiles, embarrassed.

ANDY Hang on. One more.

He continues rubbing the other until it opens.

ANDY (CONT'D) There. Better?

The ice in her eyelashes isn’t the only thing melting.

DENISE Yeah. Thanks.

Jenson gets out of the cab, pulling on his coat. He stops when he sees Andy helping a clearly smitten Denise out of the truck.

A flash of jealousy crosses his face, then he quickly rubs his hands together.

JENSON Jesus! It’s cold out here!

Everyone stares at him, then Andy starts to LUNGE at him, but J.P. stops him. Everyone gives Jenson a withering look.

JENSON (CONT'D) What?

After a beat, he turns to Justine.

JENSON (CONT'D) You’re not gonna believe this. Sergei’s here to visit his aunt.

JUSTINE (O.C.) (with mock enthusiasm) How exciting!

JENSON AND... he says she was part of the first rescue team on the scene at Dyatlov.

JUSTINE (O.C.) Wait. Really?

(CONTINUED) 24. 37 CONTINUED: (2) 37

Sergei comes up next to him.

SERGEI Yes. I can ask if she will speak to you, if you want.

JUSTINE (O.C.) Yes! Yes, I want!

Sergei smiles.

SERGEI I’ll be in movie, right?

JUSTINE (O.C.) You bet. Does she speak English?

SERGEI Better than me.

Justine suddenly hands the camera to Jenson, who looks confused when it's thrust at him.

Justine's tone is suddenly serious.

JUSTINE (O.C.) Just take it.

He does, and Justine appears on screen, next to Sergei.

JUSTINE (CONT'D) Can you translate something for me?

He nods. Justine kneels and scratches out two Russian words in the gravel of the road with her finger.

JENSON (O.C.) What is it?

JUSTINE The note that Yuri held up.

Sergei looks at it a moment, then kneels beside her. He uses his own finger and changes a few letters around.

SERGEI Like this?

Justine studies it.

(CONTINUED) 25. 37 CONTINUED: (3) 37

JUSTINE I think so.

JENSON (O.C.) You could check the tape.

JUSTINE What does it say?

Sergei pauses.

SERGEI 'Stay away'.

38 INT. LIVING ROOM - DAY - INTERVIEW 38

ALYA BAKHVALOVA, 82, sits on the sofa in her small cottage, a blanket over her lap, thin white hair covered in a knitted cap. Next to the sofa is an end table, with several pictures on it, one of a young Alya with her brother, VALLIK.

JUSTINE (O.C.) Okay, we’re ready. Jenson?

JENSON (O.C.) Rolling.

DENISE (O.C.) Speed.

JUSTINE (O.C.) Tell us what happened.

Alya’s English is accented, but surprisingly good.

ALYA They had been missing for almost two weeks then, I think. After so many days, with so many people searching, I started to hear the word ‘avalanche’ whispered among the searchers. If this was what happened, we would find nothing at all.

She pauses, and sips from a cup of tea.

ALYA (CONT'D) But then the word came in that the site had been found. (MORE)

(CONTINUED) 26. 38 CONTINUED: 38 ALYA (CONT'D) It was from a civilian pilot. That’s important, because the military never would have alerted us.

She utters something in Russian-

ALYA (CONT'D) Msc.

Sergei tries to come up with a translation.

JUSTINE (O.C.) What, Sergei?

He pauses, uncomfortable.

SERGEI (O.C.) She is calling them, the military, "butter makers".

JUSTINE (O.C.) "Butter makers"? What does that mean?

SERGEI (O.C.) Wankers.

Alya nods, and then repeats the English word in a thick Russian accent.

ALYA Wankers.

A few GIGGLES from behind the camera. Justine shhhh’s them.

ALYA (CONT'D) We were the first to arrive, my group. At first, all we saw was the tent.

INSERT: BLACK AND WHITE PHOTO OF THE COLLAPSED TENT, THE MATERIAL RIPPED OPEN ON THE SIDES.

ALYA (CONT'D) It was collapsed, torn apart. We thought, the Mansi?

JUSTINE (O.C.) The Mansi?

(CONTINUED) 27. 38 CONTINUED: (2) 38

ALYA The native people of the region. Their descendants have lived there for thousands of years. They can be very protective of their land. But there was no blood, and not enough tracks for so many people. We fanned out, searching. It was my brother, Vallik, Sergei’s father, that found the first body. I remember, he screamed when he turned her over.

INSERT: BLACK AND WHITE PHOTO OF ZINAIDA, HER BODY FROZEN WITH HER MOUTH OPEN - BLOOD AROUND HER LIPS AND FACE AND A GORY STUMP WHERE HER TONGUE WAS.

JUSTINE (O.C.) Go on.

After a beat, Alya nods, and continues.

ALYA It didn’t take long to find the others.

INSERT: VARIOUS PHOTOS OF THE SCENE, THE BODIES, THE FIRE REMNANTS, ETC, as she describes what they found.

ALYA (CONT'D) A trail... a trail of bodies, two more plus the woman, led to the big tree where they had built a fire. We found two there, and four more in a ravine. We were sad, though not surprised, to find that none had survived. But the scene was so...

Back to Alya in the living room, her face troubled. Maybe even scared.

ALYA (CONT'D) -strange, I saw people getting fidgety. Nervous. I felt it, too. Something was wrong in that place. I wandered away, just wanting to get away from it. That’s when I found the other two, on the north face. (MORE)

(CONTINUED) 28. 38 CONTINUED: (3) 38 ALYA (CONT'D) There was something wrong with them. More wrong than the others. And something in the snow near them... a machine. Very strange.

She looks into the camera, then raises a finger and points at it.

ALYA (CONT'D) Like that.

JUSTINE What? The camera?

Alya nods.

ALYA Yes, I think so. I'd never seen anything like it. I called the others over, but then the helicopters came. Suddenly, there were soldiers everywhere. We were told to leave, then forced at gunpoint. As I was walking away, I saw that they were quickly dragging the two I found around the mountain, out of view. I shouted at the men - how could they find out what happened to these poor people if they moved everything? But Vallik pulled me away, and we came back to town.

Silence for a moment, as everyone processes her story.

JUSTINE (O.C.) What do you think happened?

Alya turns to Sergei, off camera.

ALYA I know your father never likes to speak of it. But there was no avalanche. No reason those people should have fled their tents with no clothes. The Mansi say there are dark spirits buried in the mountain. But I think it was the KGB, the government. (MORE)

(CONTINUED) 29. 38 CONTINUED: (4) 38 ALYA (CONT'D) Why else would they close the pass for three years, except to hide something? They-

JUSTINE (O.C.) Wait.

Quietly off camera, she counts to herself-

JUSTINE (O.C.) (CONT'D) 2... 4... 2...

She raises her voice again, speaking to Alya.

JUSTINE (O.C.) (CONT'D) That’s eleven.

Alya nods.

JUSTINE (O.C.) (CONT'D) You found eleven bodies?

She nods again.

JUSTINE (O.C.) (CONT'D) You’re sure?

Alya looks indignant.

ALYA I know what I saw, young lady. I will never forget it.

JUSTINE (O.C.) But the report, the photos of the scene... everything says there were only nine.

ALYA The report! You believe what everyone tells you to believe? Or your own eyes?

She scoffs, then gets shakily to her feet. Sergei rushes into frame to help her as she walks away. He shrugs at the camera - sorry - and disappears out of the frame.

JENSON (O.C.) I like her. 30.

39 EXT. URAL MOUNTAINS - AFTERNOON 39

The town of Vizhay is barely visible as the group hoofs it into the snow-covered mountains. This fades to a MONTAGE of the group leaving civilization behind as they disappear into the spectacular mountains. Cut to the handheld DV cam as Justine talks to J.P., Andy, and Denise, as they walk together.

JUSTINE (O.C.) So, guys... is it everything you hoped?

DENISE Oh yeah.

ANDY Hell yeah.

J.P. just smiles at the camera.

JUSTINE (O.C.) J.P... at a loss for words.

As she pans around, the sun is starting to drop behind the tallest mountain in the west. Justine points at the distant peak.

JUSTINE (O.C.) (CONT'D) Is that it?

J.P. Is that what?

JUSTINE (O.C.) The Kholat-Syakhl.

J.P. Yep.

Justine stops, the camera peers up at it, towering over them, silhouetted by the setting sun.

JUSTINE (O.C.) Jesus.

Jenson appears beside her.

(CONTINUED) 31. 39 CONTINUED: 39

JENSON Did you hear what she said? The bodies? The weird piece of equipment? I told you!

JUSTINE (O.C.) What did you tell me?

JENSON Aliens! What else could it be?

JUSTINE (O.C.) An 80-year-old woman who can't count and hasn't left her tiny Russian village since the Bolshevik revolution?

JENSON Then why did the Russian military show up, miss know-it-all?

JUSTINE (O.C.) To videotape the alien autopsy on the futuristic camera for later broadcast on the Fox network. Obviously.

JENSON You'll see when we get there. Just wait.

40 EXT. CAMP - EVENING 40

Most of the group are setting up their tents. Jenson, in particular, is struggling, mostly because he keeps awkwardly looking up at Denise, who is trying to help him. But J.P. is already done, and squatting in front of a propane camp stove.

Justine turns the camera on him.

JUSTINE (O.C.) Alright, Mr. Halvorsen, tell us about cooking on the trail.

J.P. Well, we try to keep it as simple and light as possible. So...

(CONTINUED) 32. 40 CONTINUED: 40

He reaches into his pack and pulls out a sealed blue bag, about the size of a gallon ziplock bag. The front says ‘beefa- roni’.

J.P. (CONT'D) Mmmmm... dehydrated beefaroni...

JUSTINE (O.C.) You know I’m a vegetarian, right?

J.P. I got mac and cheese for you.

JUSTINE (O.C.) Oh, good.

Next he pulls out a collapsible pot, sets it on the stove, and fills it with snow.

J.P. So all we do is boil some water.

JUSTINE (O.C.) You’re using snow.

J.P. Save our fresh water. Boiling kills any bacteria. Then-

41 EXT. CAMP - LATER 41

He pours the boiling water directly into the bag, and Jenson snatches it almost immediately.

J.P. Don’t burn your mouth!

Jenson immediately shovels a steaming spoonful into his mouth, then has to spit it out. In a second, he's putting snow in his burning mouth.

Justine and the others are laughing.

42 EXT. CAMP - EVENING 42

A flashlight illuminates Jenson, standing a dozen yards from the tents and scanning the skies with binoculars.

JUSTINE (O.C.) How’s your tongue?

(CONTINUED) 33. 42 CONTINUED: 42

He answers without looking away from the stars.

JENSON Fine.

JUSTINE (O.C.) You know, Denise's tent is over there.

She points back toward camp. Jenson shakes his head at her.

JENSON You may find this hard to believe, but I'm not perving on Denise right now.

There is a beat, Justine expecting him to continue, but he doesn’t. Finally she bursts out with-

JUSTINE (O.C.) Alright! What are you looking for?

He pulls the binoculars from his eyes and looks at her.

JENSON You could just ask.

JUSTINE (O.C.) You're a terrible interview subject, Jenson.

JENSON There were reports of orange lights over the mountains in the week leading up to the incident. Six totally separate witnesses.

JUSTINE (O.C.) (skeptically) Aliens?

JENSON That’s what most people think. But it could be lots of things. The official response was unusual atmospheric conditions, moonlight reflecting off clouds... something like that.

(CONTINUED) 34. 42 CONTINUED: (2) 42

JUSTINE (O.C.) But you don’t believe that.

He shakes his head. Again, she waits for a response that doesn’t come.

JUSTINE (O.C.) (CONT'D) Jenson?

JENSON What?

She gives an exasperated sigh.

JUSTINE (O.C.) (mutters) ...not gonna be able to use any of this... (more loudly) What do you think it was?

JENSON It could be the by-product of a government project. I’ve heard they were experimenting with teleportation at the time. It could even have been bioluminescence.

JUSTINE (O.C.) Like from an animal?

JENSON Exactly.

He scans the sky above the mountains again. Andy sticks his head out of his tent and calls over-

ANDY You guys should get some sleep. If we get an early enough start, we should hit the site tomorrow.

JUSTINE (O.C.) Big day.

Jenson nods, finally lowering the binoculars.

JENSON I’ll be over in a minute.

(CONTINUED) 35. 42 CONTINUED: (3) 42

JUSTINE (O.C.) ‘Kay.

43 BLACK SCREEN. FADE UP TEXT: 43

DAY 3: KHOLAT-SYAKHL

44 EXT. CAMP - MORNING 44

Bright sunlight glints off of the snow, as the camera bounces around, mostly pointed at Jenson’s boots.

JENSON (O.C.) Alright, we’re rolling. Denise?

Denise is next to him, boom in hand, but she looks shaken.

DENISE I don't like this guys.

It lifts and settles on Justine, standing next to one of three tents at the site.

JUSTINE Denise, if anything was going to happen, it would have happened last night, okay?

DENISE You don't know that.

JUSTINE I wouldn't put you in any danger. It's weird, I know. But that's why we have to get it on film. Okay?

DENISE (reluctantly) Okay...

She lifts the boom. Jenson fixes the camera on Justine. Behind her, Andy and J.P. are breaking their tent down.

JUSTINE Hey - can you guys wait just a sec?

They roll their eyes and step out of frame.

(CONTINUED) 36. 44 CONTINUED: 44

JUSTINE (CONT'D) Okay. So we woke up this morning and found something strange.

She moves over to IMPRINTS in the snow, a few inches deep, right next to one of the tents.

JUSTINE (CONT'D) Footprints.

She follows them as they move around first one tent, then another.

JUSTINE (CONT'D) Lurking around each of the tents. There are two sets of them.

She kneels and puts her hand next to one of the prints for scale. It's larger than a normal foot, and the toes seem unnaturally long.

JUSTINE (CONT'D) The shape is weird. And see how big this one is?

They move over to a different tent, and again she kneels next to a print and puts her hand next to it. It looks to be two or three sizes larger than the other one.

JUSTINE (CONT'D) And this one’s even bigger. Two different people.

JENSON (O.C.) People?

JUSTINE I'm not talking about yetis, Jenson.

JENSON (O.C.) C'mon! Look at the size of them? What else could do that?

Justine shakes her head, and continues.

JUSTINE It gets even weirder.

She runs her fingers over the inside of the track.

(CONTINUED) 37. 44 CONTINUED: (2) 44

JUSTINE (CONT'D) Anybody hiking in this kind of snow has specialized boots. They have to have a lot of grip, so they usually have spikes or very defined grooves. But these are smooth.

Beat. She looks at the camera.

JUSTINE (CONT'D) Whoever it was, they were barefoot. Now, Andy tells us that, as low as the temperature gets at night, you’d lose toes in ten minutes.

JENSON (O.C.) Which would explain a yeti.

JUSTINE It's not a yeti!

JENSON (O.C.) How do you know?

JUSTINE Does a yeti explain this?

They follow the path of the first set of tracks to where it ends, next to the half-disassembled tent Andy and J.P. were in. There, the prints just STOP.

JUSTINE (CONT'D) The tracks are only around the tents. None of them lead into or out of camp. It’s like someone dropped out of the sky, walked around our tents in bare feet while we were sleeping, then took off again.

She turns to the camera.

JUSTINE (CONT'D) Do yetis fly, too?

Beat.

JENSON (O.C.) They could...

(CONTINUED) 38. 44 CONTINUED: (3) 44

Andy steps into frame again.

ANDY Can we pack up now, please?

His demeanor is a little testy.

45 EXT. MOUNTAINS - LATER 45

The group is walking at a pretty brisk pace when the camera cuts on. To their right, a mountain ridge runs parallel to their route, the rocky peaks daunting.

Justine is carrying the camera next to Andy and J.P.

JUSTINE (O.C.) We don’t have to cross that, do we?

Andy shakes his head, but neither looks at her.

JUSTINE (O.C.) (CONT'D) You guys okay? You’ve been quiet all morning.

ANDY Fine.

JUSTINE (O.C.) You don’t seem fine.

ANDY We just don’t like being fucked with.

JUSTINE (O.C.) You think we’re fucking with you?

ANDY No. We think the abominable snowman was checking out our campsite last night.

JUSTINE (O.C.) How could we fake that?

ANDY You're right, Justine. No one's ever faked footprints in the snow before!

(CONTINUED) 39. 45 CONTINUED: 45

JUSTINE (O.C.) But-

J.P. He’s right, Justine. It’s serious out here. Look around. This is the last place in the world you want to be surprised by anything.

Justine stops.

JUSTINE (O.C.) You don’t know anything about me, if you think I’d do that.

They continue walking, and Justine mutters under her breath-

JUSTINE (O.C.) (CONT'D) Assholes.

She turns away, almost bumping into Denise, who looks like she wants to say something. But Justine’s so obviously angry that she decides, wisely, to continue past her.

46 EXT. MOUNTAINS - DAY 46

MONTAGE as Jenson uses the good camera to get wide shots of the extraordinary beauty around them - the mountains, a river in the distance, a group of enormously tall trees opposite the mountains-

There are two FORMS standing amongst the trees. Staring directly at him.

It’s hard to pinpoint from such a distance, but there’s something wrong about them. They’re not dressed for the cold at all, with what little clothing they have on reduced to rags.

JENSON (O.C.) What the hell...

He ZOOMS IN, and the image gets close enough to see that they don’t have any hair at all.

- and then they’re GONE. They just disappear out of the frame, like there was never anything there.

JENSON SCREAMS. 40.

47 EXT. TREES - LATER 47

Justine is filming the group of trees Jenson was looking at.

JUSTINE (O.C.) So we’re searching the area where Jenson saw those people. We looked at the footage... no one’s sure how to explain it. Then we found these.

She pans down to the base of the trees. Two sets of footprints - none coming in, or out.

JUSTINE (O.C.) (CONT'D) Just like we found around the campsite. Barefoot. No other tracks in or out.

As if to confirm this, the camera quickly scans the surrounding area.

JUSTINE (O.C.) (CONT'D) We’re getting a little freaked out.

Then, J.P. calls from OC-

J.P. Justine! Come look at this!

Justine treks in the direction of his voice, Denise’s boom visible when the camera shakes, past the trees, and finds Andy and J.P. standing next to a hastily-constructed SHACK that looks a hundred years old. There are gaps between the boards, and a door on rusty hinges.

ANDY A hunting blind, maybe?

JUSTINE (O.C.) No. It’s a supply drop.

ANDY No shit?

JUSTINE (O.C.) Based on what was in their packs, there was speculation the Dyatlov group must have cached some supplies for the trip back. But they couldn’t figure out where.

(CONTINUED) 41. 47 CONTINUED: 47

J.P. You think we found it?

JUSTINE (O.C.) Only one way to find out.

She approaches the door, reaches out and pulls it open.

48 INT. SHACK - CONTINUOUS 48

The inside appears to be empty, except for a small black MASS in the middle of the room.

ANDY (O.C.) Well?

JUSTINE (O.C.) It’s empty.

Denise starts to carry her boom inside, but Justine stops her.

JUSTINE (O.C.) (CONT'D) Wait.

She kneels, getting in tight on the dusty floor, and finds FOOTPRINTS from bare feet leading toward the black mass. They only go one way, and appear to stop in the middle of the room.

Justine enters, careful to step around the footprints. She draws closer to the thing in the middle of the room. It’s two or three inches long, half as wide, and rounded except for one jagged end.

She leans in closer, her breathing audibly loud on the camera. It takes a second before she realizes what it is. A HUMAN TONGUE, ripped from its stem, and blackened by frostbite.

49 EXT. MOUNTAINS - LATER 49

Justine is marching away from the trees, toward Jenson, who is sitting next to his pack, knees drawn up to his chest with his arms around them, looking traumatized. Denise is next to her with the boom, trying to keep up, and trying to keep from freaking out.

DENISE A tongue?

(CONTINUED) 42. 49 CONTINUED: 49

JUSTINE (O.C.) Yeah, that’s what it looked like.

DENISE A fucking tongue?! This doesn't feel safe, Justine.

JUSTINE (O.C.) It's probably nothing.

DENISE It's not nothing! It's a fucking tongue. We should go, right now.

JUSTINE (O.C.) It's probably from an animal or something.

DENISE But what about the footprints? And whatever Jenson saw-

Justine stops and turns to Denise.

JUSTINE (O.C.) Can you just give us a minute?

Andy approaches, with a look of disdain for Justine, and puts an arm around Denise.

ANDY Don't worry about it. She's just messing with us for the movie.

Justine shakes her head as Andy leads her away, his arm sliding down to her waist. Then Justine continues on to where Jenson is sitting, and sits down next to him.

JUSTINE (O.C.) Are you okay?

JENSON It just... it freaked me out, you know?

JUSTINE (O.C.) That’s all? I mean, we’re all a little rattled, but...

Jenson sighs.

(CONTINUED) 43. 49 CONTINUED: (2) 49

JENSON I’ve seen them before.

Justine waits for him to go on, but he doesn’t. Finally, she prods him-

JUSTINE (O.C.) Um... where?

He scans the skies, not looking at her.

JENSON I had a bad trip when I was in high school.

JUSTINE Like on acid?

He nods.

JUSTINE (O.C.) (CONT'D) I’ve never done it.

JENSON It’s fun, at first. Like all your brain cells are firing for the first time in your life. But then it got weird. It’s hard to explain but... I saw them. They chased me. I ran. Got picked up by the cops, screaming about demons.

JUSTINE (O.C.) Jesus.

JENSON But at least I got my shit together after that. Got into college. Now I’m out here with you... and there they are. Crazy, right?

They’re quiet for a while, him staring off into the distance.

JUSTINE When I was a kid, I used to dream about this place. The snow, the mountains. It was just like this. Like a magnet, pulling me toward it. (MORE)

(CONTINUED) 44. 49 CONTINUED: (3) 49 JUSTINE (CONT'D) And then I get there, and there's this door, and I don't want to open it, but I have to. And there's just this... blackness, on the other side. Just darkness. And it swallows me. I'd wake up screaming. My folks said it was night terrors. I went to all kinds of shrinks, took pills, nothing helped. Then I saw that news report about the scientists that came here, and I just knew: That's the place. That's what I've been dreaming about. And that's how I know we're going to do what all those braniacs couldn't. We're going to figure out what happened. And if what you're saying is true, if you saw those things before... then maybe you're meant to be here too. How's that for crazy?

JENSON I live in crazy, Justine. And that's the craziest thing I've ever heard.

JUSTINE (O.C.) Then brace yourself.

He’s silent, so she continues.

JUSTINE (O.C.) (CONT'D) Last night, you said something about teleportation.

JENSON Yeah.

JUSTINE (O.C.) Is it possible?

JENSON Kind of depends on what you mean. Why?

JUSTINE (O.C.) Well, it would kind of explain some of what we’ve seen, right?

(CONTINUED) 45. 49 CONTINUED: (4) 49

Jenson laughs.

JENSON You’ve been hanging out with me too long. You’re supposed to be our Velma, you know.

JUSTINE (O.C.) I don’t know what that means.

JENSON Scooby-Doo?

JUSTINE (O.C.) The dog?

JENSON Yeah, but... No, Velma. The smart, rational one. With the glasses. "Jinkies!"

No response.

JENSON (CONT'D) Forget it. Look, I’m no expert. But teleportation means traveling across space with no time elapsing.

JUSTINE (O.C.) How is that possible?

JENSON The only way to do it is to travel inter-dimensionally. See, people think there’s only three dimensions, but that’s just what we’re able to perceive. Now some scientists think there could be, like, thirteen-

Andy approaches and cuts him off.

ANDY Unless you guys want to camp here, we should get going.

Justine turns back to Jenson.

JUSTINE (O.C.) Definitely don’t want to camp here. 46.

50 EXT. MOUNTAINS - LATER 50

Justine is walking with Jenson, still filming, when she stops suddenly.

JUSTINE (O.C.) Wait.

The camera pans around - they are on a ledge a few meters wide, with a steep upward slope to the left, and a softer slope down to the right. A few hundred yards to the right is a cluster of large pine trees.

JUSTINE (O.C.) (CONT'D) (shouting to the others) Wait!

The group ahead of her stops, turns to face her.

JENSON A break. Oh thank God.

JUSTINE (O.C.) We’re here.

Andy makes his way back to her.

ANDY Are you sure?

She looks around again, and nods.

JUSTINE (O.C.) I’ve looked at the pictures a hundred times. This is it. This is the campsite. This is where it happened.

51 EXT. DYATLOV PASS CAMPSITE - DAY 51

A steady, well framed shot. Justine stands among the group’s tents, and addresses the camera.

JUSTINE Thirty-two years ago today, nine people set up camp on this very ground, ate dinner, and went to bed. (MORE)

(CONTINUED) 47. 51 CONTINUED: 51 JUSTINE (CONT'D) At some point between nine and eleven o’clock that night, something that Russian officials could only identify as ‘an unknown compelling force’ caused all nine to flee from their tent in such terror that they ripped through it and fled into the night with almost no clothes on. It was 17 degrees below zero.

52 EXT. TREE GROVE - DAY 52

Justine now stands under a large pine tree, several hundred yards from the tents. Justine points to a spot on the ground.

JUSTINE They regrouped here. A fire was built. They did their best to share what clothes they were able to bring. As you can see-

The camera pans to the right, locating the tents, visible up the slope of the mountain.

JUSTINE (CONT'D) -their campsite was still visible, less than half a mile away. They stayed here, slowly freezing to death, for at least two hours.

She points to the branches above her.

JUSTINE (CONT'D) Broken branches suggest that they tried to climb the tree, possibly to get a better view of the campsite, or whatever was preventing them from returning.

She starts walking back toward the campsite.

JUSTINE (CONT'D) But at some point, it became clear that if they stayed much longer, they were going to die. A decision was made - three of them would head back to camp, in spite of the danger.

(CONTINUED) 48. 52 CONTINUED: 52

She walks a bit longer, then stops.

JUSTINE (CONT'D) But they made the decision too late.

She points to a spot in the snow, where they’ve made the imprint of a human body by lying in the snow.

JUSTINE (CONT'D) Rustem Slobotkin, 23. The first of them to fall.

INSERT: STILL IMAGE - A BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPH OF RUSTEM IN THE SAME SPOT, FROZEN IN DEATH.

She walks further, arriving at another impression of a body.

JUSTINE (CONT'D) Igor Dyatlov, 23. The group’s leader and most experienced hiker. It was probably his idea to try for the tents.

INSERT: STILL IMAGE - A BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPH OF IGOR DYATLOV'S BODY.

She walks again, and stops just a hundred yards from the tents, next to one final impression.

JUSTINE (CONT'D) Zinaida Kolmogorova, 22. She was just a year older than I am now. She got the closest to camp before succumbing. The only victim showing any sign of a struggle, she was missing her tongue.

INSERT: STILL IMAGE - A BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPH OF ZINAIDA'S BODY, ON HER BACK IN THE SNOW, BLOOD-STAINED LIPS OPEN, REVEALING THE STUMP WHERE HER TONGUE SHOULD BE.

53 EXT. TREE GROVE - DAY 53

Justine is back, standing under the tree.

JUSTINE The others watched, as their leader and two others set off for the tents. (MORE)

(CONTINUED) 49. 53 CONTINUED: 53 JUSTINE (CONT'D) They watched them fall, one by one. When Zinaida collapsed, the reactions ranged from panic to despair. Four of the remaining members set off in the opposite direction-

She points to her right, away from the tents.

54 EXT. RAVINE - DAY 54

Justine stands at the bottom of a short, steep slope, eighty yards from the pine tree. She is surrounded by the impressions of four more bodies.

JUSTINE We’re in a ravine about eighty yards from the site of the fire. This is where the search party found Nicholas Thibeaux-Brignollel,

INSERT: STILL IMAGE - A BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPH OF NICHOLAS'S BODY.

She points to one of the outlines.

JUSTINE (CONT'D) Lyudmila Dublinina, 21.

INSERT: STILL IMAGE - A BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPH OF LYUDMILA'S BODY.

Another.

JUSTINE (CONT'D) Alexander Zolotarev, 37.

INSERT: STILL IMAGE - A BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPH OF ALEXANDER ZOLOTAREV'S BODY.

Another.

JUSTINE (CONT'D) Alexander Kolevatov, 25.

INSERT: STILL IMAGE - A BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPH OF ALEXANDER KOLEVATOV'S BODY.

Another.

(CONTINUED) 50. 54 CONTINUED: 54

JUSTINE (CONT'D) The cause of death for all of the victims was determined to be hypothermia. But Nicholas and Rustem also had severely crushed skulls. Lyudmila and Alexander Zolotarev had a number of broken ribs. But none of them had any defensive injuries... no external injuries, whatsoever. Somehow, something managed to crush two men’s skulls and shatter ribs on Lyudmila and Alexander... without leaving so much as a bruise.

She kneels next to the closest impression.

JUSTINE (CONT'D) Also, Alexander’s body tested positive for dangerous levels of radiation.

Justine stands up and suddenly SHOUTS at the top of her lungs-

JUSTINE (CONT'D) HELLO!

It echoes through the ravine and off the surrounding mountains, repeating over and over again until it fades away into silence.

JUSTINE (CONT'D) Where, out here, did Alexander encounter so much radiation? And why only him?

55 EXT. TREE GROVE - DAY 55

Justine is back under the tree. She points to the base of it, on her left. There, they’ve left the imprint of someone sitting in the snow, their back against the tree.

JUSTINE Georgyl Krivonischenko, 24.

INSERT: STILL IMAGE - A BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPH OF GEORGYL'S BODY, SITTING ALMOST SERENELY AGAINT THE TRUNK.

She indicates another, identical imprint on the other side of her.

(CONTINUED) 51. 55 CONTINUED: 55

JUSTINE (CONT'D) Yuri Doroshenko, 21. While the others ran, they sat quietly under this tree... and calmly froze to death.

INSERT: STILL IMAGE - A BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPH OF YURI'S BODY, SITTING NEXT TO GREGOR.

56 EXT. DYATLOV PASS CAMPSITE - LATER 56

Justine turns the camera on Andy, who is scowling at his phone.

JUSTINE (O.C.) What’s up, Andy?

Andy answers without looking up.

ANDY It's nothing.

She watches him measuring out distances on the map.

JUSTINE (O.C.) It doesn't look like nothing.

Andy sighs.

ANDY The GPS is screwed up. It should have alerted us when we got to the site. We’re lucky you spotted it.

JUSTINE (O.C.) And I suppose you think that’s my fault, too?

Finally, he looks up at her.

ANDY I don’t know. Did you screw with it?

J.P. wanders over.

J.P. If she did, she managed to get a hold of my watch, too.

(CONTINUED) 52. 56 CONTINUED: 56

He turns it toward the camera, and reveals the hands of an old-fashioned watch face spinning abnormally fast.

J.P. (CONT'D) And look at this.

He opens a compass on his belt, and holds it next to the watch. The compass needle is spinning at exactly the same rate as the hands on the watch.

Andy gets up and looks at the malfunctioning devices, then decides to give up on the GPS and stuffs it into his pack. He turns to Justine.

ANDY It's probably just a magnetic field from the rock. I've heard of that. But I think we should go.

JUSTINE (O.C.) What? We just got here!

ANDY We don’t have to go back yet. But we’re flying blind without a GPS or a reliable map.

JUSTINE (O.C.) What's wrong with the map?

Beat.

ANDY We shouldn't be here yet.

JUSTINE (O.C.) What do you mean?

ANDY According to the map, we've covered twenty-two miles today. Even if we'd been going at a dead sprint, we shouldn't have gotten here before midnight.

JUSTINE (O.C.) So what? Can’t you use the sun to tell direction, mountain man?

Andy rolls his eyes.

(CONTINUED) 53. 56 CONTINUED: (2) 56

ANDY Look, let’s just pack up and keep moving until the compass stops acting up. There’s obviously some kind of... magnetic field, or something, in the rock here. As soon as we’re away from it, we’ll set up again. Nobody will know the difference.

JUSTINE (O.C.) It won’t match the footage we shot earlier.

Denise chimes in-

DENISE Listen to him! This isn’t safe! If we start packing now-

J.P., who has been listening in, shakes his head.

J.P. By the time we got moving, we wouldn’t get a hundred yards before we were hiking in the dark.

Justine addresses the group.

JUSTINE (O.C.) One night, guys. People lived for thousands of years without watches or topographical maps. We can make it one night.

Beat.

JUSTINE (O.C.) (CONT'D) This is what we came here for.

Andy relents.

ANDY Alright. I’ll start dinner.

JUSTINE (O.C.) Thank you. 54.

57 EXT. DYATLOV PASS CAMPSITE - LATER 57

Justine finds herself standing next to Jenson, watching Denise help Andy set up the stove and prepare dinner.

JUSTINE (O.C.) Awww... aren’t they cute?

JENSON I just don't understand what she sees in him. He's such a pompous-

JUSTINE (O.C.) Confident.

JENSON Self-important-

JUSTINE (O.C.) Rugged.

JENSON Douche.

JUSTINE (O.C.) Stud.

JENSON I'm sure there's room for one more in there, you know.

JUSTINE (O.C.) Don’t worry. Some day you’ll find a guy as nice as Andy-

Jenson picks up a handful of snow and RUBS IT INTO HER FACE. Justine laughs and pushes him away.

JUSTINE (O.C.) (CONT'D) Jerk! That’s why you can’t meet anyone!

JENSON I can’t meet anyone because every girl assumes I’m dating you!

This lapses into an awkward silence, which Jenson finally breaks.

(CONTINUED) 55. 57 CONTINUED: 57

JENSON (CONT'D) Listen, I was thinking about what Ranger Rick said about a magnetic field.

JUSTINE (O.C.) Yeah?

JENSON Yeah. What if it’s not a magnetic field?

58 EXT. KHOLAT-SYAKHL - EVENING 58

The sun has slipped behind the mountains, but there’s still enough light to see Justine walking around the west side of the mountain, carrying a small electronic readout in one hand, and a yellow wand with a bulb at the end in the other.

She swings the wand back and forth as she walks, and the meter in her hand jumps and makes increasingly loud buzzes as she goes.

JUSTINE This is a fairly basic Geiger counter. Without getting too complicated, it detects radiation levels.

She stops when it makes a particularly loud buzz.

JUSTINE (CONT'D) And there is definitely radiation coming from this area. Nothing dangerous, but way more than we should be seeing.

She looks at the camera.

JUSTINE (CONT'D) You were right; it’s not a magnetic field that’s disrupting everything. It’s radioactivity.

She takes a few more steps, and the meter continues to jump higher.

JUSTINE (CONT'D) Whatever the source of it is, it’s somewhere around here...

(CONTINUED) 56. 58 CONTINUED: 58

They walk further, and the buzzing gets quieter.

JUSTINE (CONT'D) Wait.

She steps back. It jumps again. At it’s apex, she turns to the steep slope moving up to the top of the mountain.

JUSTINE (CONT'D) Here.

There’s a slight indentation in the snow pack, like a six by four section had been chipped away recently. Justine runs her hand over it.

JUSTINE (CONT'D) See how the ice is thinner here? I think someone’s been here. Maybe even in the last few days.

She begins pulling away the snow with her gloves, but it’s difficult to move anything past the thin layer of powdery snow.

She pulls a small folding knife from her pocket, opens it, and begins stabbing at the ice. Eventually, it begins to fall away. On the ground, they can hear the Geiger counter buzzing more loudly. Justine plunges the knife once again, and is rewarded with a metallic clang.

She turns to Jenson and the camera, smiling, exhilarated.

JUSTINE (CONT'D) We found something.

She glances at the knife - the tip now bent ninety degrees from the rest of the blade - then closes it, and goes back to pulling away the ice with her hands.

Soon, buried beneath the snow and ice, what’s revealed is a large steel DOOR. She runs her hand over it, AS THOUGH IT'S FAMILIAR TO HER SOMEHOW.

Then Justine looks at the camera and smiles in amazement. She clears away more snow, and reveals a large, circular locking mechanism - like a steering wheel - on the outside of the door.

JENSON (O.C.) That’s really weird.

(CONTINUED) 57. 58 CONTINUED: (2) 58

JUSTINE Of course it’s weird! It’s a fucking door built into a mountain fifty yards from-

JENSON (O.C.) No. It locks from the outside.

Justine didn’t even think of that. She looks at the circular mechanism with a little more trepidation.

JENSON (O.C.) (CONT'D) It’s supposed to keep something in.

JUSTINE Yeah. But what?

She grabs the wheel and wrenches it, but it doesn’t budge. Finally she turns to Jenson.

JUSTINE (CONT'D) Put the camera down and help me.

JENSON (O.C.) You know... the Russian government went to a lot of trouble to put a very large, very strong door to protect us from whatever’s in there. Maybe we shouldn’t-

JUSTINE What the hell did we come out here for if not this? You want to know if the ‘unknown compelling force’ was an alien or a yeti or a Soviet- engineered superman. I just want to know what happened here. And the answer is in there.

Jenson sighs audibly before setting down the camera, doing his best to keep the door in frame. Both of them try to turn the lock, but to no avail. Finally, they let go.

JENSON Let’s let the muscleheads have a crack at it. They could probably-

JUSTINE No!

(CONTINUED) 58. 58 CONTINUED: (3) 58

Jenson is a little taken aback by her vehemence.

JUSTINE (CONT'D) They’re already jumpy. Tomorrow - we’ll tell them tomorrow. Okay?

Jenson seems unsure, but finally nods.

JENSON Okay.

JUSTINE Good. Let’s get back.

He picks up the camera.

59 EXT. DYATLOV PASS CAMPSITE - NIGHT 59

Andy is handing out bags of freeze-dried food when they get back to camp. Justine takes one and finds J.P. Sitting on a rock, reading and taking the occasional bite from his own bag of food.

JUSTINE (O.C.) What are you reading?

He holds up the cover - SLAUGHTERHOUSE 5.

JUSTINE (O.C.) (CONT'D) I love Vonnegut! First time?

To answer, he closes the book and recites from memory-

J.P. "I am a Tralfamadorian, seeing all time as you might see a stretch of the Rocky Mountains. All time is all time. It does not change-”

Justine picks up the quote and continues-

JUSTINE (O.C.) “It does not lend itself to warnings or explanations. It simply is." Very impressive.

J.P. Have a seat, professor.

(CONTINUED) 59. 59 CONTINUED: 59

JUSTINE Thanks.

She does. He closes his book, puts it aside, and they eat in silence for a moment.

JUSTINE (CONT'D) God, it’s impossible to get warm when you’re sitting on the goddamn snow all the time.

J.P. Yeah - I think my ass has been numb since we left Vizhay. Did you find anything with the Geiger counter?

Justine shakes her head.

JUSTINE Perfectly safe.

J.P. That’s good, I guess. I mean, I know you were hoping to find something for your movie.

JUSTINE There’s still time.

Andy and Denise walk by, holding hands, and climb into Andy’s tent.

JUSTINE (CONT'D) Ah, young love...

J.P. I wouldn’t be too sure. Andy’s a fun guy to hang out with, but I’m not sure he’s boyfriend material.

JUSTINE But they look so cute.

J.P. Andy’s a master of the trail hookup.

JUSTINE The trail hookup?

(CONTINUED) 60. 59 CONTINUED: (2) 59

J.P. You get a girl out in the middle of nowhere, especially when it’s cold, she wants somebody to cuddle up with.

JUSTINE How romantic.

J.P. That's not the worst of it.

JUSTINE He has herpes?

J.P. laughs.

J.P. Not that I know of.

JUSTINE Then what?

J.P. That camera on his phone? It's not just for shooting landscapes.

Justine stares at him.

JUSTINE Jesus. Really? He records it?

J.P. nods.

J.P. Like a digital notch in the bedpost.

JUSTINE What about you? Where's your trail game?

He looks sheepish.

J.P. I think 'paradoxical undressing' might be my best bet for a hookup.

She laughs.

(CONTINUED) 61. 59 CONTINUED: (3) 59

JUSTINE Well, if you’re not out here for wilderness love, what are you doing? Another rich kid trying to piss off daddy?

J.P. Nah. Dad’s great, actually. He loves that I do this stuff. I just like... not feeling rich.

JUSTINE How odd.

J.P. I’m not fishing for sympathy or anything. But people do treat you a little different when you’re J.P. Halvorsen, Jr. But nature’s the great equalizer - she doesn’t care how much money you have.

JUSTINE For the record, neither do I.

Jenson walks over to them.

JENSON Hey.

JUSTINE Hey.

Jenson gestures at Andy's tent.

JENSON Can you believe those two?

JUSTINE Don't worry. It's just a trail hookup.

JENSON A trail hookup?

She nods, and J.P. smiles next to her.

JUSTINE You're still in the running, Casanova.

(CONTINUED) 62. 59 CONTINUED: (4) 59

JENSON Not sure if I want that guy's sloppy seconds.

J.P. You could always curl up with Lucille, right?

JENSON If it was legal in the state of Oregon, I'd marry her. But it's not, so we have to keep our relationship professional.

Beat.

JENSON (CONT'D) Mostly.

They're quiet for a moment, Jenson finally picks up on the romantic tension between them, fakes a stretch and a yawn.

JENSON (CONT'D) Well, guess I’ll turn in. ‘Night.

JUSTINE ‘Night.

They watch him disappear inside his tent.

J.P. I’m sorry we accused you of faking those footprints.

JUSTINE It’s alright. If I didn’t know I didn’t do it, I’d probably think the same thing.

J.P. We jumped to a conclusion we shouldn’t have. I expect that from Andy, but I know better.

Justine gets to her feet, and offers him her hand.

(CONTINUED) 63. 59 CONTINUED: (5) 59

JUSTINE Well, if you really want to make it up to me, you could give me something warm to cuddle with tonight.

J.P. looks a little shocked at her straight-forwardness. Justine seems a little shocked at it, too.

But the shock wears off after a half a second, he takes her hand, and she pulls him to his feet. Then she grabs the camera.

J.P. You’re not gonna bring that in there, are you?

She grins at him.

JUSTINE Hey - sex sells, you know?

He looks unsure, but she shoves him playfully.

JUSTINE (CONT'D) I’m kidding, jerk. Jeez-

She turns the camera off.

60 INT. TENT - NIGHT 60

CAMERA PHONE FOOTAGE: The camera turns on and bounces around until we realize we are inside the tent with Andy and Denise. Andy, in a t-shirt and shorts, fusses with the it, waking up Denise, in only a tanktop and panties. The harsh spotlight on the phone casts eerie shadows over the proceedings.

Denise opens her eyes, groggy.

DENISE What are you doing?

Andy grins.

ANDY I thought we'd make a little movie of our own.

DENISE Really? You're ready again?

(CONTINUED) 64. 60 CONTINUED: 60

ANDY Don't sound so surprised.

DENISE Not surprised. Impressed.

He kisses her passionately.

DENISE (CONT'D) Now turn it off.

She reaches for it, but he stops her.

ANDY C'mon! What better way to remember the best part of the trip?

DENISE You mean that dinner we had in Ivdel?

This prompts some playful wrestling, during which the camera winds up focusing on the ceiling of the tent. More clothes are removed. A soft moan from Denise. Then-

BOOM! The sound of a distant explosion outside. All motion in the tent ceases, the camera on Denise's terrified face.

DENISE (CONT'D) What was that?

Andy turns the camera and its light toward the closed door of the tent. He JUMPS at the sound of two more explosions in quick succession-

Boom! Boom!

Denise lets out a muffled cry and retreats to the corner of the tent.

DENISE (CONT'D) Shit! Andy, what the hell is that?

ANDY (O.C.) Wait here.

He hands her the phone while he pulls on some clothes and grabs a flashlight, then takes it back and aims it at the tent doorway. His hand enters frame opening the zipper. 65.

61 EXT. DYATLOV PASS CAMPSITE - NIGHT 61

The shot bounces around as he exits, and when he tilts up, he sees Jenson with his pro camera pointed at him.

CUT TO Jenson's camera - not pointed at Andy, but the ridge above him. Nearby, Justine is coming out of her tent with the small DV camera.

INTERCUT BETWEEN THE TWO CAMERAS:

JENSON Holy shit!

There are trails of smoke drifting up from several spots in a straight line across a ridge several hundred feet above them.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! Three more explosions, all along exactly the same line on the ridge.

J.P. follows Justine out of the tent, groggy and pulling on clothes.

J.P. What the hell is going on?

Andy shines a bright flashlight along the ridge and sees the first trails of snow and rock rolling toward them, gathering steam.

ANDY (quietly, as realization dawns) Oh no...

Andy DROPS HIS PHONE into the snow.

JUSTINE Denise! Grab your equipment!

Denise sticks her head out of the tent.

DENISE Why? What's going-

ANDY RUN!

(CONTINUED) 66. 61 CONTINUED: 61

Andy’s moving like a bat out of hell, trying to drag his pack from his tent. He stops when he sees something on the mountain above him.

His eyes get wide with fear. J.P. follows his eyes up the mountain. Justine sees it next, and it isn’t until her camera turns in that direction that we see the WALL OF SNOW, ICE, AND DEBRIS SPILLING DOWN THE MOUNTAIN TOWARD THEM!

J.P. AVALANCHE!

Chaos erupts. Justine starts to run in the opposite direction of the encroaching ice, but J.P. grabs her arm.

J.P. (CONT'D) No! This way!

They take off so that they are running perpendicular to the ice, hoping to get out of it’s path. Jenson follows them, moving so quickly that he drops the camera he’s holding.

Andy’s pack gets caught on something in the tent. He never even glances at the coming avalanche, just gives the pack a violent tug to rip it free.

Denise is still inside the tent, trying to pull on clothes. Andy grabs her wrist and drags her from the tent.

DENISE But-

ANDY There's no time!

DENISE My clothes-

ANDY COME ON!

They follow the others, running for all they're worth. Denise is in nothing but panties, trying to cover herself and already losing feeling in her toes.

SHE TRIPS. Andy continues a few steps before he realizes she's fallen, wants to go back for her-

DENISE Wait!

(CONTINUED) 67. 61 CONTINUED: (2) 61

The avalanche CRUSHES HER, and the camera Jenson left behind. Andy stares for a second, but has to keep moving.

Justine and J.P. hurl themselves to the ground, getting clear of the edge of the avalanche by a few feet. Jenson is right behind them, also leaping to safety in the nick of time.

Justine turns the camera behind her just in time to catch Andy getting hit by a sizeable bolder. It SHATTERS one of his legs and sends him and his pack sprawling.

He SCREAMS.

There’s more debris coming his way, but he’s not going anywhere now. Justine spots a huge rock, propelled on sliding ice and snow, coming toward him.

JUSTINE (O.C.) Shit! Guys-

She points to it. J.P. and Jenson leap to their feet and race over to Andy, grab him by the shoulders, and pull him out of its path a second before it would have crushed all of them.

They collapse in a heap, gasping for air, and watch as the last of the avalanche passes them, settling into the ravine a few hundred yards away.

JENSON Denise!

Justine pans the camera over the area where Denise fell.

JUSTINE DENISE!!!

Jenson runs onto the freshly turned snow, digging with his hands in the area they last saw Denise.

ANDY She’s gone.

JENSON No way! She could-

ANDY SHE’S GONE!

Jenson stops digging and pounds the snow with his fists. Justine falls to her knees, the camera slumping in her hand.

(CONTINUED) 68. 61 CONTINUED: (3) 61

They are all quiet for a moment, the enormity of the loss sinking in. Jenson turns his tear-filled eyes to Andy.

JENSON You left her. You fucking LEFT HER!

ANDY Fuck you!

Jenson sneers at him.

JENSON Just another trail hookup, right?

J.P. grabs Jenson and SHOVES him to the ground.

J.P. Knock that shit off right now, Jenson. He's right. We can't do anything for her.

Jenson struggles to get up, but J.P. holds him down. He finally settles, and J.P. let's go.

JENSON They killed her.

J.P. It was an avalanche, Jenson.

JENSON Oh, wake UP, man! They tried to kill us! They tried to bury us so it would look like an accident!

J.P. Shut up! Shit like that doesn’t happen in the real world, okay?

JENSON Really? You didn’t see a series of small charges detonated along a straight goddamn line on the ridge above us? Or was that a herd of Ukranian exploding mountain goats?!

J.P. gets right in his face.

(CONTINUED) 69. 61 CONTINUED: (4) 61

J.P. You don’t know what happened! Look around? How would they have even known where we are?

JUSTINE (O.C.) I had to apply for permits. Submit a travel plan. They knew exactly where we’d be, and when we’d be there. They waited until we were asleep.

Beat.

JUSTINE (O.C.) (CONT'D) Jenson’s right. Someone tried to kill us.

J.P. Jesus. You too, Justine? Who, then?

Justine ignores him and kneels next to Andy, who is writhing in pain.

JENSON The fucking government, man! I’m telling you, this is old-school covert Cold War shit-

JUSTINE (O.C.) (shouting) SHUT UP! Both of you!

She turns to Andy, writhing on the ground near her.

JUSTINE (CONT'D) So what do we do?

Andy points to his pack, where it is half-buried under the snow.

ANDY My pack... there’s a first aid kit...

JUSTINE (O.C.) Right.

(CONTINUED) 70. 61 CONTINUED: (5) 61

J.P. drags the pack out of the snow, and puts it next to Justine, who roots around and comes out with a small first aid kit.

JUSTINE (O.C.) (CONT'D) Okay. What now?

ANDY You guys have gotta set my leg. The bone...

He winces.

ANDY (CONT'D) It’s a compound fracture. The bone’s exposed. I can feel it. So you got to disinfect it and wrap it up.

Justine takes a deep breath, trying to settle herself.

JUSTINE (O.C.) Okay.

She scoots down to his leg. His insulated pants are stained with blood below the knee. She tries to pull up the pant leg, but Andy HOWLS.

JUSTINE (O.C.) (CONT'D) Shit. Sorry. Shit.

She turns to Jenson.

JUSTINE (O.C.) (CONT'D) See if there’s a knife in there.

He digs in the pack and comes up with one. Justine takes it, and tries to cut the material, but her hands are TREMBLING so badly that she knocks into his leg.

Andy SCREAMS again, and Justine drops the knife.

JUSTINE (O.C.) (CONT'D) I'm sorry!

She's practically crying as she tries again, this time succeeding in cutting away the material as gently as she can.

(CONTINUED) 71. 61 CONTINUED: (6) 61

Andy was correct about the compound fracture, but the bone is actually puncturing the skin in several places. His whole leg looks mangled, like it’s just been through a Cuisinart.

Justine is so horrified that she DROPS THE CAMERA.

Jenson VOMITS.

JUSTINE (O.C.) (CONT'D) I can't... I can't do this.

J.P. kneels next to her.

J.P. Alright. It’s alright. Let me. We’re gonna get this taken care of.

He turns to Jenson, who can't even look at Andy.

J.P. (CONT’D) Jenson, see if you can find a piece of wood or something that we can use as a splint.

The camera remains in the snow, so all we get is a bit of Andy’s upper body, but the voices are all clear.

JENSON Right.

He heads off toward a cluster of nearby trees. Justine calls after him-

JUSTINE (O.C.) Be careful!

J.P. pulls a bottle of iodine from the kit.

J.P. This is going to hurt.

Justine gets behind Andy, and cradles his head in her lap. J.P. pours the liquid over his wounds. Andy’s body seizes, and he cries out at the sharp pain.

J.P. (CONT’D) Okay. That’s it. That’s all.

Andy is gasping from the sudden sharp pain. Justine is fighting tears as she strokes his hair.

(CONTINUED) 72. 61 CONTINUED: (7) 61

ANDY I wish. You guys have to set it now.

J.P. nods and grabs hold of Andy’s leg, then looks up at his friend.

J.P. Ready, buddy?

ANDY Fuck no, but do it anyway.

J.P. Alright. 1... 2...

SNAP!

Because of the camera’s position, we can only hear the bone wrenched into place, followed by a cry of pure ANGUISH from Andy, who’s body seizes again, shakes a few times, then relaxes.

J.P. (CONT'D) See? Wasn’t so bad.

Through tears and terror and pain, Andy laughs a little.

ANDY Yeah. For you.

He notices the camera, and picks it up.

ANDY (CONT'D) Is this thing on?

JUSTINE Yeah, sorry. I just dropped it.

ANDY I don’t want everyone to see me cry-

62 BLACK SCREEN. 62

63 EXT. KHOLAT-SYAKHL - NIGHT 63

Justine turns the camera on and pans over the makeshift camp they’ve set up. There’s a small fire burning, Jenson and J.P.

(CONTINUED) 73. 63 CONTINUED: 63

are warming their hands by it, while Andy is lying close to it. His leg is splinted with a branch and medical tape, the worst of his wounds covered with gauze.

The first rays of sunlight are just peaking over the mountain ridge to the east, but it still feels like night and, judging from the shivering group huddled next to the fire, it’s still cold as hell.

J.P. This is stupid. We need help. We have to send up the flares.

JENSON If whoever did this sees them-

J.P. Nobody did this!

JUSTINE (O.C.) I don’t know J.P. I mean-

J.P. This is why Andy risked his life to get the pack. It’s almost dawn. Somebody’ll be up in Vizhay. They have to see it.

J.P. notices the camera pointed at him for the first time.

J.P. (CONT'D) Do you have to do that?

JUSTINE (O.C.) If we have to go through all this, we may as well get a movie out of it.

The camera pans down to find Jenson turning over the flare gun in his hands.

JENSON Can we at least find some sort of cover before you do it?

He glances up at her, and the camera - the door.

JUSTINE (O.C.) I don’t think we can move Andy.

(CONTINUED) 74. 63 CONTINUED: (2) 63

J.P. gives the two of them a suspicious look.

J.P. What the hell was that?

JENSON What?

J.P. That look! What?

Justine sighs.

JUSTINE (O.C.) We found... something. Earlier, when we were out with the Geiger counter.

J.P.’s anger is clearly visible.

J.P. What did you find?

Beat.

JUSTINE (O.C.) A door.

J.P. What?! You mean we’ve been freezing our asses off sitting in the snow, and there’s a fucking bunker around here?

JUSTINE (O.C.) We couldn’t open it. And the radiation signature was pretty strong.

J.P. Dangerous?

Justine is reluctant to answer.

JUSTINE (O.C.) No.

J.P. Unbelievable.

(CONTINUED) 75. 63 CONTINUED: (3) 63

JUSTINE (O.C.) We just didn’t want to scare you guys. And we can’t get in there anyway.

J.P. Did you plant the footprints?

JUSTINE (O.C.) No!

J.P. How am I supposed to believe you?

JUSTINE (O.C.) Fine. Don’t believe me.

J.P. You know, if someone did start the avalanche, whatever’s in there is probably why, right?

Jenson nods.

J.P. (CONT’D) So let’s shoot off the flare while it’s dark enough to be seen and get some people out here so that just killing us is no longer an option.

Jenson looks at Justine, who nods her ascent. Jenson cocks the hammer on the flare gun, points it at the slowly lightening sky, and FIRES.

A bright red FLASH rockets into the sky, passing through a low-lying cloud hovering above them, before bursting into an orange ball of light, arcing around, and then hanging several hundred yards above them. Obscured by the cloud, it appears like a glowing orange ball hovering in the sky.

JENSON Huh.

JUSTINE (O.C.) What?

JENSON Orange lights in the sky. 76.

64 EXT. KHOLAT-SYAKHL - MORNING 64

The sun is up now, but their breath still fogs the cold air. The fire is reduced to smoldering coals. Jenson is holding the camera, and in front of it, across the small fire pit, Justine scoots closer to J.P.

JUSTINE I’m sorry. I should have told you. Everyone was so worked up about the map, and the compass...

J.P. sees that she’s close to tears, and puts an arm around her shoulders. Andy groans and shifts in his sleep. Cold as it is, he looks feverish, and Justine’s eyes settle on him.

JUSTINE (CONT'D) I never meant for this to happen.

J.P. You followed a step by step plan that killed nine people.

JUSTINE Alya says eleven. And they didn’t have Andy Thatcher, president of the Northwest Trail Society.

He chuckles.

J.P. I know. But, seriously, what did you think would happen?

JUSTINE I can't really explain it. I've just been... drawn to this place. Even before I knew what it was.

JENSON (O.C.) I wanted to get rich. Very, very rich.

They laugh, and it breaks the tension, briefly.

JUSTINE Think anyone saw the flare?

(CONTINUED) 77. 64 CONTINUED: 64

J.P. I don’t know. But if we have to sit out here much longer, I’m gonna rip that goddamn door off the hinges, radiation or not.

Andy’s eyes flutter open.

ANDY Screw you. At least it’s just your ass on the snow.

Justine smiles at him.

JUSTINE You’re awake.

ANDY Unfortunately. Can you fish some ibuprofen out of the first aid kit?

Justine digs them out, and gives him two pills and a canteen. He motions with his hand for her to give him more. She does, until there are a total of five in his palm. He throws them down.

ANDY (CONT'D) Now how about some breakfast?

65 EXT. KHOLAT-SYAKHL - LATER 65

Justine has the stove set up now, and a pot of boiling water steaming on it. She sifts through what little food they have left.

JUSTINE Looks like more beef-a-roni or blueberry pie.

JENSON (O.C.) Gotta go with blueberry pie for breakfast.

J.P. Agreed.

Jenson heads over to the stove to help her, but Andy grabs him as he passes.

(CONTINUED) 78. 65 CONTINUED: 65

ANDY Hey, man.

JENSON (O.C.) Yeah?

ANDY I'm sorry about Lucille.

Jenson lets the sincerity of it sink in for a moment.

JENSON Thanks, Andy.

Andy nods. J.P. looks past him and points-

J.P. Holy shit! Somebody's coming!

They all look, and sure enough, TWO FIGURES are making their way toward them, just a few dozen yards away. Justine leaps to her feet and begins waving her arms.

JUSTINE Hello! Help! We need help!

Andy leans up on his elbow, spies their apparent saviors, then furrows his brow.

One of the men pulls back his hood and smiles at them, waving back. When he answers, it is with a thick Russian accent.

MAN We saw flares! Are you alright?

JUSTINE Our friend is hurt!

Andy tugs on Justine’s pant leg.

ANDY He’s lying.

Justine looks down at him, confused.

ANDY (CONT'D) Don’t look! He’s lying. There’s no way they made it out from town this fast, and they don’t have any packs.

(CONTINUED) 79. 65 CONTINUED: (2) 65

JUSTINE So?

ANDY They were already here!

She looks back up at the approaching pair, confused. The second man looks up, also smiling, and removes the hood pulled over his head. IT’S THE MAN FROM THE BAR.

JUSTINE (quietly) He was in the bar in Ivdel.

ANDY They were following us. RUN!

J.P. What about you?

Andy just shakes his head. Justine hesitates.

JUSTINE No. We're not leaving you.

ANDY Go. Now.

JUSTINE But-

ANDY Go!

The insistence in his eyes sways her. She bends down carefully, not letting on that there’s anything wrong, and grabs the pot of boiling water.

JUSTINE Jenson - the door.

JENSON (O.C.) Got it.

JUSTINE J.P., just follow us. Ready?

J.P. nods.

(CONTINUED) 80. 65 CONTINUED: (3) 65

ANDY Wait. Give me the flare gun.

Jenson pulls it from his pocket and tosses it to him. One second, they’re standing around, smiling at the approaching strangers-

- and the next they TAKE OFF running around the edge of the mountain, Justine doing her best not to spill the water, but still it sloshes onto her hand, and she yelps in pain.

Jenson risks a glance back, as they are rounding the mountain to the point where their pursuers won’t be visible anymore. Now both men have pistols drawn, and are moving as fast as they can over the freshly turned snow from the avalanche.

Andy FIRES A FLARE AT THEM, and they throw themselves to the ground to avoid it. The stranger levels his pistol at Andy from his spot on the ground, and squeezes off a single round. A silencer limits the noise to barely audible fttttp.

It strikes Andy in the chest, and his head falls to the ground, dead.

JENSON (O.C.) Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit.

He doesn’t wait to see more, but continues sprinting behind J.P. and Justine. In a few seconds, they’re outside the door, a thin layer of snow already covering it again.

J.P. wipes the snow away. Justine takes a step back. Jenson keeps looking behind them, waiting to see the two men coming.

JUSTINE Watch out!

J.P. steps back from the door, and Justine throws the boiling water on the wheel that opens the locking mechanism. Then she drops the pan, and she and J.P. immediately tug on it, trying to get it to turn. It doesn’t budge.

JUSTINE (CONT'D) Come on, PUSH!

They redouble their efforts. It moves an inch. Jenson checks their back - and can see the men coming toward them.

JENSON (O.C.) Uh... guys...

(CONTINUED) 81. 65 CONTINUED: (4) 65

They pull the wheel as hard as they can. It moves another few inches. They’re closing.

JENSON (O.C.) (CONT'D) Guys!

JUSTINE Drop the fucking camera and HELP!

But her burst of anger at Jenson seems to push it over the edge, and the wheel turns so suddenly that both she and J.P. are flung to the ground.

Jenson drops his shoulder into the door, pushing it open enough to slip in. He moves out of the way, and yanks Justine to her feet.

JENSON (O.C.) Go! Go!

But she FREEZES for a second, staring at the darkness on the other side. She's afraid to go in.

A SHOT HITS THE MOUNTAIN NEXT TO Jenson. Snow and chips of rock fly into his face. He SHOVES Justine inside, then tries to push J.P. in, but a SECOND BULLET CATCHES J.P. IN THE SHOULDER. He’s thrown to the side, bleeding.

Jenson tosses the camera inside the door. It skitters onto the floor, coming to rest facing the opening, so that everything is dark except the sliver of light and Justine’s silhouette.

66 INT. TUNNEL - CONTINUOUS 66

Justine grabs J.P.’s ankle, and, with Jenson pushing from outside, drags him in. Another shot forces Jenson to DIVE THROUGH THE OPENING. The second he lands, Justine forces the door closed again with her shoulder.

The screen goes black.

J.P. Lock it!

JUSTINE It opens from the outside! Help me hold it closed!

(CONTINUED) 82. 66 CONTINUED: 66

There’s the sound of scrambling, as they press themselves against the door, waiting for the men to force their way in.

But nothing happens.

They hear a few whispered words of conversation, then it’s silent, except for their labored breathing, and J.P.’s occasional hiss of pain. Then the sound of metal on metal echoes through whatever room they’re in, followed my a metallic clink.

They’re locked in.

JENSON Fuck.

Total DARKNESS.

JUSTINE J.P.?

J.P. Yeah.

JUSTINE Are you okay?

J.P. No. I’m bleeding a lot.

JUSTINE Put pressure on it.

JENSON You guys just stay still for a sec.

There is the sound of Jenson sliding across the floor, his hands out blindly and sweeping in front of him. Eventually, they bang into the camera. He picks it up, feels around the buttons, and hits one of them. The camera switches to NIGHT VISION. Suddenly, the space appears, dimly, in ghostly green hues. They are in a narrow tunnel carved into the mountain, the walls and ceiling made of uneven crags of rock. It slopes downward, deeper into the mountain, but the camera can’t make out more than a few yards ahead.

The ceiling is strung with ancient light bulbs, and a wire from wherever the tunnel goes connects them to something down there.

(CONTINUED) 83. 66 CONTINUED: (2) 66

Jenson traces the cable along the ceiling toward the door, until he’s looking at Justine and J.P., still huddled against the door, eyes wide and glowing white in the night vision. J.P. clutches his shoulder.

JUSTINE What do you see?

Above and to the right of J.P., he spots a large switch turned down.

JENSON (O.C.) A light switch.

Using the camera as a guide, he crosses to the switch, and forces it to turn up. There is a loud click when it snaps into place, followed by a dull humming sound from further down the tunnel.

JUSTINE What are you doing?!

But before Jenson can answer, the LIGHTS FLICKER ON.

Everyone blinks to adjust there eyes, and takes in what they’re seeing. For a second, the camera whites out, until Jenson adjusts the setting off of night vision.

J.P. We should barricade the door, somehow.

JENSON (O.C.) Why?

J.P. If it locks from the outside, they can come in whenever they want.

JENSON (O.C.) They’re not coming in. Why waste the bullets?

J.P. But...

JENSON (O.C.) Look at this place! There’s not a spec of dust. That door’s hermetically sealed. (MORE)

(CONTINUED) 84. 66 CONTINUED: (3) 66 JENSON (O.C.) (CONT'D) Maybe there’s an oxygen intake somewhere, so instead of suffocating in a few hours, we’ll dehydrate in a few days.

Jenson’s words settle in, leaving them staring down the tunnel.

J.P. Where does it go?

JENSON (O.C.) It goes down.

JUSTINE Then so do we.

They begin making their way down, Justine helping J.P. along. It’s still cold enough to see their breath in the air. After a few dozen yards, the tunnel opens up into an impressively large chamber.

67 INT. CHAMBER 1 - CONTINUOUS 67

A round and cavernous chamber that looks like part of a naturally occurring cave, except for the large metal door sealing off a passage against the far wall.

There is a large, curved desk in the center of this chamber, and some long tables against the outer wall with antiquated equipment on them - bulky microscopes, a metabulator, several old Geiger counters, test tubes and burners. At the end of one are stacked several empty, lead-shielded crates.

JUSTINE What is this place?

Jenson indicates the strange tools, coils, and other rusted- out equipment on the tables surrounding them.

JENSON (O.C.) A lab, I think.

The camera settles on an abacas on the desk in front of them.

JENSON (O.C.) (CONT'D) At least, it was.

Justine leans J.P. against the wall, and he slides down to the ground. She pulls his hand away from the bullet wound-

(CONTINUED) 85. 67 CONTINUED: 67

JUSTINE Let me see.

There’s a lot of blood, but it looks like it went straight through the meat at the top of the shoulder. She turns to Jenson.

JUSTINE (CONT'D) Give me your jacket.

Jenson sheds it, and hands it to her. She rips out the lining, rolls it into a bandage, and ties it around the wound.

Jenson makes his way back to the desk, and stops when he sees a LEDGER containing about a hundred pages. He opens the cover, and sees on the first page what looks like a form. Boxes are filled out along the left side, all of it in Russian.

In the upper right hand corner is a picture of a healthy young MAN in his twenties, the collar of a military uniform just visible. Stamped across the photo is a single word in faded red ink:

‘YMEPWNN’.

He turns the page, and finds a similar form and picture, with the same word stamped across it. Each page is the same, except for the picture.

JUSTINE (CONT’D) What is it?

JENSON (O.C.) I’m not sure. Some kind of... log book, or something.

Justine joins him at the desk, stops him from flipping the pages by putting her hand on the photo.

JUSTINE I know that word.

JENSON (O.C.) You do?

JUSTINE Yeah. I saw it lots of times when I was researching this.

(CONTINUED) 86. 67 CONTINUED: (2) 67

JENSON (O.C.) What does it mean?

JUSTINE ‘Deceased’.

JENSON (O.C.) Beautiful. I guess ‘Lived Happily Ever After’ would be too much to ask. Can you read anything else?

She points to some other characters.

JUSTINE These are dates.

She flips to the first page -

JUSTINE (CONT'D) 1942.

Then to the last.

JUSTINE (CONT'D) 1959. The same year the hikers were killed.

Justine puts the log book down, and opens a dusty FILE FOLDER next to it on the desk. Inside are large PHOTOGRAPHS of a U.S. Navy destroyer escort - the USS ELDRIDGE. She starts to close it when Jenson stops her-

JENSON (O.C.) Whoa.

JUSTINE What? It's a boat.

JENSON (O.C.) It's the Eldridge.

Justine gives him a blank stare.

JENSON (O.C.) (CONT'D) The USS Eldridge? The Philadelphia experiment?

He pans to J.P. and finds the same blank stare.

(CONTINUED) 87. 67 CONTINUED: (3) 67

JENSON (O.C.) (CONT'D) Have you two been under a rock? In 1943, the U.S. government conducted an experiment on this ship-

He holds up the photo for them to see... and freezes at the photo below it. Justine gasps.

The image is of a U.S. sailor with his arm FUSED TO A BULKHEAD AT THE ELBOW. His mouth is open in a frozen SCREAM. Justine flips to the next photo, revealing his forearm and hand emerging from the other side, threads of steal reaching down his arm.

JUSTINE What kind of experiment?

JENSON (O.C.) Guess.

J.P. Teleportation.

JENSON (O.C.) Tell him what he's won, Johnny.

JUSTINE We need to get the fuck out of here.

They cross back to J.P., slumped against the wall.

JUSTINE (CONT'D) Can you move?

He shakes his head.

JUSTINE (CONT'D) We're not leaving you.

J.P. Find a way out.

JUSTINE When we do, we're coming back and I'm dragging you out myself.

J.P. manages a weak smile.

(CONTINUED) 88. 67 CONTINUED: (4) 67

J.P. You got it.

JENSON (O.C.) C’mon.

They cross to the door opposite the tunnel they came in. It’s solid steel, like the main door, and also locks from the outside. Justine turns it, and the lock slides out with a metallic clink that echoes across the chamber.

Justine looks back at the camera, over at J.P., then pulls the door open. Immediately, they both step back and cover their noses, as some unholy scent pours out of the long- sealed room.

JENSON (O.C.) (CONT'D) Jesus H. Christ...

68 INT. TUNNEL - CONTINUOUS 68

Another tunnel, similarly lit, leading deeper still into the mountain.

They start down the tunnel. Jenson examines the walls.

JENSON (O.C.) It looks like a naturally formed cave, you know? I don’t think they tunneled this out. Maybe widened it a little, or something, but that chamber back there was definitely already there.

JUSTINE So you’re a spelunker now?

JENSON (O.C.) I’ll have you know I did some caving at a Quaker camp.

JUSTINE Quaker camp?

JENSON (O.C.) Not now, Justine.

The tunnel widens into a small chamber, with three doors on the right of the chamber. Ahead, the tunnel continues. Justine stops, looking at the three doors.

(CONTINUED) 89. 68 CONTINUED: 68

JUSTINE Door number one, door number two, or door number three?

JENSON (O.C.) Whichever one is not certain death.

She approaches the first door on the left, but stops when she can make out what is clearly a DANGER: RADIATION sign.

JUSTINE So... not this one.

JENSON (O.C.) I bet it’s some kind of nuclear power cell. That’s how it still has electricity.

Justine runs her hand over the universal radiation symbol.

JUSTINE Alexander was here. This is where he picked up the radiation.

JENSON (O.C.) Well that’s one mystery solved. Can we move on to door number two, please?

They make their way over to Chamber 2. Again, Justine pulls open the door.

69 INT. CHAMBER 2 - CONTINUOUS 69

The room on the other side is small, plain, and sterile, except for a pile of BONES, some still with scraps of blackened flesh clinging to them, on one side of the room.

On top of them is a much fresher CORPSE. A MAN in a heavy coat, missing huge chunks of flesh all over his body. Like something’s been gnawing on him. Justine steps cautiously inside, followed by Jenson. Justine kneels next to the bones, examining the mutilated body on top.

JUSTINE I told you someone had been here recently.

JENSON (O.C.) Who is he?

(CONTINUED) 90. 69 CONTINUED: 69

JUSTINE If you were thinking about killing some Americans to keep a secret that’s been buried for fifty years, wouldn’t you send somebody to make sure there was still a secret to keep?

She reaches out and starts to touch the man’s jaw.

JENSON (O.C.) What are you doing?

JUSTINE Checking something.

She gently pulls down on the jaw, opening the mouth. Inside is a BLOODY STUMP where his tongue should be. They both LEAP BACK, away from the body.

JENSON (O.C.) Oh shit.

JUSTINE The thing we found in the shack...

JENSON (O.C.) It was his tongue?

Justine nods.

JENSON (O.C.) (CONT'D) Well how the hell did it get there?

JUSTINE He must have let something out.

A glint of light catches Jenson’s attention, and from under the bones he removes a metal TAG on a chain.

JUSTINE (CONT'D) Let me see that.

She takes it from him, and runs her fingers over the raised letters.

JUSTINE (CONT'D) It’s one of the soldiers from the book out there.

(CONTINUED) 91. 69 CONTINUED: (2) 69

Justine’s attention shifts to the bones. There’s something... wrong about them. Jenson’s camera follows her movements.

Their MOUTHS are unnaturally wide, and the remaining TEETH are longer, and sharpened to fine points. The hands and feet are longer, too, and some have the remains of what were once TALONS.

JENSON (O.C.) Those don’t look right.

JUSTINE Maybe this is what he let out.

They both JUMP at a rattling clank of metal on metal from the next chamber, causing both of them to freeze.

JENSON (O.C.) What the fuck was that?

Justine looks at him, scared as hell, but exits the chamber to find out.

70 INT. TUNNEL - CONTINUOUS 70

The door to the third chamber in the alcove is OPEN SLIGHTLY when they get to it. She looks at Jenson for reassurance, but doesn’t get it. Then she pulls it the rest of the way open.

71 INT. CHAMBER 3 - CONTINUOUS 71

The slightly larger room is dominated by what looks like an operating table BOLTED to the floor in the middle, except that there are RESTRAINTS that go across the body, and manacles for hands, feet, and neck.

Next to it is a tray of autopsy instruments, each coated with the dark maroon of aged blood. At the far end of the room, two thick metal chains with what look like large MEAT HOOKS at the end, are suspended from the ceiling.

FRESH BLOOD drips from the ends of both hooks, which are swaying back and forth, banging into each other and creating the metallic clink that drew them to the room.

Justine goes over to the hooks, touching one to stop them from clanking into one another. She examines the blood dripping from the hooks, and the small puddle it’s collected into below them.

(CONTINUED) 92. 71 CONTINUED: 71

Jenson examines the rest of the room, and freezes when he sees a CAMERA JUST LIKE THE ONE HE’S HOLDING, SITTING NEXT TO THE INSTRUMENTS.

JENSON (O.C.) What the hell?

He picks it up and shows it to Justine.

JUSTINE Let me see that.

She takes it from him, and opens the view finder. She turns it on, and after a second a red battery outline with a line through it flashes in the corner.

JENSON (O.C.) The battery’s almost dead. See what’s on it.

She switches it to ‘play’ mode. Immediately on screen, they see the ORDERLY FROM THE HOSPITAL SHOVING THEM ONTO THE SIDEWALK.

ON CAMERA:

ORDERLY No... turn that off - no recording.

JUSTINE (O.C.) I just want to get you saying that on camera.

Justine’s jaw drops, as Jenson films the view finder from over her shoulder.

JUSTINE (CONT'D) I don’t... how-

JENSON (O.C.) Quick - fast forward before the battery dies!

She does. It quickly speeds through EVERYTHING THAT’S BEEN RECORDED ON THE CAMERA JENSON IS HOLDING IN HIS HANDS.

JENSON (O.C.) (CONT'D) Stop!

(CONTINUED) 93. 71 CONTINUED: (2) 71

She lets go of the button, and the image on the tiny viewfinder screen is OVER JUSTINE’S SHOULDER, LOOKING DOWN ON VIDEO OF THEM LOOKING AT VIDEO OF THEM LOOKING AT VIDEO OF THEM....

On into infinity.

ON CAMERA:

JUSTINE I don’t... how-

JENSON (O.C.) Quick - fast forward before the battery dies!

Then the screen goes BLANK. The battery’s dead.

JUSTINE That’s impossible.

JENSON (O.C.) Maybe not. The Eldridge, in the Philadelphia experiment... it's supposed to have teleported from Philadelphia to Norfolk.

JUSTINE So?

JENSON (O.C.) It's supposed to have arrived in Norfolk ten minutes before it left Philadelphia.

JUSTINE Now you're telling me there's a goddamn time machine!

JENSON (O.C.) I'm telling you that no one - not our government, not our top scientists, and not theirs - understood what they were screwing with! All these experiments were abandoned! The crew of the Eldridge, the ones that weren't fused to the bulkhead, they went insane. Some of them even changed. (MORE)

(CONTINUED) 94. 71 CONTINUED: (3) 71 JENSON (O.C.) (CONT'D) Mutated. People were not meant to do these things-

He’s cut off by a piercing SHRIEK from chamber 1.

JUSTINE J.P.!

Instinctively, she grabs a BONE SAW from the tray of instruments and races out of the room, with Jenson right on her heels.

72 INT. CHAMBER 1 - CONTINUOUS 72

They race back into the main room, but only get a few steps before they FREEZE. J.P. is still in the same spot, his back against the wall.

But squatting next to him are two... FORMS. From the back, they appear to be human. Their skin is covered with the tattered remains of clothes. They have no hair on their heads, or anywhere else that they can see.

The violent sound of TEARING FLESH stops, as they seem to sense Justine and Jenson. They turn, and the camera catches only the gaping, unnaturally wide JAWS and sharp teeth before they RISE UP out of frame, spreading arms that end in fingers like talons, their toes more like claws and stretched out unnaturally long. A few whisps of hair cling to their otherwise bald heads. (THIS IS AS CLEAR AN IMAGE AS THE CAMERA CAPTURES OF THEM).

THEY ARE THE FORMS JENSON RECORDED EARLIER.

Behind them, J.P.’s body twitches, blood gushing from his mouth. THEY BIT OUT HIS TONGUE. A bizarre hiss echoes through the chamber.

JENSON (O.C.) (whispering) Demons...

The pair darts toward them with startling speed. Justine breaks for the open door to the tunnel they just came from, while Jenson, in his panic, runs the other direction, trips, and scurries around the semi-circular desk in the center of the room.

JUSTINE Jenson!

(CONTINUED) 95. 72 CONTINUED: 72

But from his vantage point under the desk, he can see that the demons are almost on top of her, and she has no choice but to slam the door closed. The two sets of feet pause outside the door for a moment, then turn and move toward the desk. Peeking between the desk’s legs, Jenson whimpers as they draw nearer, stopping on the other side of the desk from him.

They turn away from him ninety degrees. Then, there is another loud hiss, and the desk - which must weigh two or three hundred pounds, is FLIPPED INTO THE AIR like a playing card.

Jenson SCREAMS. The desk CRASHES to the ground on the other side of the chamber. Jenson scrambles away until his back is against the wall. He’s hyperventilating, terrified, as the two things close in on him.

One of them reaches out with bony fingers the length of table candles and grabs Jenson’s head. It LIFTS HIM OFF THE GROUND, and then it’s fingers sink beneath the skin on his head, suddenly intangible until they meet the thick skull. Then they become tangible again, and begin to squeeze. He cries out-

Suddenly, the door behind them is THROWN OPEN, and Justine comes running out, swinging one of the chains with the hook on the end.

The monster releases it’s grip on Jenson, who slides down the wall but shows no bleeding, no bruising, no injury at all where the thing had been crushing his skull.

The two monsters turn to face Justine. With a primal cry, she swings the hook at them- AND THEY DISAPPEAR. There is the faintest hint of black smoke left in their place, but thicker, somehow, than normal smoke. But it’s quickly dispersed when the hook passes through it, and clatters against the wall.

Justine whips around, searching the room, already getting the chain ready for another swing.

JUSTINE (CONT'D) Where’d they go?!

But Jenson doesn’t answer. For a second, she stares at him, too terrified to move.

(CONTINUED) 96. 72 CONTINUED: (2) 72

JUSTINE (CONT'D) Come on!

But Jenson still doesn’t move.

JENSON (O.C.) They came back for me.

She grabs him and drags him to his feet.

JUSTINE And they’re going to get you if you don’t get your shit together right now!

THE TWO MONSTERS APPEAR RIGHT NEXT TO THEM - one to Justine’s left, one to her right, each inches away from the two of them.

Hissssss...

Their gaping mouths LUNGE at her, but she still has her hands on Jenson’s shirt. She jerks her head back, avoiding the one on the left, and SLINGS Jenson around at the one to her right, knocking him into the thing and sending it careening toward the main door.

Jenson falls to the ground, and Justine deftly spins away from the other demon, fortunate to gain a few yards distance from it while only getting two talons drug across her face.

Blood seeps from the wounds, but she barely notices. Jenson gets to his feet, but dives away again when the one near the main door LUNGES AT HIM. He gets to his feet next to Justine. She spots the end of the chain near her feet, picks it up, and begins swinging it again.

JUSTINE (CONT'D) I’m gonna get them away from that door-

Her eyes flick to the tunnel running deeper into the mountain

JUSTINE (CONT'D) When I do, you run. Got it?

Jenson’s trembling hand makes the camera, turned on the slowly advancing things, shake. But he offers no answer.

(CONTINUED) 97. 72 CONTINUED: (3) 72

JUSTINE (CONT'D) Got it?!

JENSON (O.C.) Yeah.

WHOOSH! She hurls the chain at them. This time, instead of disappearing, the chain passes through them, again trailing a wisp of that heavy black smoke. Jenson breaks for the door.

The one closer to him breaks for him, but Justine yanks the chain back, and this time the hook catches it unaware. It swings a claw at his throat that misses by half-an-inch. The hook jerks through the thigh of the thing, and she’s able to pull it to the ground.

Then it pulls free, and the other one is almost on top of her. Jenson yanks the door’s lock, pulls it open, and turns to see the two things between him and Justine.

JENSON (O.C.) (CONT'D) Justine!

THE MORE FEMININE OF THEM TURNS TO FACE HIM, a strange expression on her face - recognition? - that fades when the other one follows suit.

In the split second that they’re distracted, Justine dives RIGHT BETWEEN THEM, sliding belly-first across the floor.

Jenson helps her up with one hand, and then they’re sprinting down the tunnel. As Jenson pumps his arms, the camera picks up the inverted image of the demons loping at them, closing the ground between them.

Jenson starts to turn when they reach the alcove they checked earlier, but Justine grabs his arm and pulls him-

JUSTINE No! Keep going!

Not far ahead, the tunnel DEAD ENDS at a final STEEL DOOR. Justine hits it first and pulls it open. Jenson is first in, and Justine leaps in after. But just as she’s pulling the door closed, Jenson catches a glimpse of them, in the tunnel. They’re not coming after them. They’re watching. SLAM! The door bangs closed. 98.

73 INT. CHAMBER 4 - CONTINUOUS 73

Though the door locks from the outside, there’s a handle inside to push it open. Justine wedges the hook through the curved handle, so that the end extends across the door frame, holding it closed.

The second she does, something YANKS on the door violently, shaking the foundation around it. They’re ready to grab the handle if the hook doesn’t hold, both terrified by the thunderous noise from the other side.

But it does hold. After a few seconds, the shaking stops. Justine and Jenson slump to the floor. Only then are they able to examine their surroundings.

The room is about the same size as chamber 2, but the back wall has been dug out from the interior of the mountain, so that it recesses back three feet.

In the relief of that space is a stone FRAME, it's stone structure a different, darker color than the wall. It has an oval shape, coming to a sharp point at the top, and running through it are raised VAINS, like those that might run through a leaf, giving it the unsettling appearance of being ORGANIC, somehow. Etched around them are strange markings.

There’s nothing else in the room.

JUSTINE What the hell is that?

JENSON (O.C.) I don’t know.

They sit in silence for a moment, staring at the strange thing in front of them. After a few seconds, they hear something on the other side of the door behind them.

Scratch... scratch... scratch...

They both jump away from the door.

Scratch... scratch... scratch...

JUSTINE What are they doing?

JENSON (O.C.) They're waiting for us.

(CONTINUED) 99. 73 CONTINUED: 73

JUSTINE J.P... We have to go back for him!

JENSON (O.C.) We can't. If we open that door...

Scratch... scratch... scratch...

JUSTINE But he could still be alive!

JENSON (O.C.) You saw what they did to him.

JUSTINE But-

JENSON (O.C.) If we open that door, they'll do the same thing to us. We're trapped. And they know it.

Justine balls up her fists, tears welling up in her eyes. She scoops up a stone fragment from the ground.

JUSTINE Fuck!

She hurls it against the wall.

Or at least, she tries to. The fragment bounces once off of the ground, and through the center of the stone frame. It should clatter against the stone wall two feet behind it and either bounce off or shatter with the force Justine put into the throw.

But it doesn’t. Instead, it just DISAPPEARS.

JENSON (O.C.) Did you see that?

Justine nods absently.

JUSTINE Yeah.

JENSON (O.C.) Do it again.

(CONTINUED) 100. 73 CONTINUED: (2) 73

She picks up another rock, and throws it through frame, higher, this time, so that it should pass straight through, and smash into the back wall.

It doesn’t. It disappears again.

JUSTINE You recorded that, right?

JENSON (O.C.) Yeah.

JUSTINE Good.

They approach it slowly, cautiously run their fingers over the edge of it, tracing some of the veins and ancient runes lining the outside.

When they do, something inside the veins MOVES subtly. Like blood pumping through it. They both jerk their hands back as though it shocked them.

JENSON (O.C.) I knew it.

JUSTINE What?

JENSON (O.C.) Teleportation.

Justine is silent, waiting for him to elaborate. When he doesn’t-

JUSTINE Jenson! Elaborate, please.

JENSON (O.C.) Right. Um... okay. The way those things disappeared. Became intangible. They can teleport.

He glances back at the door.

JENSON (O.C.) (CONT'D) But not through the doors in here.

(CONTINUED) 101. 73 CONTINUED: (3) 73

JUSTINE That’s why they all lock from the outside.

JENSON (O.C.) Exactly. There’s obviously a connection between those... things, and this.

Justine studies the markings on the left side. Some of them are clearly people, holding what look like spears. On the right side of the frame, she finds more pictograms, but these are twisted; hands and feet elongated, claws and talons... the MONSTERS.

JUSTINE They came from here. They came through this.

Jenson runs his fingers along the same figures etched in the stone.

JENSON (O.C.) Yeah... that makes sense. It’s like a wormhole. A teleporter.

JUSTINE But... where did it come from?

Jenson turns from the runes to her.

JENSON (O.C.) The Mansi. The natives. Alya said they’d been here for thousands of years. I don’t have the foggiest fucking clue how it works, but I’d bet my nuts that these markings are theirs.

JUSTINE They built a teleport...er.

JENSON (O.C.) I don’t know, maybe. Hell, maybe they just found it in this cave and decorated it. It could be some kind of alien technology, left here for us to find. Like in 2001.

(CONTINUED) 102. 73 CONTINUED: (4) 73

He pans up to the ceiling, and around the structure of the room.

JENSON (O.C.) (CONT'D) The Russkies found it, tried to figure out how it worked. Weaponize it. We caught wind of it, scrambled to put together our own program, and ended up with sailors fused to the Eldridge.

The persistent hum of the power source further up the tunnel suddenly dwindles, then dies. THE LIGHTS GO OUT. Justine utters a CRY and stumbles back into the wall. Jenson does the same.

JUSTINE Goddamnit! What are they doing?

They both freeze, not moving, waiting for something to happen. Nothing does. Jenson switches the camera to night vision mode.

JUSTINE (CONT'D) We have to use it.

JENSON (O.C.) What?

JUSTINE There's no other way out!

JENSON (O.C.) Look, I was trying to explain this to you before. Teleporting isn’t like on Star Trek. If that thing really works... it must operate inter-dimensionally, somehow.

JUSTINE What does that even mean?

JENSON (O.C.) I don’t know! That’s the point! Our brains can’t even comprehend it. Even if we survive the trip, who the hell knows where it’ll take us. We could wind up on Mars, or Neptune, or God knows where.

(CONTINUED) 103. 73 CONTINUED: (5) 73

Justine’s eyes are beginning to well with tears.

JUSTINE So what? We just sit here?

JENSON (O.C.) We think of something else.

Sobs wrack Justine's body. Jenson sets the camera down and finds his way over to her, and although she initially jerks away from him when he touches her, she eventually wraps her arms around him and clutches him.

JUSTINE It happened.

JENSON (O.C.) What?

JUSTINE I opened the door... and the darkness swallowed me...

JENSON (O.C.) That was just a dream.

JUSTINE We're never going to get out of here.

Jenson reaches for the camera, pulling it over to him to turn it off-

Scratch... scratch... scratch...

74 BLACK SCREEN. 74

75 INT. CHAMBER 4 - NIGHT 75

The room is still dark when the night vision clicks on, exposing the room in green contours.

Jenson is sitting with his back against one wall, facing Justine, who has hers against the opposite wall. Her knees are pulled tight to her chest, arms wrapped around them, rocking back and forth to some music that only she can hear. Her lips are cracked and bleeding from dehydration.

Scratch... scratch... scratch...

(CONTINUED) 104. 75 CONTINUED: 75

Justine EXPLODES from her coiled position, hurling herself at the door, still locked by the hook digging into the foundation surrounding it.

JUSTINE Leave us ALONE!

Scratch... scratch... scratch...

She bangs a fist on the door, but senses the futility before it hits. Her arm falls back to her side, and she slowly slithers back to the same spot, pulls up her knees, and begins rocking again.

JUSTINE (CONT'D) Is the camera on? I can see the light.

JENSON (O.C.) Yeah.

JUSTINE Why?

JENSON (O.C.) I have an idea.

JUSTINE Not tic-tac-toe again, Jenson. We’re just killing the battery.

JENSON (O.C.) No. The gate.

JUSTINE What about... ripping holes in the space-time continuum, and obliterating our puny human brains?

JENSON (O.C.) That’s my idea. See, there’s no buttons. No controls. Which means it either goes to one fixed location... or it goes anywhere.

JUSTINE Anywhere?

(CONTINUED) 105. 75 CONTINUED: (2) 75

JENSON (O.C.) That’s the only thing I can think of. What if you just think about where you want to go, hold it in your mind, concentrate on it, and that’s where it takes you?

JUSTINE Just think, 'there's no place like home'? That easy?

JENSON That easy.

JUSTINE Alright, I’m sold. What do we do?

Jenson crosses to her and helps her to her feet.

JENSON (O.C.) Well, I’m doing a lot of guessing here. But I feel like it should be someplace we can picture very clearly. And not too far away. Something that’s fresh in our minds.

JUSTINE Outside. The mountain.

JENSON (O.C.) You mean, just the other side of the door?

JUSTINE Why not? It’s certainly the freshest thing in our minds.

He considers this a second.

JENSON (O.C.) Okay.

They turn to face the rectangular gate. Jenson holds the camera out so she can see it too. Their breathing gets louder.

JENSON (O.C.) (CONT'D) I’m scared.

(CONTINUED) 106. 75 CONTINUED: (3) 75

JUSTINE "Everything is all right, and everybody has to do exactly what he does."

They take a step toward it.

JENSON (O.C.) What's that from?

JUSTINE Slaughterhouse 5.

They clasp hands, and step through the gate.

76 BLACK SCREEN. 76

77 EXT. KHOLAT-SYAKHL - AFTERNOON 77

SUDDENLY, the camera is in the snow, somewhere outside the lab, at the edge of Jenson’s fingertips, facing his feet, so that only his torso and lower body are visible. He’s lying face down in the snow.

Past him, Justine is also lying face down in the snow, most of her obscured by Jenson’s form in the foreground. Both are perfectly still. The red ‘battery low’ sign is flashing in the upper right corner.

The sun is out, glinting off the snow. The camera sits, just like this, for several seconds, before finally, the distant crunch of boots on snow is heard. A young woman crosses into frame, a dozen yards away. A young ALYA. She freezes when she sees the bodies, for a moment unsure what to do. Than she calls -

ALYA Vallik!

She doesn’t move while a young, bearded man runs over to her. She points to the bodies, and he, too, stops and stares at them for a moment.

When Vallik speaks, it is in Russian.

VALLIK (subtitled) But we found all the hikers already. Who are they?

(CONTINUED) 107. 77 CONTINUED: 77

Alya shakes her head, and starts toward them.

Suddenly, TWO SOLDIERS come rushing toward them, rifles at the ready.

SOLDIER 1 (subtitled) Step back!

ALYA (subtitled) But...

SOLDIER 2 (subtitled) You heard him! Get back!

Vallik takes a step forward.

VALLIK (subtitled) Listen, we're just trying to help. There's no need-

A third, higher ranking OFFICER strolls over to them and motions for the soldiers to lower the rifles.

OFFICER (subtitled) It's alright. The government is placing this area under quarantine until we can determine what's happened here. Please, return to town with the others.

He motions the soldiers to the bodies, and they quickly grab them and drag them away. Now, only Alya, Vallik, and the Officer are visible.

Vallik starts to walk away, but Alya shouts-

ALYA (subtitled) What are you doing? How are you going to find out what happened if you're moving everything? You don't even know who they are!

Vallik stops and snaps at her.

(CONTINUED) 108. 77 CONTINUED: (2) 77

VALLIK (subtitled) Alya!

He takes her arm, and pulls her away.

OFFICER (subtitled) Listen to him, woman. He knows what's best for you. We have the situation under control.

The officer watches them disappear, then turns and walks the other way, toward the camera. He stops when he notices it, picks it up, and turns it over. He continues walking while examining it, unsure what to make of it. Within a few moments, he’s arrived at the door to the lab, and he strolls inside without pausing.

78 INT. CHAMBER 1 - CONTINUOUS 78

Inside, the main chamber appears much as it did when Justine, Jenson, and J.P. found it - desk in place, abacas in the same spot. But much of the equipment that was piled on the tables is set up, and everything appears to be in active use.

The officer finds the two soldiers carrying the bodies down across the chamber and into the tunnel on the other end.

OFFICER (subtitled) Put them with the others.

79 INT. TUNNEL - CONTINUOUS 79

They arrive at the alcove, and the officer steps forward to open the door to Chamber 3. The two soldiers carry the bodies inside, and the officer follows.

80 INT. CHAMBER 3 80

The officer sets the camera down on the instrument tray, exactly where Justine and Jenson found it. Soldier 1 starts to throw one of the bodies on the pile, but the officer stops him.

OFFICER (subtitled) No, no. Dr. Ivanovich will want to look at these. Keep them separate.

(CONTINUED) 109. 80 CONTINUED: 80

SOLDIER 1 Why? They're just the same as the others.

The officer stifles this insubordination with a threatening look.

The two soldiers hoist one of the bodies up, onto one of the hooks in the ceiling. From the clothes, we can tell that it is JENSON. But he’s lost all of his hair. His clothes are shredded. Shoes missing. The hook SINKS into his back, next to his spine, but if it causes him any pain, he makes no motion, hanging limply from it like a side of beef - toes like claws hanging two feet above the ground.

The soldiers grab the second body. JUSTINE. Also transformed. With a sick sound, the hook is driven into her body, leaving her suspended next to Jenson.

SOLDIER 2 (subtitled) Who the hell are they?

OFFICER (subtitled) Probably with the Dyatlov group, right?

SOLDIER 1 They opened the wrong door.

He looks at Justine, lifting her head and examining her face, then lets it fall limp again.

OFFICER (subtitled) Doesn't matter. Seal it up, and let's get the hell out of here.

The two soldiers quickly hustle out of the room, followed by the officer.

SOLDIER 1 (subtitled) I hate this place. Gives me the creeps.

The door CLANGS shut, followed by the sound of the lock twisting in place.

(CONTINUED) 110. 80 CONTINUED: (2) 80

The camera continues to roll, the dead battery sign flashing. After a moment, JUSTINE’S HEAD LIFTS UP VERY SLOWLY. Her eyes OPEN, and her lips peel back from teeth as sharp as spears into an unnaturally wide GRIN. The battery finally dies and the screen goes BLACK.

End