AFTER EARTH Story by Will Smith Written by M. Night Shyamalan and Gary Whitta Revision by Stephen Gaghan 10/26/11 Revision by M. Night Shyamalan 12/6/11 Revision by Stephen Gaghan 1/20/12 Shooting Script – 12/6/11 CONFIDENTIALSENDER Blue: China Revisions Smith (on White) – 1/20/12 Pink Revisions - 1/26/12 READER : AndrewYellow Revisions Dodge - 3/2/12 Green Revisions - 3/19/12 Goldenrod Revisions - 4/2/12 Buff Revisions - 4/10/12 Salmon Revisions - 5/9/12 1 INT. OLD RAIGE APARTMENT - DAY 1 THE SOUND OF THE AIR RAID ALARM IS REVERBERATING THROUGH THE AIR. NINE-YEAR-OLD KITAI has stopped playing in his room. He moves the hair from his eyes. He looks out and sees the walkway outside. This is an apartment only two floors from the ground. He sees his sister SENSHI, 19, running along the walkway - moving people hurriedly. Nine-year-old Kitai sits frightened. Senshi returns to the apartment. She is a young Ranger. She is in uniform, holding a cutlass. She looks to her little brother. * SENSHI Kit, we have to go. Right now. SUDDENLY THERE IS A LOUD TERRIFYING SCREECHING SOUND - A CREATURE SOUND. Nine-year-old Kitai covers his ears. KITAI Is that..? SENSHI They surprised us. Sent ships. Dropped those things. You’re not afraid, are you? KITAI No... Yes. ANOTHER SHRIEK. CLOSER. No way he’s not afraid of that sound. SENSHI Kit, get under the bed. Nine-year-old Kitai does as his sister says. Senshi’s eyes search her little brother’s room. She sees a rectangular glass box with plants in it. It is covered. She finds a remote on the table. She presses a button. The lid opens and closes.CONFIDENTIAL SENDER : China Smith Senshi straps her cutlass expertly to her back. It magnetically sticks. She pulls all the plants out of the glass case. She pulls the case across the floor and turns it on its side. She shovesREADER it under : the Andrew bed with Kitai. Dodge SENSHI Climb in here, okay? It won’t be able to smell you. Nine-year-old Kitai does as he’s told. She hands him the remote. She hands him an extra cutlass from her bag. AFTER EARTH Revised Yellow 2/24/12 2. Senshi grabs her little brother’s face. Her beautiful eyes are emotional and dead serious. SENSHI Don’t come out. No matter what. That’s an order. Nine-year-old Kitai nods, eyes filling with water. KITAI Sens-- ANOTHER SCREECH, THIS TIME MUCH CLOSER. Senshi hits the remote in Kitai’s hands. The glass box closes. Nine-year-old Kitai watches his sister stand. She pulls the cutlass from her back. Her fingers tap a pattern on the cutlass’s handle that reads, “Cutlass C-6.” The cutlass’s * thousands of steel-like fibers extend on either side into razor-sharp points. The cutlass is now six feet long. THERE IS A SHADOW THAT PASSES OVER THE OTHER ROOM OF THE APARTMENT. Senshi moves into the other room. She spins the cutlass in her hand. Senshi is partially obscured by our view from under the bed. WE SEE THE CREATURE ENTER OFF THE WALKWAY. We just get a glimpse of its enormous, six-legged body as it enters the apartment. We get a glimpse of Senshi nervously moving around in the room, staring at it. Senshi moves forward bravely. Tries to strike it. Furniture gets thrown in the room. Senshi expertly wields her cutlass. She gets hidden momentarily from our view through the doorway. WE SEE THE CREATURE’S ARM REACH OUT. Senshi parkoursCONFIDENTIAL off SENDERthe corner of the: China room away Smith from it. And then we see Senshi get struck. Nine-year-old Kitai’sREADER face contorts : Andrew in terror. Dodge Senshi is thrown across the room. Senshi is dazed. She tries to stand. She screams as the creature descends on her. She is obscured from sight by its huge body. Kitai taps a pattern on the handle of the cutlass in his hands. It extends, razor-sharp at the ends. AFTER EARTH Revised Yellow 2/24/12 3. He is terrified as he clutches the weapon. He doesn’t move from his hiding place. Tears stream down Kitai’s face. The creature POUNCES AGAIN, then it’s on her, and Kitai hears her VOICE, no longer a Ranger, but a girl -- SENSHI (O.S.) Dad... When the creature moves, we see Senshi’s bloodied, still body in the corner of the room. There is the movement of people outside on the walkway. The creature strangely grabs Senshi’s lifeless body and holds it up against the window of the apartment. We hear the group outside the apartment start screaming in terror. The creature looks around and moves after the people outside. Nine-year-old Kitai stares at the body of his sister. Her mangled face stares back at him. MATCH TO: 2 INT. KITAI’S BEDROOM - DAWN 2 A futuristic alarm goes off. KITAI RAIGE groggily gets up. He is fourteen years old now. Small for his age. He rubs his hands over his buzzed short hair. It is still dark outside. He looks at a holographic picture on his desk. It is a family picture. A nine-year-old Kitai, his father, mother, and the fifteen-year-old Senshi. Kitai gets up. He touches his hand to the figure of Senshi. His fingers goSENDER a little through : China the hologram. Smith KitaiCONFIDENTIAL starts putting on some kind of futuristic fatigues. It is just becoming light outside the windows. READER : Andrew DodgeCUT TO: 3 EXT. PLANET - DAY 3 Thirty sets of legs SPRINTING through the gorgeous red and sandstone terrain. A junior military unit - THE RANGER * CADETS - Thirty-two teenage boys, in four teams of eight, all dressed identically. AFTER EARTH Revised Salmon 5/9/12 4. REVEAL: Kitai strides ruggedly at the center of the pack, SMALLER THAN THE OTHERS. For their every one stride, Kitai * has to take two. He’s nearly SPRINTING, just to pace. * A huge river cuts through a stunning red mountain range. Immediately we notice something strange. There is - A LARGE PLANET NEARBY and a larger sun eating away at a smaller sun. Superimpose: NOVA PRIME: Human Settlement YEAR: 1000 A.E. We push in close on Kitai running at full gait. SWEATING. KITAI (V.O.) There were twelve billion people living on Earth on October 23rd, 2071 - the day Mother Earth turned against us. SMASH CUT TO: 4 ARCHIVE FOOTAGE. 4 Screams. Panic in the streets. EARTH: 2071 The archive footage is from varying sources. Newsreel, security cameras, amateur cell-phone video as the world's major cities are rocked by: MASSIVE EARTHQUAKES - TSUNAMIS - FIRE - VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS. KITAI (V.O.) Sudden and drastic changes in the atmosphere, the water table, and food supply. All becoming lethally toxic.SENDER Rendering the: China planet Smith CONFIDENTIALuninhabitable. Billions perished in the following months. And, by 2077, * Earth’s human population was zero. * A third-world villageREADER - toxic river : Andrew - cattle, hippos, Dodge and other lifeless creatures float ominously downstream. A hazmat team stands on the river's edge. CUT TO: AFTER EARTH Revised Goldenrod 4/2/12 4A. 5 EXT. NOVA PRIME - DAY 5 KITAI RUNNING. He must finish first. His size, his family history. Second place feels like death. He’s that determined. CONFIDENTIALSENDER : China Smith READER : Andrew Dodge AFTER EARTH Revised Salmon 5/9/12 5-5A. The company runs past a GROWING STATION -- a huge, open- fabric structure that shields crops. Kitai pushes through the crowd, BUMPING his way up, nearing the leader - BO - a sixteen-year-old, freakishly perfect physical specimen. Despite Kitai’s lack of size and strength, he muscles to the * front. Bo sidles up beside him, all seriousness-- BO This isn’t a race, Cadet! * But Kitai isn’t listening -- he’s only SPEEDING UP, leaving the company behind, sprinting for a finish line that isn’t there, in fifth gear when everyone else is in second -- CUT TO: 6 ARCHIVE FOOTAGE: ECU THROUGH THE LENS OF A MICROSCOPE - 6 Poisoned water. Bacteria multiplying. Russian citizens choke on the air in a rural town. Cars jammed on the 405 FREEWAY. * Humans flee in terror as ACID RAIN blisters their skin. * KITAI (V.O.) * The founding of the United Ranger * Corps, one thousand years ago, was * a global military effort - an * evacuation of Earth. * CUT TO: 7 ARCHIVE FOOTAGE: Members of a multi-national force being led 7 up ramps into the bellies of MASSIVE, ARK-STYLE SPACESHIPS assembled on an airfield at an Antarctic military base. KITAI (V.O.) The world's greatest minds united with the single mission... preserve humanity. CONFIDENTIALSENDER : China Smith CUT TO: 8 OMIT 8 READER : Andrew Dodge 8A OMIT 8A* AFTER EARTH Revised Salmon 5/9/12 6. 9 OMIT 9* 10 INT. TESTING BOOTH - MORNING 10 THE TESTING BOOTH RESEMBLES AN OLD-SCHOOL PICTURE BOOTH. THIS IS FUTURISTIC TEST TAKING. A supersized, picture-booth-like environment. Kitai sits responding to computer-generated questions presented in front of him in HOLOGRAPHIC form. We realize this is from where Kitai has been speaking. KITAI (V.O.) The expedition took more than one hundred Earth years. CONFIDENTIALSENDER : China Smith READER : Andrew Dodge AFTER EARTH Revised Salmon 5/9/12 7. 11 ARCHIVE FOOTAGE: An older Asian woman shoots video from a 11* spacecraft's window. We see that familiar blue-green marble * as we look back on Earth from space. * KITAI (V.O.) The Rangers would lead the settlement of mankind's new home..