Bin Laden studies Armstrong for several moments. BIN LADEN ARMSTRONG BIN LADEN ARMSTRONG BIN LADEN ARMSTRONG BIN LADEN ARMSTRONG BIN LADEN ARMSTRONG BIN LADEN Armstrong steals a glance past Bin Laden to Omar, standing guard on the ridge facing away. ARMSTRONG Bin Laden has been waiting for this part of the conversation. BIN LADEN ARMSTRONG BIN LADEN ARMSTRONG BIN LADEN ARMSTRONG Bin Laden shrugs, then points his bound hands at a red spot on Armstrong’s cloak. BIN LADEN ARMSTRONG BIN LADEN ARMSTRONG BIN LADEN ARMSTRONG Bin Laden sighs, tiring of both Armstrong and this conversation. BIN LADEN Armstrong gets furious. ARMSTRONG With lightning speed, Armstrong produces his Berretta 9mm from his belt and puts the business end against Bin Laden’s forehead. ARMSTRONG Bin Laden shrugs and shakes his head. BIN LADEN Armstrong is caught off guard, speechless. Bin Laden looks him in the eyes. BIN LADEN Bin Laden just sits there unfazed with the gun still aimed at his head. ARMSTRONG Armstrong withdraws the gun, puts it back in his holster, then sits down and continues eating his MRE as if nothing has happened, never taking his eyes off Bin Laden. Meanwhile, Omar has been watching and hearing this whole encounter from the ridge. He slowly turns away. EXT. DESERT – DAWN The sun rises over the parched desert landscape. Strangely shaped boulders cast long shadows. A scorpion scuttles across the sand. EXT. ROCKY RIDGE/ ABOVE GORGE – DAWN At the campsite Armstrong sits against a rock asleep, his chin down against his chest, his hands holding the Uzi resting on his lap. Sunlight hits his face and he suddenly bolts awake. Blinking his bleary eyes, Armstrong sees Omar and Bin Laden sitting across from him whispering to each other. ARMSTRONG Omar looks at him with a blank expression. OMAR ARMSTRONG OMAR ARMSTRONG Bin Laden looks at Armstrong with a bemused grin on his face. BIN LADEN ARMSTRONG OMAR ARMSTRONG OMAR ARMSTRONG OMAR BIN LADEN ARMSTRONG BIN LADEN ARMSTRONG BIN LADEN Armstrong stands up and looks down on the other two men, his weapon gripped tightly in his hands. ARMSTRONG Omar rises to his feet. OMAR ARMSTRONG Omar reaches down and helps Bin Laden to his feet. Armstrong watches with a disapproving glare. Bin Laden says to Omar . . . BIN LADEN Armstrong reaches out with the Uzi and sticks the barrel in Bin Laden’s face. ARMSTRONG BIN LADEN ARMSTRONG They gather up their belongings and start to walk. EXT. GORGE – DAY The three men make their way down the side of the gorge, through a thin snaking path. Omar helps Bin Laden and Armstrong goes last, keeping a cautious eye on the surroundings. EXT. BOTTOM OF GORGE/ VALLEY – DAY They get to the bottom of the gorge, coming out in a rock-strewn valley. High sheer rock walls surround them. Armstrong keeps looking up at the tops of the rock walls. Anybody could be up there. BIN LADEN ARMSTRONG BIN LADEN Armstrong considers what he’s just been told, rubbing his chin. He nods his head thoughtfully, steps forward and punches Osama Bin Laden in the mouth, hard. ARMSTRONG Omar looks shocked. Bin Laden spits blood out into his hand and looks at it. He smears it around on his fingers, then looks at Armstrong and smiles. Armstrong gets angry. ARMSTRONG BIN LADEN ARMSTRONG Bin Laden looks him straight in the eye. BIN LADEN ARMSTRONG Bin Laden shakes his head. Armstrong promptly smashes him in the mouth with butt of his Uzi. Omar pushes himself between them. Now Bin Laden has blood coming out of his mouth and his nose. Armstrong speaks directly into Bin Laden’s face. ARMSTRONG Omar speaks into Armstrong’s face. OMAR ARMSTRONG OMAR Armstrong can’t believe his ears. ARMSTRONG However, just at that moment . . . EXT. HILL – DAY An Afghani man holding a an AK-47 and wearing a turban with a scarf around his face, steps over the rise of the hill in front of them, maybe 200 yards ahead of them. Then beside him steps another armed man, then another. Now there’s three of them, just standing there, ostensibly blocking the path. EXT. VALLEY – DAY Armstrong, Omar and Bin Laden keep walking forward, their eyes glued to the men in front of them. ARMSTRONG EXT. HILL – DAY Four more armed men step up beside the other three. A moment later three more men step up around them. Now there’s ten of them. EXT. VALLEY – DAY Armstrong, Omar and Bin Laden stop, accepting that their path is now officially blocked. BIN LADEN Armstrong puts the barrel of his weapon against Bin Laden’s temple so everyone can see it. ARMSTRONG BIN LADEN ARMSTRONG EXT. HILL – DAY Now five more armed men step up, making it fifteen, and more seem to be coming. Soon there are at least twenty men blocking their path. EXT. VALLEY – DAY Omar turns to Armstrong. OMAR ARMSTRONG Just then there is a familiar buzzing noise. Everybody looks up. EXT. SKY – DAY There it is, the surveillance drone, making its rounds. EXT. VALLEY – DAY Armstrong grabs Omar and Bin Laden and pulls them down. ARMSTRONG The three hunker down behind some large rocks. EXT. HILL – DAY The crowd of men on the hilltop have also noticed the surveillance drone and begin to scatter. EXT. SKY – DAY The drone passes right over Armstrong, Omar and Bin Laden’s heads heading toward the men on the hilltop. It fires a missile . . . EXT. HILL – DAY . . . The missile comes down right in the middle of the crowd of men and explodes—BOOM!! The men are blown to bits, several of them go sailing through the air. Wounded men scream in pain. The another missile comes down and blows up—BOOM!! EXT. VALLEY – DAY Armstrong, Omar and Bin Laden all look at each other in amazement. ARMSTRONG Armstrong and Omar, their weapons out in front, go running toward the hill. EXT. HILL – DAY Armstrong and Omar dash up the hill right into the midst of the smoke and carnage. They promptly shoot anyone who’s still alive. Two men are running away down the hill. Armstrong sights in and with one quick burst of automatic weapon fire kills both of them. Armstrong turns around to find Omar standing there with his smoking AK-47 in his hands aimed right at him. The two men look each other in the eye. It’s a tense moment. ARMSTRONG Omar slowly lowers the barrel of his weapon, turns and walks down the hill the way they came. Armstrong raises his weapon so that it’s aiming at Omar’s back. He holds it there for a moment, then shrugs, lowers it and heads down the hill. EXT. VALLEY – DAY They get back to where they left Bin Laden, but he’s not there. Armstrong sighs and shakes his head. ARMSTRONG OMAR ARMSTRONG OMAR ARMSTRONG OMAR ARMSTRONG The two men head back the way they came, looking behind every large rock they pass. There’s no sign of Bin Laden anywhere. They’re both starting to get a little concerned. ARMSTRONG OMAR Yet he’s nowhere to be seen. They walk along through the valley. Finally, Omar points. OMAR Bin Laden is sitting on the hillside next to a huge boulder. Armstrong calls up to him. ARMSTRONG BIN LADEN ARMSTRONG Armstrong indicates with his index finger that Bin Laden should come down. Bin Laden slowly rises to his feet. BIN LADEN ARMSTRONG BIN LADEN EXT. HILL – DAY Armstrong, Omar and Bin Laden reach the top of the hill, which is littered with corpses. Armstrong doesn’t even look down, but both Omar and Bin Laden do. They all walk right past the carnage and head down the other side of the hill. EXT. CANYON – DAY The three men walk across a vast canyon surrounded by high rock walls. BIN LADEN Armstrong steps up beside Omar. ARMSTRONG Omar thinks long and hard before speaking. Finally . . . OMAR ARMSTRONG OMAR ARMSTRONG OMAR ARMSTRONG OMAR ARMSTRONG Omar puts his hands together like he’s pleading. OMAR With lightning speed, Armstrong pulls his Berretta, puts the barrel against Omar’s forehead and fires a bullet, spraying his brains out the other side. Omar’s body crumples to the ground in a heap, stone dead. Bin Laden is shocked and takes a step back. BIN LADEN Armstrong sticks the smoking pistol in Bin Laden’s face. ARMSTRONG BIN LADEN ARMSTRONG BIN LADEN ARMSTRONG BIN LADEN ARMSTRONG BIN LADEN ARMSTRONG BIN LADEN ARMSTRONG BIN LADEN ARMSTRONG Right at that moment bullets begin thumping into the ground around them. Armstrong grabs Bin Laden and pulls him behind some rocks. Bullets continue to hit the ground right in front of them. BIN LADEN ARMSTRONG BIN LADEN ARMSTRONG And meanwhile the bullets just keep coming in from above hitting the ground and the surrounding rock walls. Finally, a bullet hits the rock wall beside them, ricochets off directly into Armstrong’s side. He falls over, bleeding profusely. Bin Laden looks down at the wounded Armstrong. He reaches for the Uzi, but Armstrong still has a hold on it and raises the barrel up toward Bin Laden’s face. Bin Laden’s hand stops halfway to the weapon. Just then another bullet hits Armstrong, this time in the thigh. He yells in pain and rolls over, still clutching his weapon. Bin Laden sees his moment. He dashes out into the open with his hands in the air. He hollers up toward the ridgeline. BIN LADEN A subtitle reads: “Friends! Brave friends! Brothers! I am Bin Laden! I declare I am Bin Laden!” The shooting stops. Suddenly there is an eerie silence. Bin Laden keeps his hands in the air while scanning the ridgeline above him. Armstrong is still alive. He looks furious and begins to crawl toward Bin Laden, his Uzi still in his hand. As he nears Bin Laden and begins to raise his weapon another bullet hit’s him in the back causing the Uzi to jerk out of his hand. Armstrong winces in terrible pain. Bin Laden glances down and sees Armstrong lying there, bleeding from three different wounds. BIN LADEN Armstrong grits his teeth in excruciating pain as he glares up at Bin Laden with deep hatred. Just then three native Afghani TRIBESMEN, all dressed in black robes and head scarves and carrying long, old-fashioned rifles, come walking slowly up. Armstrong and Bin Laden both turn their attention to the tribesmen. Bin Laden smiles in relief. Armstrong’s hand moves down to the pistol on his belt. BIN LADEN A subtitle reads: “My brave brothers. Recognize me, I am Bin Laden.” The three tribesmen step up, their faces covered by black scarves, their long rifles held out in front of them. Armstrong has his hand on his Berretta. Slowly and silently he slides the pistol out of the holster. As the tribesmen get to within twenty feet of them, Bin Laden continues to smile. BIN LADEN Subtitle: “My friends. Thank you. I am Bin Laden. Osama Bin Laden.” The three tribesmen look at each other and shrug. Either they don’t understand or they don’t care. BIN LADEN Subtitle: “Men. I declare I am Osama Bin Laden.” The three tribesmen raise their long rifles, aim and all three shoot Osama Bin Laden. Three big bullets hit Bin Laden in the chest. Armstrong watches as Bin Laden falls to the ground beside him, dead, his eyes wide open in an expression of shock and confusion. Armstrong grins. He then slowly brings the pistol forward, but a foot in a leather sandal comes down on Armstrong’s wrist, knocking the pistol out of his hand. Armstrong looks up and sees one of the tribesmen aim his rifle directly into his face. The tribesman pulls the trigger. The bullet strikes Armstrong in the face, blowing his brains out the back of his head. Armstrong rolls over dead. The three tribesmen laugh, then shriek with delight as they quickly set about stripping the bodies of everything. They take the Uzi, the Berretta, the AK-47, then all of the three men’s clothing. One of the tribesmen finds the photograph of Armstrong and his family. He looks at it for a brief moment, then tosses it. The photograph is caught in the wind and blows lazily away across the parched desert floor. The three tribesmen walk away carrying their new belongings. The dead bleeding bodies of Armstrong, Osama Bin Laden and Omar lie there naked in the blazing sun. Our view widens to include the surrounding landscape, then keeps getting wider and wider until the naked bodies are merely dots on the canyon floor. FADE OUT |
BECKERFILMS
SITE MENU
[
Main ] [ Film
& TV Work ] [ Screenplays
] [
Old Stuff ]
[ Reviews ]
[ Articles, Essays & Stories
] [
Ask the Director ]
[ Favorite Films ]
[ Scrapbook ]
[ Links (& Afterword)
] [ Web
Team ]
