Nocturne

I wrote this script in an effort to give a different kind of face to the generic alien abduction/invasion story. It was, in large part, inspired by the song "Lion Tamer" from the musical "The Magic Show" by Stephen Schwartz.

NOCTURNE
by Kyle Patrick Johnson
Represented by:
Canton Literary Management (CLM)
Contact: Eric Canton
(866) 429-3118
ECanton@Prodigy.net
www.CantonLiteraryManagement.com
SOUND FADES IN:
A carousel and crowds. Children laugh.
WOMAN’S VOICE (V.O.)
You’ve never cared about me or
anybody else. It’s just you and
those damned ca--
Loud explosion.
Running. Agonized breaths.
LEO (V.O.)
Nocturne. Nocturne!
SOUND FADES OUT.
FADE IN:
INT. BUBBLE ROOM - NIGHT
At the bottom of the dark sphere sprawls LEO (50s), in a
shredded black tuxedo and top hat. Unconscious.
The walls glow red from nearby explosions.
INT. BUBBLE ROOM - DAY
The curved walls are milky white, semi-transparent. Outside
part of the room, water laps against the bubble’s equator.
Constant rumbling explosions shake the room.
Leo, terror-eyes, scrambles up the walls, slides back down.
He punches the wall, but it bows out around his hand like
spandex, snaps back into place, jams his wrist.
He winces in pain, shakes it off.
He slumps to the floor.
Leo looks inside the hat. A photo of a woman taped inside the
flat top. She has a beard.
His shoulders shake, he weeps inside.
He subsides, lays down hammock-like on the convex floor.
He blinks his eyes dry, whistles a broken classical tune.
An intense, low, menacing growl echoes throughout the room.
Leo freezes. His eyes dart to all sides.
He whistles the tune again.
Another growl.
Leo climbs to his feet, wary. He holds the hat in one hand
like a shield, the other fist pulled back. He revolves, ready
for anything, from anywhere.
But nothing happens. He’s alone.
Constant explosions.
A splash outside.
Leo dashes to the opaque wall, peers through it.
A body of a woman surfaces, face up. She has a beard.
Leo clutches his mouth, falls on all fours, vomits.
He rips at the wall like an animal, blurry pumping arms. The
wall tears into thin strips that heal instantly, too fast for
him to put his arm through.
A back-and-forth mosaic, the woman’s body vivid then cloudy.
Leo screams, an anguished primal yowl.
A long blue finger touches his back.
Leo whips around, ready for a fight, but not ready for...
An alien queen, KEHNIKKQ, tall, slender, blue-skinned, two
large blue eyes, two green eyes where her ears should be. A
regal red robe with a myriad of sequins flows to her feet.
Kehnikkq floats in the middle of the bubble, flanked by two
smaller blue ALIENS.
Kehnikkq points a long arm at Leo, touches his cheek.
Leo swats her hand away, snatches up his hat-shield.
Kehnikkq draws back, no expression. She brings her long
finger to her side, presses a sequin on her left hip.
A hiss of gas. Leo grabs at his throat, unable to breathe. He
drops to his knees, turns as blue as Kehnikkq herself.
Kehnikkq and Aliens float placidly above his struggling form.
2.
EXT. BUBBLE ROOM - DAY
A rush of gas out through the walls, a fine mist scatters in
all directions.
The room is just one of a massive honeycomb of bubble rooms.
The giant white vessel floats in New York Harbor.
The Statue of Liberty cut off at the knees.
Distant gray explosions rock the horizon, rubble of New York.
INT. BUBBLE ROOM - DAY
Leo’s eyeballs bulge out of his head, about to burst.
Kehnikkq takes her finger off the sequin. Gas rushes in.
Leo gasps, intakes a huge amount of air. He gulps the oxygen
with alien-forgetting delight, intent on the pleasure.
Kehnikkq touches a sequin on her right shoulder.
Leo rises off the floor like a marionette, propelled to face
her.
Kehnikkq touches more sequins, forces Leo to gaze into her
mesmerizing blue eyes.
LEO
Fuck you.
Leo tries to look away. He can’t.
Kehnikkq touches a large sequin over her abdomen.
Leo’s body, racked in agony. Red and white blood cells burst
out of his skin, suspended in mid-air.
Aliens lean towards the cells, study, examine.
Faraway explosion-clouds seen through the translucent walls.
Kehnikkq touches a sequin on her right arm.
Leo drops to the ground, falls hard. He can barely move, the
pain overwhelms him.
He struggles to contort his bruised face. His cheeks puff
out, every movement a study in torment.
He whistles the classical tune.
3.
A low growl echoes in the room.
Kehnikkq and Aliens don’t seem to notice.
Leo whistles once more, exhausted by the effort.
A loud growl, an enraged snarl.
An internal white wall indents, as though a large object was
hurled at it from beyond. The wall snaps back into place.
The growl takes on a life of its own.
Leo closes his eyes.
A huge slash appears in the wall behind Kehnikkq. And heals.
Kehnikkq and Aliens are absorbed by the red blood cells,
cannot hear, do not notice the theatrics behind them.
A sharp, curved claw pierces the wall. Another next to it.
The two claws draw apart as a large black head thrusts
through the wall between them, forces the hole wider.
A huge pure black jaguar with glowing yellow eyes.
The jaguar shoves its lithe bulk through the tight hole,
little by little.
Kehnikkq presses a sequin. The red blood falls to the ground,
spatters on Leo and the white floor.
She begins to turn around.
The jaguar is almost through, just hind legs to go.
Leo, in an agonizing motion, racked with pain, waves his arm.
Distracted, Kehnikkq turns back to Leo.
LEO
Can’t you hear this?
Leo whistles a new tune, more modern, harsh.
Kehnikkq makes no sign of recognition.
LEO
For Arturo the Knifeman... Fuzzer
the Clown... Bearded Lady...
Leo whistles, harsh, gives it everything he’s got. He points
at Kehnikkq.
4.
The jaguar gets all the way through, slides down the wall,
scrabbles for a foothold.
The jaguar pushes off the curved surface, launches towards
Kehnikkq from behind and the right, sharp white teeth gleam.
An inhuman scream from the cat’s throat.
Kehnikkq sees it coming with her side green eye, the lunging
predator reflected in her shiny cornea.
But the jaguar reaches her before she can push a sequin...
And tears out her alien throat.
Kehnikkq falls, dead, onto her left side.
The Aliens collapse with her, bound to her life force.
Kehnikkq’s lifeless finger, trapped under her body weight,
presses against the sequin on her left hip.
The gas escapes from the bubble room.
The jaguar, muzzle painted with blue blood, gags in the
vacuum.
Leo gasps, turns blue.
The jaguar creeps to Leo’s side, inch by painful inch.
LEO
Good... girl... Nocturne.
The jaguar lays a massive black paw on Leo’s cheek.
They die.
The explosions cease.
FADE OUT