Stage Play / boom shaka laka

Blade: Trinity (2004)
by David S. Goyer.
More info about this movie on IMDb.com

Over darkness a WOMAN’S VOICE speaks to us.

                ABIGAIL (V.0.)
        Italo Calvino once said that myth is the
        hidden part of every story, the buried
        part, the region that is still unexplored
        because there are as yet no words to
        enable us to get there.
                (beat)
        But I was there for the end.  I took part
        in it.  And I think my words can help shed
        light on what happened.  My name is
        Abigail.  This is our story.

FADE IN:

EXT. IRAQI DESERT – DAWN

Harsh sunlight beats down over a bleak, unforgiving stretch of
rocky desert. Amidst this desolation rise the ruins of an
ancient Sumerian ziggurat, a massive stepped pyramid of mud
brick that was once the center of the city known as Ur.

SUPER TITLE: SOUTHEASTERN IRAQ, DHI QAR PROVINCE

SIX MONTHS AGO

AN EMACIATED SHEEP HERDER

kneels by the ziggurat, tending to a ragged band of sheep. He
is conducting the first of his daily prayers, listening to a
religious broadcast from Baghdad on a tinny RADIO.

Presently, we hear HELICOPTERS. The sheepherder looks up—

TWO ANERICAN RAH-66 COMANCHE HELICOPTERS

approach from the East. They touch down near the base of the
ziggurat, rotors stirring up clouds of dust.

FOUR FIGURES

disembark, their bodies covered in desert camo-gear. They
wear helmets with polarized face-plates and are armed to the
teeth. To the sheepherder they might as well be aliens.

One of the figures turns to the East. We can see the rising
sun reflected in the face-plate of his helmet—and a hint of
a skull-like under-mask/respirator beneath the face-plate. He
raises a gloved hand, gives the “finger” to the new day.

Another figure (a woman) waves a hand, urging them onward.
They mount the central steps of the ziggurat.

INT. ZIGGURAT – SHRINE – DAY

The shrine is empty. The woman activates a wearable computing
device, calling up a schematic of the ziggurat.

She kneels, studying the floor. In the corner of the room she
identifies a particular brick and presses it. We hear hidden
COUNTER-WEIGHTS shifting and the floor opens up—

—revealing a stone stairway leading down.

INT. ZIGGURAT – STAIRWAY – DAY

Dark. Sepulchral. Spooky. The figures descend into—

INT. ZIGGURAT – BURIAL VAULT – DAY

—an empty room with an earthen floor. The sunlight from
above barely penetrates down here. One of the figures takes
out a battery--powered lantern, turning it on, illuminating --

—walls covered with CUNEIFORM WRITING. The male figure who
flipped off the sun speaks via radio headset.

                MALE FIGURE
        That’s great. We’ve got dick.
                (turning to the others)
        Is there any reason we had to embark on
        this cluster-fuck during the day?

The woman removes her helmet.  This is DANICA TALOS.  A
vampire.  Intense, appearing to be in her 30s.  Possessing a
regal air.  She wears a silver crucifix around her neck.

                DANICA
        Night-time’s too tricky, Grimwood. You
        know that.

One by one, the others remove their helmets. All vampires:

GRIMWOOD (30s), a hulking vampire with an imposing physique
and an even more imposing set of surgical steel teeth/fangs.

ASHER (4Os), a natural-born leader with easygoing charisma.

WOLFE (30s), quiet and deliberative. Right now he’s readying
a portable ground-penetrating radar unit.

Grimwood studies the writing on the walls.

GRIMWOOD
What is this chicken-scratch?

                DANICA
        Cuneiform. Dates back about four
        thousand years.

GRIMWOOD
So why here?

                DANICA
        Because this was the cradle of
        civilization.  He would’ve been
        comfortable here.

                ASHER
        I don’t know, Dan.  Seems like another
        dead-end.

WOLFE
I’m not so sure—

Wolfe looks at his unit, excited. The others gather round.

WOLFE
There’s something beneath us.

ON WOLFE’S RADAR UNIT

We see a cross-section image of the soil and subsurface
features beneath them. SOMETHING has been buried down there.

ASHER
Is that a body—?

Wolfe makes a few adjustments on the unit. The image resolves
further. It’s definitely a BODY. Then, we hear the low
RUMBLING of more hidden counter-weights and—

A SLAB OF STONE

slides down from above the stairs, sealing off the vault.

GRIMWOOD
What the fuck—?!

Grimwood pounds his fist against the stone. It’s solid. He
tries to find a hand-hold, tries to shoulder it open in some
way, but the barrier is unmovable. They’re trapped.

                ASHER
        Radio back-up.  See if they can open it
        from the other—

WOLFE (0.S.)
Guys?

Wolfe points at the ground. A tiny depression has formed,
with sand funneling into it.

Wolfe sets his radar unit down and kneels before the hole.
The grains of sand are falling faster now, the depression
gradually widening. Curious, Wolfe leans closer—

A CLAWED, ARMORED HAND

suddenly EXPLODES upward from the ground. It latches onto
Wolfe’s neck. dragging him down head-first!

Wolfe THRASHES, his head still buried beneath the sand. He
knocks over the lantern, which FLICKERS, shorting out.

Asher rushes to Wolfe’s side. Then Grimwood. They grab Wolfe
by the shoulders, SCREAMING, trying to pull him back.

Asher is KICKED by Wolfe’s thrashing legs. He flies upward,
hits the ceiling, falls back onto the ground, stunned—

Danica joins Grimwood. Abruptly, they wrest Wolfe free—
headless. BLOOD erupts from the sand. Then—

A HELLISH CREATURE

unearths itself, ROARING.  It’s difficult to make out in the
flickering light.  But what we do see is terrifying.  Spiked,
demonic armor, clutching a sword.  An elongated, helmeted face
with a blood-splattered set of hinged fangs—hinting at an
inhuman physiognomy within.  The hinged jaws open, coming at
us.  And just as the lantern goes out for good we—

SUPER TITLE: BLADE III

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