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Terminator 4: Bleak Future

OPEN ON:

DARKNESS

CONNOR (V.O.)
Hope… It’s something that keeps us together as human beings. It is our last resort when there’s nothing left to salvage.

CUT TO:

EXT. KANSAS – DAY

In the sweeping plains of KANSAS, two rockets, sticking out like a sore thumb, slowly, or at least seeming slow from a great distance, shoot straight up towards the sky. A few others follow.

CUT TO:

DARKNESS

CONNOR (V.O.)
I’ve shared my days where hope had never existed in my thoughts. Where I waited in distress for death to knock on my door and set me free from all the terrible things to come.

The NUCLEAR BOMB explodes, fire speeding across the landscape like a sand storm, knocking down everything in its path.

CONNOR (V.O.)
But for reasons unknown, something was urging me to stay alive, to keep moving. To fight for humanity.

CUT TO:

EXT. BATTLEFIELD – NIGHT

SUBTITLE
OUR FUTURE - 2032

Through the dark mists on the ground, metallic shapes take form. They rise out of the cloud and start blasting away at the very first sight of a human being, running towards them with his AK47. The CYBERNETIC ORGANISMS fire into his chest. He hits the ground hard, lifeless.

From up the hill, other humans crawl up on their stomachs, avoiding the blue streaked tracers from getting them too.

The soldier with the head-phoned CB coming up behind pieces of rusted vehicles is LIEUTENANT JAMESON, peering through the cratered holes in the metal structure.

JAMESON
Connor, do you copy over?

He ducks when a speeding tracer hits the ground beside him, causing dirt and debris to fly in the air. JAMESON coughs and catches his breath.

CONNOR (V.O.)
Connor here, over. Who is this?

JAMESON
Jameson, 3rd under Connor!

CONNOR (V.O.)
Proceed, over.

JAMESON
We don’t have that good of visibility down here. Aerial T-700 H-Ks coming in from the right and left. Infiltration into Sector 72 is likely. What’s your call, Connor?

CONNOR (V.O.)
Surprise them with the air raid attack. Get the aerial bomb team to launch.

JAMESON quickly switches frequencies with his head-phoned CB.

JAMESON
Aerial bomb team, this is Jameson 3rd under Connor, start sequence. Wait on my command.

T700 H-Ks, HUNTER KILLERS, slowly descend to let loose their CYBERNETIC ORGANISMS. But these don’t have skin or living tissue on them, they are naked, stripped down to the metal skeleton bones.

JAMESON (cont’d)
Ready? Take them down, now!

A purple streak zooms by JAMESON as he watches the missile meet up with one of the H-Ks.

It hits, blasting a giant hole in the center of it and falling to the rugged terrain like a dead bird. The H-K explodes into pieces, some of which hitting other H-K unites in the area close by it. The ground team moves forward on JAMESON’S command.

They charge with intimidation, open firing onto the ROBOTIC HELLS waiting down the hill with their plasma weapons. All laser tracers come together, as both opposing forces struggle to eliminate each other. JAMESON manages to take down one CYBORG SKELETON. He watches as it struggles to break free from its dead parts.

A HUMVEE accelerates down the hill, SOLDIERS hit CYBORGS with their M83HCCs, plasma cannons, with accurate results. One might presume them to be terminators themselves.

CONNER (V.O.)
What did my future really have coming for me? Having judgment day only prevented and not stopped, what has become of the result of the war? The war against the machines-

FADE OUT:

OPENING CREDITS and TITLE “TERMINATOR 4: BLEAK FUTURE”

FADE IN:

EXT. CRYSTAL PEAK – DAY

We pan around sand, turned into pieces of glass from the nuclear bombing. Burnt plants and animals are scattered throughout the area. In the NEVADA mountains, rocks crumble away as a hand pushes up from inside. JOHN CONNOR stands up, taking a look at the damage the bombs had left. He helps KATE BREWSTER out, both of them together looking like a bunch of bewildered wild animals. Grungy and dirtied, they looked to have been in there a week or two.

KATE
Do you see anything?

CONNOR
(Sad)
No. Not a damn thing.

JOHN, weary-eyed, stares down the embankment. KATE holds onto him.

KATE
We have to find the city.

CONNOR
The city won’t be there. Skynet had to have done away with every major city. There would be little to nothing left.

JOHN and KATE take a step forward, down the embankment, and venture out into the desert.

CONNOR
My nightmares are slowly coming true.

CUT TO:

EXT. DESERT – DAY

JOHN and KATE stumble on a lonely road, the sun beating down on their bodies so hard, that they looked like they were getting weaker by the minute. CONNOR falls to the hot asphalt hurting his broken ankle again.

KATE
We have to keep going.

CONNOR
I can’t. I just – need some rest.

KATE
They’ll be no rest if we don’t find shelter soon. Come on.

KATE proceeds to drag him by holding him up underneath his arm. Clouds above start to cover the sun. KATE looks up.

As they proceed on the road, JOHN looks forward with an exciting recognition.

They both hear the rumble ahead. It’s quiet, but it’s gradually becoming louder.

KATE
Is it a car?

JOHN squints down the road. But to his horrified conclusion, he almost stumbles on the road. KATE holds him up. The object is hovering over the road and it’s not an automobile engine.

JOHN CONNOR
No… no c-car!

JOHN pushes KATE back. JOHN limps toward a rock, KATE follows behind.

CUT TO:

H-K’S P.O.V.

The screen blinks and squares move around small objects running on the road. Suddenly, words blink: ENEMY TARGETS

CUT BACK TO:

JOHN and KATE jump behind a rock just as a rocket shoots out from underneath the T-1 H-K. It hits just in front of the rock. A small fireball surrounds them and they both scream in terror, their hair singeing

The HK scans around the area. Obviously, we know this model isn’t as intelligent as the ones we’ve seen before.

CUT TO:

HK’S P.O.V.

Words blink: TARGETS DESTROYED – VICTEMS 2450 – CPU MEMORY COUNT

CUT BACK TO:

Behind the rock, waiting for the blinding smoke to carry away in the wind, KATE gazes over, seeing the H-K retreating into a new direction. Once it reaches out of site behind a mountain, she turns to JOHN. He’s bent over on the ground next to a rock… unconscious.

KATE
John?

No response. She grabs his shoulders and hoists him up.

KATE (cont’d)
John, wake up!

KATE drags JOHN onto the road, where another humming is heard. She doesn’t look over, but tries to drag JOHN back.

KATE (cont’d)
Oh, God! Please, God!

Finally, she turns back around to see that it’s only a vehicle. The windows are smashed. The metal rusted. The tires almost deflated, yet it was moving towards them. And she smiled. It was the first sign of human life.

The CORROLA came to a complete stop and a COWBOY, dressed in a WHITE BEATER quickly jumps out.

COWBOY
Put him in the back.

CUT TO:

INT. COMPLEX – DAY

In a dark complex, full of blown away walls and torched ceilings, a familiar sound comes to us. A flash enters the middle of the room. Then, another. Suddenly we are aware: Something’s coming back through time.

Bolts of lightning streaks bounce off the floor and room, creating small blazes of fire upon it. A huge reflecting sphere morphs in the lightning like a super growing tomato.

The sphere disappears along with the bolts and a figure rises from the smoke and glare… the T-X.

With a cold stare, she makes no quick realization of her naked body, and simply moves forward, with an inhuman flow.

CUT TO:

INT. CAROLLA – DAY

The man stares through the rear view mirror at KATE, who’s got JOHN’S head in her lap. She strokes his hair.

KATE
You’re going to make it. Stay with me, now.

The COWBOY, worried about their situation, tries to give some comfort.

COWBOY
Maim, if you not mind me asking – how did you survive the blast out in the middle of no where?

KATE stares up.

KATE
Someone showed us to an underground facility.

COWBOY
You had time? I don’t see how that was possible.

KATE
It’s a long story.

COWBOY
Trust me... I have plenty of time.

KATE
Maybe some other time.

The COWBOY sighs.

COWBOY
You’re the first life I’ve seen all day. Who could do anything like this to us?

KATE
I honestly couldn’t answer that for you.

Long uncomfortable silence.

COWBOY
Me and my fiancé were living downtown Los Angeles. We grew up together as friends and only recently we became more than that. Our marriage was scheduled for August 13. We had planned what to do after we had been hitched every night. I’d ask her if she would have Friday nights for going out to eat. She’d say that we should eat out every night. Yes, maim, we were planning out the rest of our lives as if they were going to be perfect… forever.

(Kate’s paying attention more)

Yesterday, I got a call from her. She said she would be working late downtown. Her boss wanted her to work double shifts and that she wouldn’t get to my place at all. She said she’d call me back that next morning.

(He tears up)

There was no next morning. There was no tomorrow.

KATE has no words to say. She’d expected that everyone would be telling their awful story of the day the earth crumbled underneath us, but she wasn’t ready for them to be told. She wasn’t ready mentally. She broke down in tears.

COWBOY
Whatever you do, keep the man alive. I’m taking us to a hospital.

He swerves his TRUCK onto a lonely dirt road.

CUT TO:

EXT. ROAD – DAY

It’s about noon, and the desert is getting hot. The T-X’s stare is still the same as it was before as she walks on the steaming hot pavement of the paved desert road, her feet not being affected by the intense heat of the asphalt. Suddenly, from up ahead, a truck is moving towards her, and she stops.