As Above So Below
AS ABOVE, SO BELOW Written by John Erick Dowdle Drew Dowdle Feb. 15, 2013 INT. IRANIAN BUS - AFTERNOON Camera powers up, jostles around until it settles on -- The floor of a third world bus. Middle Eastern legs, traditional Arabian dresses to the floor, homemade bags, animals everywhere. A chaotic scene with men, women, children all shouting in Farsi. Brief glimpses of a mountainous landscape through the shaky windows. This bus could really use some new shocks and a better muffler. The camera rises, turns around revealing its operator, a WOMAN wearing a hajib (a traditional Arabian headdress). She slumps low in her seat for privacy, looks around cautiously, and carefully lowers her veil revealing -- SCARLETT DURANG, mid 20s, an adventurous British archaeologist. The kind of cat that gets killed by curiosity. Her off-the-charts intellect and multiple post-grad degrees are barely concealed by her striking good looks and punk rock inclinations. Judging from the cloth that edges frame, she is obviously shooting with a small camera attached to her hajib. She whispers to the camera - alert, but not scared. SCARLETT I’m approximately 20 miles inside the Iranian border en route to the Habala region where they have ordered the destruction of a network of caves at sundown tonight. I believe these caves might contain a critical missing piece of our history. A piece I can’t let them destroy. She turns the camera back around, then pauses and goes back to her face. SCARLETT (CONT’D) Oh, and if I’m found dead, please know I entered the country of my own free will, fully knowing the penalty for trespassing here is burial up to your neck in sand and having a rock wall pushed on top of you.
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