Script Review
"The movie starts with a dream. A young
woman stares at a barren landscape. Something rumbles in the
distance, quietly at first then building to a deafening
intensity. As the source of the sound rushes to overtake her, she
awakes. Her name is Aki (Ming-na), and she has been having this
same dream over and over as she orbits the Earth in her space
shuttle. Though she does not know what it means, she believes she
can find the answer on the surface of the planet...but she must
save it first.
New York, Times Square. Aki searches amongst the rubble and trash
of what was once a great city. She carries a small scanner with
her, and appears to be scanning for something called "the
sixth spirit." As she focuses on her work, she is slowly
surrounded by "grossly asymmetric creatures, translucent,
with enormous brains and tentacle arms." These
ghost-creatures are the Phantoms, and they are not friendly.
Suddenly, a blinding light comes from above, and the troop
transport of the DEEP EYES begins unloading its soldiers. They
open fire on the Phantoms, vaporizing them in bursts of
electrical discharge. The Leader of the team attempts to get Aki
on the ship, but she looks at her scanner and runs away.
Searching through the ruined buildings, the DEEP EYES chase after
her. She insists that a life form exists in the city, and she
will not leave until it is found. And find it she does: a tiny
weed growing in a crack. As she transfers it to a container,
Phantoms begin to rise from the floor and pass through the walls
all around. The soldiers fire desperately, but there are just too
many Phantoms. Another blinding light streams down; the transport
has found them again. They quickly climb out of the ruins and
onto the transport, just before the phantoms get them.
On the transport, the DEEP EYES remove their helmets. Neil
(either Steve Buscemi or Ving Rhames) is a wise-cracker, never
takes anything seriously. Jane (Peri Gilpin) is a gung-ho soldier
who is a little defensive about her gender (think Vasquez in
Aliens). The third soldier is Ryan (either Buscemi or Rhames),
and is only slightly less sarcastic than Neil. The leader does
not remove his helmet at first, but when Aki confronts him, he
reveals himself to be Gray (Alec Baldwin). Aki obviously
recognizes him, and is rather shocked to see him.
At Barrier City (where an energy barrier keeps the phantoms out),
it is discovered during their entry security scan that Gray has
come in contact with a Phantom. That is all it takes to cause an
infestation: one touch and you're dead, as is everyone around
you. Gray is locked inside a quarantine tube as they pass into
the city, but his friends bust him out and Aki straps him to a
nearby operating table (they keep emercengy rooms by the security
checkpoint to try to save infested people as they come in). Gray
has less than 3 minutes to live as Aki starts burning out the
infestation with a laser. Gray barely makes it.
When the excitement calms down, the security tech trys to scan
Aki for infestation, she looks aprehensive about this, but Dr.
Sid (either James Woods or Donald Sutherland) arrives and clears
her through without a scan. They go to a lab where they take the
"spirit" from the plant and fuse it with five other
spirits. They display the energy pattern of the 6 spirits, and it
almost matches another display: the energy pattern of a Phantom
spirit. This pleases them very much, and as Aki leaves, Sid tells
her to stay away from Gray, lest the become romantically
involved. You get the impression that were involved once before.
Aki dreams again, and this time the rumbling is revealed as two
Phantom armies hurling themselves at each other.
Council Hall. Day. General Hein (either Woods or Sutherland) is
trying to convince the council to use the Zeus, an enormous space
energy-cannon, to blast the Phantoms at their source: a meteor
that crashed into the Earth in 2031. Sid stands and demostrates
how the Zeus will indeed wipe-out the Phantoms, but may also
destroy the Gaia, the Earth's spirit. The council laughs at the
idea of the Earth having a spirit. Sid ignores them and reveals
his plan: by gathering spirits from Earth creatures, he is
building an energy that is the exact opposite of the Phantom's
energy. This energy can be used to "cancel out" the
Phantoms. The council is skeptical, but Aki bursts out that she
has proof, that a terminally ill patient has been able to contain
the infection, though has not yet been cured. She then reveals
that her chest is encased in a metallic device. Turning on a
display, she reveals herself to be the terminally ill patient.
Her body is one giant infestation, but she is still alive due to
the energy produced by her mechanical chestplate. Gray, sitting
in the back of the room, shows no emotion.
Later that night, Aki continues her research from a gondola above
the barrier that covers New York. Gray shows up and decides to
tag along, but Aki ignores him. On the ground, Ryan and Niel try
to create a romantic mood by fiddling with some wires and
stranding Aki and Gray over the city. Gray brings up the past,
how Aki disappeared without even saying goodbye, and Aki tell him
about how she was infected, and about the spirits she's gathered.
Gray gets all romantic, and they have a touching moment that is
interrupted by the sudden re-starting of the gondola.
Hein summons Gray to his office, and assigns the DEEP EYES the
task of watching Aki for aberrant behavior. He worries that the
Phantoms are controlling her mind. Gray, ever the good soldier,
agrees.
Aki dreams of the battle again, but this time the battle suddenly
stops and all the aliens look towards her. She turns around and
screams. Awake, she decides that the infestation must be gaining
the upper hand.
Aki, the DEEP EYES, and several other soldiers fly over an old
battlefield where human kind once fought the Phantoms. The land
and quickly search for the 7th spirit, which they discover is
actually an energy pack on a dead soldier. They grab it and try
to leave, but the Phantoms have surrounded them. They run like
hell for the ship, and Aki passes out. As they try to take off
Neil realizes that the ship is being straddled by a giant
spider-like Phantom. He does some fancy flying all over the
battlefield (think: cool action sequence). Meanwhile, in the back
of the ship, the nameless soldiers turn on Gray and demand
custody of Aki. She's dreaming again, and this time she sees what
terrified her last time: a wall of fire sweeping over the alien
battlefield. She awakes with the scream, and a startled soldier
shoots her. The DEEP EYES attack, but a soldier recovers his gun.
Just then, Neil flies the ship through the leg of a giant
Phantom. The ghostly leg passes through the cabin and right
through the soldier, who immediately stiffens and dies.
Back in Barrier City, Sid and Gray work to fuse the 7th spirit
directly into Aki to keep her alive. Gray enters Aki's dream and
the two of them experience the final fate of the alien planet. As
the operation is finished, Hein's men storm the room and arrest
the DEEP EYES, Aki, and Sid. They have already destroyed Sid's
lab. Hein then shuts down a part of the barrier so the Phantoms
can invade some the city. He wants to pretend like the barrier
failed so the council will let him use Zeus. In prison, Aki
reveals what the meteor relly is, and what the Phantoms really
are. You'll all have to see the movie for that little secret!
Hein and his men watch as Phantoms invade one sector of the city.
But wait! The Phantoms are now spreading outside of that sector.
They're spreading everywhere! As they frantically search for an
answer, they all suddenly stop and look up...at the huge overhead
pipes running through all the buildings in the city. "