THE WAR OF THE WORLDS
FINAL WHITE
Barré Lyndon
December 18, 1951
FADE IN:
1. H. G. WELLS' BOOK
We see the colorful cover, then the first page. A
VOICE with a Wells-like accent quotes the opening
words:
VOICE
No one would have believed, in the
first decades of the twentieth century...
DISSOLVE:
2. SPECIAL EFFECT - SKY FULL OF STARS
The planet Mars shows just above the spires and roof-
tops of a city on the horizon.
VOICE
(Continuing)
...that human affairs were being
watched keenly and closely by
intelligences greater than man's.
Mars is picked out of the sky and brought to the screen
as if by some enormous telescope with an infinite field.
It becomes a small ball. Elarges to a pallid disk.
Comes to moon size.
VOICE
No one gave a thought to the older
worlds as a source of human danger.
Yet across the gulf of space, on the
planet Mars...
Now Mars has grown big and ruddy-colored. Mysterious
canals revealed. Vegetation patches shadowy. One thin
polar cap shimmering.
VOICE
Intellects vast and cool and unsym-
pathetic regarded our earth with envious
eyes, slowly and surely drawing their
plans against us.
3. SPECIAL EFFECT - OUR WORLD - MOVING SHOT
seen in space with its halo of atmosphere, beautiful.
VOICE
Few voices were ever raised in
warning as, with infinite compla-
cency, men went to and fro over
this globe, busy about their
affairs.
DISSOLVE:
4. SERIES OF THUMBNAIL FLASHES (STOCK)
designed to get over the enjoyment of life on this
earth today.
a. Gay, seven-piece Dixieland band, whapping
out a fast tempo in a night club.
b. Grand National at Aintree.
c. Parade at the Carnival de Nice.
d. Gambling in a casino.
e. Trooping the Colors, London.
f. Packed stadium and a smashing football game.
g. Geisha party in Tokyo.
VOICE
(Over f. and g.)
It did not occur to mankind that
a swift fate might be hanging over
us. Or that, from the blackness of
outer space, we were being scrutinized
and studied.
During this, CAMERA MOVES IN on the Geisha girls. We
are CLOSE on the round casing of one of their strange-
sounding instruments as we -
DISSOLVE:
5. SPECIAL EFFECT - MARS
The planet as we saw it before. CAMERA MOVES IN until
the planet is huge on the screen. Strange and baleful.
VOICE
Mars is more than one hundred and
forty million miles from the sun, and
for centuries it has been in the last
stages of exhaustion. Its rocks have
absorbed almost all oxygen from its
air, turing them red.
A-5a. SPECIAL EFFECT - MARTIAN LANDSCAPE
A geometric pattern of great canals joins in the far
distance to center on a Martian metropolis. High
atop a tower a light pulsates rhythmically.
VOICE
Most of its water has gone. At
night, temperatures drop to more
than one hundred and twenty degrees
below zero, even at the equator.
A-6 SERIZS OF DISSOLVES - SPECIAL EFFECT (MOVING SHOTS)
CAMERA FLOATS through the blackness of space, pick-
ing up each succeeding spectacle.
a. Our solar system, as seen from Mars. The sun
golden. Mercury ruddy and hot. Venus beau-
tiful, bright. Saturn with its tinted rings
and moons. Jupiter big, cloudy, with four
moons. Uranus and Neptune both greenish-
yellow, toxic. And Pluto far away.
VOICE
The inhabitants of this dying planet looked
across space with instruments and intelli-
gences of which we have scarcely dreamed...
CAMERA MOVES IN on Pluto, dim in outer space.
VOICE (Cont'd)
...searching for another World to which they
could migrate. They could not go to Pluto,
outermost of all the planets, and so cold
that its atmosphere lies frozen on its
surface.
CAMERA PICKS UP Neptune and Uranus, clouded giants
with poison-colored atmospheres.
VOICE (Cont'd)
They couldn't go to Neptune or Uranus - twin
worlds in eternal night and perpetual cold.
Each surrounded by an unbreathable atmosphere
full of methane gas and ammonia vapor. The
Martians considered Saturn.
b. Saturnian landscape. Midnight-blue space-sky
crossed by merging rings of cosmic dust.
Bright-edged, full of color and marvelous to
see.
VOICE
An attractive world with its many
moons and beautiful rings of cosmic
dust. But its temperature is close
to two hundred and seventy degrees
below zero, and ice lies fifteen
thousand miles deep on its surface.
Their nearest world was giant Jupiter...
c. Effect Pan Shot - Landscape of Jupiter
An incredible world. Cliffs flaming at
the tops and spilling into fuming lakes.
Everywhere the same process repeating itself.
VOICE
Where there are titanic cliffs of lava
and ice, with hydrogen flaming at the tops.
Where the atmospheric pressure is terrible -
thousands of pounds to the square inch.
On Mars it is only four pounds. They
couldn't go there. Nor to Venus, which
has no oxygen and no water. Nor could they
go to Mercury nearest planet to the sun.
d. Effect - Mercurian Landscape. A glaring
sun is enormous in a dark sky, stars visible
near it. The land is heat-hazed, waterless,
fissured. Volcanic cones and lava pools.
VOICE
It has no air. And the temperature at its
equator is that of molten lead. Of all the
worlds that the intelligences on Mars
could see and study .....
e. North American continent, seen from a
great height, showing clouds, forests,
glistening lakes and rivers.
VOICE
...only our own warm earth was green
with vegetation, bright with water,
and possessed a cloudy atmosphere
eloquent of fertility.
f. Sky full of stars above a small town
and hills....Mars low in the sky.
VOICE
At the time of our nearest approach
to the orbit of Mars, during a pleasant
summer season....
Far away in the sky we see a falling star.
VOICE
...in the late hours of a Friday evening...
DISSOLVE:
7. INT. FORESTRY LOOKOUT POST (NIGHT)
A fire LOOKOUT and his deputy, FIDDLER HAWKINS -
round-faced, hearty - are seated at a small table
by a big window, playing cards. Behind them is
an Osborne fire-finder. On a shelf are cans of
tobacco, fruit, coffee, a pipe, magazines. The
lookout's glance goes upward to the sky and is
held there.
8. SPECIAL EFFECT - SKY & METEOR (1)
The meteor leaves a thin, luminous streak.
9. EXT. FISHING CAMP (NIGHT)
Near a stream, beyond which, through trees, is a
broad meadow. Small tent. A lantern hangs from a
branch. Waders hang on another limb. Beyond, in
the meadow, rests a small Stinson cabin plane.
Near the tent, a convertible is parked.
A small, round, bald man - BILDERBECK - is frying
trout in a pan over the fire, his hatband decorated
with pretty flies. A younger man - PRYOR - is
coming from the direction of the stream, with clean-
ed trout strung on a stick. A third man - CLAYTON
FORRESTER - butch haircut and hornrims - is sitting
on a log, working over his tackle, looking skyward.
He calls. The others look with him.
10. SPECIAL EFFECT - SKY & METEOR (2)
It is large. Its bright trail is thicker.
11. EXT. MOVIE THEATER - MAIN STREET LINDA ROSA (NIGHT)
The small-town, California audience is breaking after
the last show. Among them are two young parents, the
father carrying a sleeping baby. Teen-agers head for
the ice-cream parlor next door. A lost kid is bawling
on the sidewalk. A man on a ladder is adding "Held
Over" to the marquee which features "Samson and
Delilah." Like most the others, he is looking at
the sky. The CAMERA PICKS UP SYLVIA VAN BUREN -
twenty-six, normal, nice, admiring the sleeping baby.
Near her is PASTOR COLLINS - white-haired. He is
gazing at the sky as he touches Sylvia's arm. She
looks and stands staring.
12. SPECIAL EFFECT - SKY AND METEOR (3)
Altogether larger now, rushing aslant down the sky.
13. GROUP - AT LINDA ROSA
A group has formed on the sidewalk by Sylvia and the
Pastor - WASH PERRY, big teeth, no hat, shirt-sleeves.
'ZIPPY', a clumsy youth. SALVADOR, a swarthy, good-
natured Mexican. ALONZO HOGUE, local realtor, chews
tobacco.
GROUP - ad libs
Is that a fireball or somep'n?
Boy, that's big ! - Maybe it's
a comet - looks like it's coming
right at us!
14. SPECIAL EFFECT - SKY AND METEOR (4)
Huge, brilliant, fusing and frightening. Its tail
seems to spurt more brilliantly as the meteor
vanishes beyond buildings and dark trees.
15. GROUP - AT FISHING CAMP
looking o.s. at the meteor. Pryor slaps a mosquito.
BILDERBECK
That was a meteorite -
(Returning to fire)
- burning itself out.
PRYOR
(Unstringing fish)
There's never much left of 'em
when they hit the ground.
Clayton turns after them, then pauses, looking again
toward where the meteor landed.
16. GROUP - AT LINDA ROSA
Everyone staring o.s. Fascinated. A little alarmed.
GROUP - AD LIBS
That had me scared! - Wonder where
it lit? - Miles away, I betcha.
ZIPPY
Let's go find it, huh?
PASTOR COLLINS
That probably dropped half way
to Pomona!...What do you think?
SYLVIA
It was nearer than that.
ZIPPY
I'm gonna see. Who's coming?
He starts out. Other teen-agers follow him.
17. FORESTRY LOOKOUT POST
Lookout at the phone. Fiddler, crouched, sighting
the firefinder, still holding his cards.
LOOKOUT
(At phone)
This is Pine Summit. I've got a smoke.
FIDDLER
(Reading firefinder)
One sixty... thirty.
LOOKOUT
(At phone)
Azimuth reading - one hundred sixty
degrees thirty minutes.
(Gazing out window)
About ten miles. It must-a hit red
hot!
Fiddler straightens, sneaks a glance at the Lookout's
cards, then studies his own.
LOOKOUT
(At phone)
You better get somepin out there -
it's started a blaze already!
DISSOLVE:
18. EXT. SECONDARY HIGHWAY - (NIGHT)
CAMERA PANS FAST on a small forestry service tanker
coming down the road, red light blinking. Scattered
trees and scrub in b.g.
DISSOLVE:
19. EXT. DIRT ROAD & GULLY - FULL SHOT - (NIGHT)
The road curves near low, sharp little hills. The
ground is rough, scattered with prickly pear, yucca,
small bushes, stunted trees. At the foot of the
hills is a fairly deep gully. Bushes, grass, small
trees are burning all around this. The tanker is on
the scene. The fire-crew is being helped by teen-
agers from Linda Rosa and men from nearby farms.
20. QUICK CUTS - AROUND THE GULLY AREA
a. Men dipping sacks into a tub of water,
running to fire in b.g. Zippy and others
slapping out flames with wet gunny sacks.
b. Uniformed Ranger attacking burning bushes
with a spray extinguisher. Two men hacking
furiously with brush hooks. The tanker
moving along an edge of the fire. Two men
riding it, spraying flames. The ranger
surveys the fire, then turns to a small
Forestry pickup truck in f.g.
21. EXT. GULLY AT PICKUP TRUCK - CLOSE SHOT
The ranger puts his extinguisher in the truck, picks
up the radio transmitter, pushes the switch.
RANGER
(Into mike)
Number three to. D.O....Number three
to D.O.
RADIO VOICE
D.O. to number three..come in.
RANGER
We're getting this under control.
Won't need any more help. Over.
RADIO VOICE
Okay. Send the tanker in, but you
stand by until that thing cools off.
Over.
RANGER
I think somebody ought to check on it.
Over.
RADIO VOICE
Well, there's some fellows fishing at
Pine Summit might be interested. They
probably saw it come down. I'll let
'em know...What's it look like?
The Ranger glances in the direction of the meteor.
21a. SPECIAL EFFECT - EXT. GULLY - METEOR
At one end of the gully. Mostly burried, but a thick,
blunt, rounded end shows out of the loose sand and
rock. Massive. On its surface are red-hot blurs,
like fire under ashes.
RANGERS VOICE (o.s.)
Can't get near enough to see it very
well - it's too hot -- but it's a
whale of a size!
DISSOLVE:
22. EXT. FISHING CAMP - GROUP
Clayton Forrester, Pryor, Bilderbeck, sitting by the
fire, eating. All the makings of a meal are on a
nearby box: coffee, rolls, butter, honey, canned
fruit, fried tomatoes. Extra helpings of fish simmer
in the pan. A beat-up station wagon lurches out of
the darkness in b.g. The three look up, surprised.
Fiddler, the deputy ranger from the lookout post, alights.
FIDDLER
(Calling)
I got a message for you.
(Moving in)
You're the guys from Pacific-Tech,
ain't you?
CLAYTON
Right.
FIDDLER
(Eyeing pan)
Looks like the fishing was good.
BILDERBECK
Have some?
FIDDLER
(Eagerly - hitching
over a box)
Well...I might just do that...!
23. MED. CLOSE SHOT - GROUP
Fiddler reaches for a plate, then helps himself
liberally to everything in sight - most of the
remaining fish, two rolls, a hunk of butter, coffee.
The others stop eating and watch him.
FIDDLER
(Talking between grabs)
It's about that meteor. They say it's
a whopper. The District Officer phoned
us at the lookout up on the summit.
Thought you might be interested...
It's ten or twelve miles from here -
over by Linda Rosa.
CLAYTON
Are they sure it's a meteor? It
didn't come down like one.
FIDDLER
(Gesturing with fish
on his fork)
That's right - came down in kinda
spurts, didn't it?
(Gobbles fish)
You fellers'll have to figure it
out. You're scientists
(Puts down fork- plucks
cigarette from Bilderbeck's
shirt pocket)
All I know - they say it's as big as
a house and practically red hot.
CLAYTON
(To Bilderbeck)
I'd like to borrow your car and take
a look at it in the morning.
Bilderbeck nods. Pryor looks toward the plane in
the meadow in b.g.
PRYOR
We ought to get back to Pasadena.
(Gesturing)
I can fly Bilderbeck down in your plane.
CLAYTON
Okay, if he's willing.
(Grinning)
The insurance is paid up.
Bilderbeck takes a stick from the fire and holds it
out to Fiddler, who is eating again, holding the
cigarette.
BILDERBECK
Want a light?
FIDDLER
(Glancing)
No. I'll smoke it later.
He tucks the cigarette behind his ear and goes on
eating.
DISSOLVE:
24. EXT. GULLY & DIRT ROAD - (EARLY MORNING)
The meteor still lies in the gully, heat-hazed, a
little thin smoke rising, burned grass and bushes
in b.g. On the bank of the gully, a woman is kodaking
two kids against the b.g. of the meteor. Beyond,
a few old cars and a station wagon have pulled off
the dirt road; nearby is Pastor Collins' three-year-
old Plymouth.
25. EXT. GULLY & DIRT ROAD - MED. SHOT - GROUP
Sylvia is sitting behind the wheel in Pastor Collins'
car. The Pastor is talking to the uniformed Ranger.
With them are Wash Perry, Alonzo Hogue, Salvador,
Fiddler. A handful of people is scattered in b.g.,
eyeing the meteor, talking about it.
RANGER
(Pointing)
It must have hit way up there, and
then skidded along the gully. When
it stopped, all that loose earth and
stuff shook down over it.
SYLVIA
It's probably a stray from a swarm
of meteors.
ALONZO HOGUE
(To Pastor)
I reckon most of it's buried.
FIDDLER
That's twelve feet thick, easy.
Maybe more.
ALONZO HOGUE
Meteors always run heavy. They won't
be able to haul this one away to no
museum!
(Speculatively)
It'll be a real good attraction for
Sunday drivers.
WASH PERRY
Better'n a lion farm or a snake pit.
We won't have to feed it!
SALVADOR
We sell the tamales, enchiladas -
hot dogs!
FIDDLER
Ice cream, cold drinks, souvenirs!
PASTOR COLLINS
I think we should put up a few
picnic tables...
ALONZO HOGUE
(Quickly)
Naw, naw -- then they'd bring their
own lunches!
26. GROUP - OUTSIDE THE GULLY
'BUCK' MONAHAN - in service station overalls - passes
the group, carrying a shovel, headed for the meteor.
In b.g. a convertible pulls off the dirt road.
FIDDLER
What's the idea, Buck? Gonna dig
for gold?
BUCK
(Indicating meteor)
This is gonna be like having a gold
mine in our own back yard!
PASTOR COLLLINS
(To Sylvia)
I'm going to get a closer look at it.
The men come forward, PAST CAMERA. Sylvia pulls out
the car keys, reaches for her purse. The convertible
bumps up, stops. The back is loaded with camping
gear and clustered fishing rods. Clayton Forrester
gets out, looking toward the gully. Sylvia glances
at him as she starts after the others, opening her
purse. A faint ticking SOUND comes overscene.
CLAYTON
Is that it over there?
SYLVIA
(Searching purse)
Yes...ugly looking, isn't it.
27. GROUP - FROM THE GULLY
as Buck comes on toward the meteor with his shovel.
Pastor Collins and the others pause to watch him.
BUCK
(Calling back)
It's still pretty darned hot!
28. MED. CLOSE SHOT - BUCK AND METEOR
He shields his face, reaching out, probing with his
shovel trying to determine the size of the meteor.
29. TWO SHOT - CLAYTON AND SYLVIA - HIS CAR IN B.G.
He is looking toward the gully. She now has a ciga-
rette. They pause as she begins looking for matches.
SYLVIA
(Rummaging in purse)
Did you see it come down?
CLAYTON
(Absently, studying
gully and meteor)
Yes...I was fishing up in the hills.
SYLVIA
(Glancing back at car)
You must have caught plenty with
all that tackle!
CLAYTON
(Glancing, smiling)
Oh - there were three of us.
(Starting forward)
The others flew back in my plane.
(Pausing again - looking o.s.)
I don't understand why a meteor this
size didn't make a bigger crater.
SYLVIA
(Definite)
It hit sideways and skidded in.
He glances at her, a little amused. She catches his
eye.
SYLVIA (Cont'd)
(Easily)
At least, that's what I think. I
don't really know.
(At purse)
But the Ranger says a scientist is
coming from Pacific-Tech. He'll
tell us.
(And then)
Clayton Forrester. Ever hear of him?
CLAYTON
(Looking o.s. - changing
the subject)
What's that fellow over there trying
to do - dig it out?
SYLVIA
(Over him, not hearing)
He's top man in astro and nuclear
physics. He knows all about meteors!
30. CLOSE SHOT - MOVING
FAVORING Clayton, as they move on. Clayton is
secretly amused, and a little flattered.
CLAYTON
You seem to know a lot about him.
SYLVIA
Well, I did a thesis on modern scien-
tists - working for my Masters degree.
CLAYTON
Did it do you any good?
SYLVIA
Why, sure -- I got it! Do you have
a match?
CLAYTON
I'm sorry. I don't smoke.
SYLVIA
(Going on, enthusiastic)
Forrester's the man behind the new
atomic engines. They had him on the
cover of 'Time'. You've got to rate
to get that!
CLAYTON
Aw, he isn't that good...!
SYLVIA
(Protesting, stopping)
How can you say that when you don't
know him!
31. TWO SHOT - CLAYTON AND SYLVIA
CLAYTON
I do know him...slightly.
SYLVIA
(Interested at once)
What's he like?
CLAYTON
Like...ah...
Clayton hesitates, points to himself. She stares,
then gets it. For a moment she is provoked, then
she bursts naturally into laughter. He laughs with
her.
SYLVIA
Well, you certainly don't look like
yourself in that get-up!
(Laughing still,
offering hand)
But I am happy to meet you anyway.
I'm Sylvia Van Buren. I teach
Library Science over at USC.
CLAYTON
I didn't know how to stop you...!
SYLVIA
I might have recognized you without
the beard. And you didn't wear
glasses on the 'Time' cover!
CLAYTON
They're really for long distance.
When I want to look at something
close...
(Removing glasses,
bending to her)
I take them off.
32. GROUP - FROM THE GULLY
Buck is backing off, blowing running with sweat.
Clayton and Sylvia approach from b.g.
GROUP - AD LIBS
(Kidding)
You gonna quit? -- Roll up your
sleeves, Buck! -- We thought you
were gonna dig it out by yourself.
Buck joins the group, wiping sweat. CAMERA MOVES IN
as Clayton comes up with Sylvia.
BUCK
Boy - you could fry eggs on it!
CLAYTON
All that sand will keep the heat
in for a long time.
SYLVIA
(To Pastor Collins)
Uncle Matthew...this is Dr. Clayton
Forrester.
(To Clayton)
My uncle - Dr. Matthew Collins, pastor
of the Community Church.
PASTOR COLLINS
(Offering hand, pleased)
Well-l...how do you do, Dr. Forrester!
CLAYTON
(Courteous - warm)
How d'you do, sir?
SHERIFF'S VOICE (O.s.)
(Ecitedly calling)
Hey - you!
All look quickly.
33. EXT. CLAYTON'S CAR - CLOSE SHOT - MOVING SHOT
CAMERA is CLOSE and ANGLED DOWN in the back of the
car. Tucked along fishing and camping gear alongside
a box of iced trout is an impressive Geiger counter,
chattering furiously. A signal light is flashing
rapidly. The Sheriff's hands reach for it. CAMERA
MOVES BACK and his face comes into SCENE, looking
down at the counter.
SHERIFF
(Yelling off)
What you got in here, feller?...It's
ticking like a bomb!
The SHOT WIDENS as Clayton enter with Pastor Collins,
Sylvia, the Ranger and others. Clayton reaches into
the car and picks up a short pole-meter attached to
the counter. He swings it around. The clicking
slows. He lifts the counter out, points the pole-
meter at the gully. The light flashes become a rapid
blur, brilliant. The chattering increases to a high-
pitched buzz.
CLAYTON
(To Sheriff)
This is a Geiger counter for detecting
radio-activity. We did a little sur-
veying while we were up in the hills.
(Above SOUND of the counter -
looking o.s.)
It's that meteor.
PASTOR COLLINS
It's radio-active?
SHERIFF
Look at this thing -- goin' crazy!
He reaches for the Geiger. Clayton lets him have it
and remains looking toward the gully. The SOUND of
the Geiger counter continues over SCENE.
CLAYTON
(Puzzled)
It's difficult to account for a
reaction like that!
RANGER
(Moving in)
Maybe we ought to keep people away
from it, huh?
CLAYTON
(Quietly - thinking)
Might be a good idea.
SHERIFF
I'll post two-three deputies. They
can watch it don't start any more fires.
34. CLOSE SHOT - CLAYTON, PASTOR & SYLVIA
CLAYTON
You know, that meteor's either very
light - which is unheard of! - or
else it's hollow somehow. If it were
solid and heavy it would have made a
tremendous crater when it landed.
(Suddenly)
I think I'll stay around until it
cools off.
(To Sylvia)
If you could tell me of a place in
town --
(Strokes his chin)
-- I'd like to clean up.
PASTOR COLLINS
I'd be delighted if you'd stay at
my house, Doctor Forrester.
CLAYTON
Thank you.
(Looks toward meteor)
It probably won't be cool for another
twenty-four hours.
(To Sylvia)
What do people do around here on a
Saturday?
SYLVIA
(Returning his smile)
They don't do much of anything...!
PASTOR COLLINS
There's a square dance at the social
hall this evening.
DISSOLVE:
35. OUT
36. INT. SOCIAL HALL, LINDA ROSA - (NIGHT)
Very CLOSE on Fiddler Hawkins, sweating, calling the
dance, holding violin.
FIDDLER
(Raucous)
A hickory limp and an ole burned stump -
Go meet your honey and everybody jump!
CAMERA PULLS BACK. Fiddler wears Levis, embroidered
shirt. With him is a guitar player in a dress-up
Western outfit. Everybod's stomping. Girls in
tight bodices, swirling skirts, bows in their hair,
Men in T-shirts, suits and shirtsleeves, Levis, fron-
tier pants and cowboy boots.
FIDDLER (Cont'd)
Now promenade two and promenade four -
Promenade that pretty gal all around
the floor.
CAMERA PICKS UP Clayton and Sylvia promenading arm in
arm in a SET which includes the Sheriff. Clayton
wears tan gabardine slacks, fresh shirt, tie with a
Western motif. He is clean-shaven. Sylvia wears a
forget-me-not cotton print, with style to it. Clayton
is not an accomplished square dancer, but he isn't bad.
Sylvia checks his wrong move in response to the next
rollicking call. He laughs. They both enjoy this.
FIDDLER'S VOICE
Now face your lady and make a bow,
She's a pretty one you'll allow!
Point the heel and point the toe -
Now you're makin' a do-si-do.
Mom - there's a chicken in the bread-bin
A-peckin' at the dough!
One more change and on we go.
DISSOLVE:
37. SPECIAL EFFECT - EXT. GULLY - METEOR - (NIGHT)
No smoke now. Its appearance is otherwise unchanged.
38. EXT. GULLY - MED. SHOT - (NIGHT)
Wash Perry, Alonzo Hogue, Salvador. Behind them, two
old cars are parked not far from the gully. A small
fire burns on the open ground. The three men step
forward toward the gully, peering through the dark-
ness. Salvador swiches on a flashlight.
39. SPECIAL EFFECT - EXT. GULLY - CLOSE SHOT - METEOR
Still, ominous, as the flashlight hits it.
40. CLOSE SHOT - WASH, SALVADOR, ALONZO
They MOVE toward the gully, Salvador playing the
flashlight ahead. As they pause on the edge of
the gully, he cuts the light.
ALONZO HOGUE
Looks almost cold now, don't it?
WASH PERRY
That won't start no more fires. We
might's well go home.
ALONZO HOGUE
(Spitting - starting away)
Yeah. No sense stayin' out here.
WASH PERRY
(Following him)
Let's go.
As they start away, CAMERA MOVES CLOSE on Salvador.
He raises the flashlight for a last look at the
meteor and pops it on directly into the LENSE.
SALVADOR
(In alarm)
Hey - it's movin'!
41. SPECIAL EFFECT - EXT. GULLY - MED. SHOT - REVERSE SHOT -
THE THREE
Alonzo Hogue and Wash Perry, f.g., whirl and go back
to Salvador. Beyond them in the gully, the meteor
is lit by Salvador's flashlight. Something is moving
on top of it.
41a. CLOSE THREE SHOT
Eyes popping as they stare off at the meter.
41b. SPECIAL EFFECT - METEOR
Thin gray clinker is dropping off in flakes. The
rounded top is turning. A thread of bright metal
appears between the moving top and the body.
42. MED. CLOSE THREE SHOT - (MOVING SHOT)
They start to back off.
ALONZO HOGUE
It's a bomb!
SALVADOR
It don't go off last night --
it's going off now!
WASH PERRY
It's an enemy sneak attack. Let's
get outta here!
ALONZO HOGUE
(Stopping them)
Wait a minute - wait a minute!....
Bombs don't unscrew.
WASH PERRY
(Backing away again)
It's no meteor, that's for sure!
ALONZO HOGUE
(Backing away too)
Darnedest thing I ever saw - the way
that's unscrewing!
Salvador only stares as they all retreat.
43. SPECIAL EFFECT - METEOR - (MOVING SHOT)
CAMERA MOVES SLOWLY BACK. The top segment of the
meteor is turning steadily. The band of bright
metal is rapidly growing wider, serrated, greenish-
white.
DISSOLVE:
44. INT. SOCIAL HALL - SIDE LINES - (NIGHT)
Favoring Sylvia, sitting on a bench against the wall,
fanning herself with a lace handkerchief. Clayton
comes to her between guys, wiping sweat. Girls fix-
ing shaken hair-do's. People arguing about who ruined
the square. Clayton has two soft drinks with straws,
hands one bottle to Sylvia, drops on the bench beside
her. Fiddler's VOICE comes over SCENE.
SYLVIA
(Taking bottle)
Thank you, Doctor Forrester...
(Glancing)
You having fun?
45. DANCE FLOOR
SHOOTING past Clayton and Sylvia. He is sweating.
Beyond them, hearty dancers are going to town.
CLAYTON
Yes. And you know what I was thinking?
(Wiping sweat - eyeing
dancers)
If we could gather all the energy
expended in just one square dance,
we could send that meteor back to
where it came from.
DISSOLVE:
46. OUT
47. SPECIAL EFFECY - EXT. GULLY - METEOR (MOVING SHOT)
CAMERA MOVES IN slowly. The bright band of metal
is now almost two feet wide. Suddenly the rotating
section falls away like a shell, uncovering bright
metal within the opening.
48. MED. CLOSE SHOT - WASH, SALVADOR & ALONZO
CAMERA MOVES WITH THEM as they inch forward toward
the gully. A faint, reddish light catches their
faces. Salvador flicks the spotlight on.
49. SPECIAL EFFECT - MED. SHOT - METEOR OPENING
The metal sheath within the opening parts, shutter-
like, allowing vivid, reddish light to glow upward
from the interior. A HISSING SOUND comes from
the meteor.
50. CLOSE THREE SHOT
They stare, fascinated. The SOUND dies away.
51. SPECIAL EFFECT - MED. FULL SHOT - METEOR
The light in the opening dims. Something begins to
appear from inside, revolving about, making a WHINING
SOUND. Dimly seen, it emerges. It is flattened,
hooded, with faintly-luminous openings -- almost
cobra-like. It turns as if scanning the area --
snout glittering.
52. OUT
53. THREE SHOT
Wash, Alonzo and Salvador move forward cautiously,
warily watching the meteor.
WASH PERRY
Must be somebody in there.
SALVADOR
Who? Where d'you think they come from!
WASH PERRY
How would I know...!
ALONZO HOGUE
(Significantly)
I read someplace - Mars is near
the earth right now.
They look at him - all getting the same idea.
ALONZO HOGUE (Cont'd)
Happens every eighteen or twenty
years, they say.
(Softly)
Men from Mars - whaddya think?
SALVADOR
(Uneasily)
Maybe these are not men - not like us.
WASH PERRY
Everything human don't have to look
like you and me....
ALONZO HOGUE
If it's men from Mars, we ought to
let 'em know we're friendly!
SALVADOR
(Quick - warning)
Don't fool around with something
when we don't know what it is!
WASH PERRY
We'd be the first to make contact
with 'em -- see?
ALONZO HOGUE
(Sharp - suggesting)
We'd be in all the papers!
WASH PERRY
(Eagerly)
Hey, how about that!
ALONZO HOGUE
We could show 'em we're friendly,
huh? Walk out there with a white
flag!
(Turning)
Here - I got an old sugar sack in
my car!
He leaves the two and runs back to his car and gets
the sack and rips it open. He picks up the shovel
discarded earlier by Buck, starts to tie the sack
to it.
SALVADOR
(In f.g. - to Wash.)
What'll we say to 'em?
WASH PERRY
Welcome to California!
Alonzo Hogue rejoins them, swinging his white flag
from side to side as they look off toward the meteor.
54. SPECIAL EFFECT - METEOR OPENING
Now the shape is extended on a flexible, glistening
shaft, revolving about.
55. CLOSE SHOT - THE THREE (MOVING SHOT)
They begin to smile as they move forward over the
rough ground. Salvador doesn't like it too well,
but he comes along.
SALVADOR
How they gonna understand us?
ALONZO HOGUE
We'll talk in sign language.
WASH PERRY
(Bolstering his own
feelings)
They'll understand us, all right!
SALVADOR
(Reassuring himself)
Sure, sure! Everybody understands
you wave the white flag, you wanna
be friends.
56. 0UT.
57. SPECIAL EFFECT - CLOSE ON HOODED SHAPE ON SHAFT
Revolving around. Then it seems to zero in the
direction of the approaching group. A light begins
to flicker within the head mechanism.
58. MED. FULL SHOT - GROUP & COBRA-HEADED SHAPE
CAMERA FRAMED over the mechanism in f.g. Beyond, on
the edge of the gully, the three men spread out.
Alonzo holds the flag high. Wash lifts his Panama hat.
Salvador waves a handkerchief.
WASH PERRY
Hey, there - open up!
ALONZO HOGUE
Come on out! We're friends!
SALVADOR
(Nervous - open-armed)
That's right! We welcome you.
59. SPECIAL EFFECT - CLOSE SHOT - COBRA HEAD
The glittering light within the hood brightens and
begins to glow red and yellow.
WASH PERRY'S VOICE (O.S.)
We're friends!
SALVADOR'S VOICE (O.S.)
Yeah - all friends here!
A blinding flash - red, orange, yellow, spits from the
hooded shape, obliterating everything. An unearthly
SCREAM accompanies it.
60. SPECIAL EFFECT - EXT. GULLY - THREE MEN & METEOR
A REVERSE ANGLE across Wash Perry, Salvador and
Alonzo Hogue to the hooded shape beyond. The blast of
the heat-ray - pulsating, glaring - outlines them
momentarily as stark silhouettes, then engulfs them
in searing flames. As the horrible SCREAMING reaches
a crescendo, the men become incandescent, glowing,
then crmpling.
DISSOLVE:
60a. INT. SOCIAL HALL
Favoring Clayton and Sylvia, near the climax of a set.
FIDDLER'S VOICE
Here we come with the old mess wagon,
The hind wheel off and the axle draggin'...
Every light cuts off. The music FADES OUT. The sets
break up. People bump into one another.
SQUARE DANCERS
(Ad lib)
What's the big idea? - Who's monkey-
ing with the lights? - Get your hand
outa my pocket! - Where's the fuse
box?
A girl titters shrilly as a boy hugs her.
FIDDLER'S VOICE
No smoochin' in the dark, folks!
61. NEAR REFRESHMENT COUNTER
Someone lights a candle and puts it in a bottle.
Dancers are milling, laughing, kidding. Zippy is at
a pay phone on the wall, between the counter and the
door to the street. Clayton and Sylvia move into
scene. The Sheriff pushes past them.
FIDDLER
(At a window)
Hey, look! - look! Every light in
the town's gone out.
SHERIFF
(To Zippy)
Call the electric company. See what
happened.
ZIPPY
(Jogging receiver)
The phone's gone dead!
CLAYTON
(To Sylvia, glancing)
The phone's not on the same circuit
as the lights.
62. GROUP
Shooting out from the refreshment counter, favoring
an elderly man and his wife.
ELDERLY MAN
What they sayin', honey?
(Removing ear-plug)
Somep'n's gone wrong with my hear-
ing aid!
PASTOR COLLINS
Well, we always play 'Goodnight, Ladies'
at twelve o'clock, anyway.
(Reaching for pocket watch)
It must be nearly that now - My watch
has stopped.
SHERIFF
I got the time.
(At wrist-watch)
No - mine's stopped, too!
ZIPPY
So's mine!
CROWD - AD LIBS
(Looking at watches,
shaking them)
Jeepers, mine ain't workin', either!
What is this? - Hey, look, the clock's
stopped - My watch isn't going - How
could this happen!
63. GROUP - CLAYTON, SYLVIA, SHERIFF, PASTOR COLLINS IN F.G.
Clayton looks at his watch, then at Sylvia's. He
slips off his own.
SYLVIA
They've all stopped at the same
time.
CLAYTON
There's only about one explanation
for a thing like this..Got a pin?
She reaches under the lapel of the Pastor's jacket,
hands a pin to Clayton. He puts it on the counter,
then brings the case of his watch near it.
64. INSERT: WRIST-WATCH AND PIN
The pin leaps at the watch-case, drawn magnetically.
CLAYTON'S VOICE
See that? My watch is magnetized.
Sylvia's hands come INTO SHOT as she slips off her
wrist-watch to try it against the pin.
65. GROUP - FAVORING CLAYTON
Everyone starts to test watch cases against bobby-
pins, hairpins, exclaiming.
CLAYTON
That's what knocked the phones
out, too.
SHERIFF
How could it happen to everybody's
watch together?
CLAYTON
(Over him)
Have you got a pocket compass?
The Sheriff produces one in a case. Clayton sets it
on the counter. They bend to watch the needle.
SHERIFF
(Sharply)
That needle ain't pointing north!
CLAYTON
It's pointing out to the gully -
where that meteor came down.
The thin SCREAM OF A SIREN sounds O.S. Everyone starts
for the doors.
66. EXT. MAIN STREET, LINDA ROSA
Shooting from the entrance of the social hall, as
people pile out, Clayton, Sjlvia and Pastor Collins
with them. The town is completely blacked out. The
only visible light is from a police car, using hand
siren and red blinker. Its headlights silver the
dark streets as it races up.
SYLVIA
How does it happen cars are
running?
CLAYTON
Automobile ignitions are
insulated.
Brakes screech. The car pulls over, stops. A COP -
middle-aged, solid - tumbles out.
COP
Sheriff! What's goin' on?
SHERIFF
(Hurrying to him)
I don't know no more'n you, Joe.
CLAYTON
(To Sylvia and Pastor
Collins, moving away)
Excuse me...
COP
(Pointing)
Look at the fire out there!
67. SPECIAL EFFECT - THEIR VIEW
Beyond houses and hilltops, the glow of a fire, four
miles away.
68. EXT. SOCIAL HALL - BY THE COP'S CAR
The COP and the Sheriff gazing out as Clayton joins
them. Everyone staring with them.
SHERIFF
(To Clayton)
Let's go see!
They get into the car. Sylvia watches it go. SOUND
of motor and siren over SCENE. The group breaks up
as people run to their cars.
DISSOLVE:
69. EXT. OUTSIDE GULLY - DIRT ROAD - (NIGHT)
The police car bumps toward us, blinker working.
The SIREN DIES.
70. SPECIAL EFFECT - DIRT ROAD - MED. SHOT
CROSS ANGLE. As the Police car comes to a stop,
Clayton and the Sheriff hop out downstage, the Cop
gets out on the driver's side. Behind the car,
bushes are blazing. Above, on the hilltop, the
Martian heat-ray has left a line of fire which
streatches straight into the night. In its path,
some way off, a transmission tower has fallen,
partly melted, high-tension wires trailing, still
sparking.
CLAYTON
(Looking toward fallen tower)
That explains why the lights went out!
The Cop, standing beside the spotlight, looks off.
COP
(Pointing)
What the bejeepers went on here?
Look at their cars...!
71. EXT. DIRT ROAD - REMAINS OF CARS
The cars belonging to Fiddler and the others are gray,
ashy shapes, collapsed. Hardly recognizable except
for their tires, which leave a darker residue. Bushes
and grass are still burning around.
72. CLOSEUP - COP
Jittery, he reaches for the spotlight and snaps it
on toward the gully.
COP
And look there!
73. EXT. ROAD & GULLY - GROUP & METEOR
A REVERSE ANGLE over the men to the meteor in the
gully. The beam of the Cop's spotlight sweeps over
the smoldering bushes and rough ground, striking the
bottom of the meteor and then returning to something
on the edge above the gully.
73a. CLOSE TWO SHOT - CLAYTON & SHERIFF
The Sheriff wets his suddenly dry lips, gazing PAST
CAMERA. Clayton looks with him.
74. WHAT THEY SEE ON THE EDGE OF THE GULLY - CLOSEUP
Three shallow piles of gray ash, man-shaped, lie on
the bare and blackened earth, held in the spotlight.
75. MED. CLOSE SHOT - CLAYTON, SHERIFF & COP
Looking PAST CAMERA.
CLAYTON
(To Cop)
People in town started to follow
us out.
(Looking toward gully)
Don't let them come anywhere near here.
(Suddenly authoritative -
loud)
Get going!
76. SPECIAL EFFECT - CLOSE SHOT - METEOR
The hooded shape on its flexible shaft now rears
twelve or fifteen feet above the meteor. The cobra-
head is turning, zero-ing toward the road. It begins
to glitter inside the hood.
77. EXT. ROAD - MED. SHOT
The Cop is diving into the car in panic.
CLAYTON
Kill that spotlight. Turn off
your headlights!
The cop cuts all the lights, backs around and takes
off the way he came, CAMERA PANNING with him.
77a. CLOSE SHOT - CLAYTON & SHERIFF
The SOUND of the SCREAMING of the heat-ray whirls them
about as the reddish light glows on their faces.
CLAYTON
(Sharp - to Sheriff)
Jump! Get under cover!!
They dash off in the direction taken by the car.
78. SPECIAL EFFECT - EXT. DIRT ROAD - MED. FULL SHOT
A REVERSE ANGLE, SHOOTING along the road toward the
gully. The meteor is concealed behind a knoll.
Clayton and the Sheriff, b.g. race down the road
to f.g. and dive into a ditch as the superheated
glare of the heat-ray swings from the gully toward
them. The SCREAM is ear-splitting in intensity.
79. SPECIAL EFFECT - CLOSE SHOT - CLAYTON & SHERIFF
The ray SCREAMS over their heads. It holds above
the ditch. Throbbing. Its reddish glare blinding.
80. SPECIAL EFFECT - HEAT-RAY - COP'S CAR - FULL SHOT
The car turns incandescent as the ray envelopes it,
still going forward. It turns ashy gray. Hits
a boulder on the shoulder of the road and breaks
up into a spray of ashes.
81. EXT. DITCH - CLOSE SHOT - CLAYTON & SHERIFF
A REVERSE ANGLE on them huddled low as the ray
cuts off. They whirl about toward the meteor.
SHERIFF
(Wild)
What is that gizmo?!
CLAYTON
(Controlled)
I think that - gizmo - is a machine
from another planet.
SHERIFF
(Shaken)
We better get word to the authorities
and --
(Gazing up)
Look!
82. SPECIAL EFFECT - SKY & SECOND METEOR - FULL SHOT
Beyond the burning grass, another meteor is spurting
down the sky, bright and burning green.
83. CLOSEUP - CLAYTON & SHERIFF
CLAYTON
Sheriff - you'd better get word to
the military. You're going to need
them out here!
83a. SPECIAL EFFECT - EXT. GULLY - CLOSE SHOT
The hooded shape revolves about, searching. Its
snout glitters and glows alternately as it searches
for a target.
FADE OUT.
FADE IN:
84. QUICK CUTS - MARINE TRUCKS & JEEPS - (NIGHT)
a. Main Street, Linda Rosa. No lights. No neon
signs. Three trucks smash through the town.
Loaded with Marines.
b. Low CAMERA - jeeps. A Machine-gun jeep is
charging over the crest of a low hill, drop-
ping to lower ground. Another follows. Guns
and helmeted men are silhouetted against the
sky.
c. Two personnel trucks rolling fast, parting
where dirt roads cross.
DISSOLVE:
85. EXT. BLACK-TOP ROAD & T-CROSSING - (NIGHT)
Beyond is a. windbreak of eucalyptus trees and a low
earth bank. Parked on the side road is a remote-
control truck from the KGEB radio station. A few
reporters and cameramen are on the black-top road,
gazing out over open ground toward the gully.
CAMERA favors the KGEB REPORTER - ex-newsman, high-
wire and alert, sharkskin suit and Panama hat. He
has a portable mike, is interviewing PROFESSOR
OGILVY - a youngish, half-bald intellectual. Clayton
stands by. Near them is the Sheriff and Marine
COLONEL HEFFNER - easy-mannered, tough.
KGEB REPORTER
(At mike)
...The area is under control of the Marines
from El Toro Base, and the gully is under
close observation...And now -- here is
Professor Ogilvy from the Canadian Meteor-
ological Research Council!
(To Prof. Ogilvy -
extending mike)
Is it true you've had reports about land-
ings in other places, Professor?
PROF. OGILVY
Yes. In Bordeaux, France. Some from
Spain. There's supposed to be one down
near the Gulf of Taranto, Italy. We're
still trying to locate the second meteor
that dropped in this vicinity just about
midnight.
KGEB REPORTER
D'you think they come from Mars?
PROF. OGILVY
(Deferring)
What do you think, Doctor Forrester?
86. MED. CLOSE SHOT - GROUP
KGEB man and his mike f.g., catching the faces of
Colonel Heffner, the Sheriff, Prof. Ogilvy, Clayton
and reporters who are listening.
CLAYTON
It's possible. At least, it seems
certain they're from some other
planet than our own.
PROF. OGILVY
Recently Mars and our earth were in
conjunction --
(Adds)
-- in line. This could account for
the extended radio interference lately.
DISSOLVE:
87. EXT. CORNER RADIO STORE, LOS ANGELES - (NIGHT)
A cheesy, sleazy store. They sell radios, TV and
musical instruments. Big signs in the windows. A
console in the doorway. A bunch of bums hanging
around, listening.
CLAYTON'S VOICE
(Over radio)
In fact -- if they are from Mars -- it
is possible they first made landings on
the moon and used it as an observation
post!
A bum with an unlighted stub of a cigar takes it
out, backs off, looking up at the sky. Others look
with him, then at one another.
KGEB REPORTER'S VOICE
(Over radio)
That makes the old moon appear a
lot less friendly, sir.
FIRST BUM
(Half-whispering)
This a gag?
SECOND BUM
(Listening)
Shaddap...!
KGEB REPORTER'S VOICE
Suppose they are Martians, Professor.
What would they look like?
DISSOLVE:
88. INT. WELL-TO-DO HOUSE - (NIGHT)
SHOOTING past a group of well-dressed people eating a
supper snack from a big coffee table by a picture win-
dow. Through this we can see Los Angeles spread out
below, neons glowing like jewels. The group is
listening attentively to a radio.
KGEB REPORTER'S VOICE
(Continuing his questioning)
Bigger than us? Smaller?
PROFESSOR OGILVY'S VOICE
Well, as to Martians -- our gravitational
pull would weigh them down. Our heavier
air would oppress them....
KGEB REPORTER'S VOICE
But d'you think they'd be breathing
creatures like us? What about hearts
and blood and all that?
A bird-brained blonde moves into SCENE, staring.
PROF. OGILVY'S VOICE
My field is limited. Doctor Forrester
could tell you much more.
BLONDE
(Over Prof. Ogilvy)
Oh, how dull - everybody listening to
the radio!
BIG GUY
(Grabbing her)
Qui-et! Siddown!
PROF. OGILVY'S VOICE
But if they are Martians, and if they do
have hearts, they'd almost certainly beat
at a slower rate. Their veins might
be distended....
DISSOLVE:
89. EXT. CONVERTIBLE - CLOSE SHOT - (PROCESS - NIGHT)
San Francisco, with the Golden Gate Bridge and City
behind. A BOY driving, smooching a GIRL.
CLAYTON'S VOICE
(Over car radio)
Their senses could be quite different
from ours, of course. They may, for
instance, be able to smell colors.
There is precedent in our own evolution
to make it possible that they have
more than one brain...
The boy reaches to cut off the radio - he wants
to smooch. The girl stops him. He is annoyed.
KGEB REPORTER'S VOICE
You mean two? Three? More, maybe?
CLAYTON'S VOICE
It's only speculation.
KGEB REPORTER'S VOICE
Think of that, folks! Now, Doctor
Forrester - what about these meteor
machines?
CLAYTON'S VOICE
They're probably controlled by jets
after they enter our atmosphere... And
navigated by some form of gyroscope
mechanism.
DISSOLVE:
90. INT. SIDEWALK LUNCH COUNTER, SAN DIEGO - (NIGHT)
CAMERA is CLOSE on a picture of a battleship, then
PULLS BACK revealing a poster: SAN DIEGO ARENA -
BOXING. The SHOT WIDENS to show local fishermen,
a couple of Navy sailors, a few girls - grouped by
a small portable radio on the counter.
KGEB REPORTER'S VOICE
Is it true that all the phones went
out and everybody's watch stopped
around here?
CLAYTON'S VOICE
That was, I imagine, the effect from
some electro-magnetic force in the
heat-ray they used.
DISSOLVE:
91. T-CROSSING - GROUP
The KGEB Reporter, Clayton, Prof. Ogilvy, Colonel
Heffner. Newspaper men have moved closer, listening.
KGEB. REPORTER
Can you tell us anything about this
plane that's coming over, Colonel?
COLONEL HEFFNER
It'll drop a flare -- that's the only
way we dare put a light on them. Then
Air Force cameramen will get pictures.
KGEB REPORTER
That was Marine Colonel Ralph Heffner...
(In a confidential tone)
There's been a lot of mysterious activity
around the machine. Lights and dust, as
if they are digging themselves out.
(Shimmering light
hits his face)
There it comes again!
92. SPECIAL EFFECT - EXT. GULLY - FULL SHOT
A shuddering, blue-green light shows in the distance,
tinting nearby hills.
KGEB REPORTER'S VOICE
If this keeps up, it'll be a guide
for the plane when it comes over.
93. FLASHES - FOXHOLES & OBSERVATION POSTS
Groups dispersed under cover, relaxed but alert, all
watching the gully.
a. Two mortar teams in a dry riverbed.
b. Marine lieutenant and a sergeant with binocu-
lars, behind a low revetment.
c. Machine-gun unit in a foxhole.
d. Infantrymen, alert and watchful.
94. EXT. T-CROSSING - MED. SHOT - GROUP
KGEB Reporter f.g., Clayton, Colonel Heffner and
Sheriff just beyond him. Reporters and cameramen
line out along the road, waiting. The SOUND of
the plane OVERSCENE. Its motor cuts off and on
again.
KGEB REPORTER
(In a sharp whisper)
Is that the plane now?
COLONEL HEFFNER
(Looking up, quietly)
Yes! He's signalling.
KGEB REPORTER
(Into mike)
The pilot has just blipped his motor.
That means he's dropped the flare.
He's flying high, and it'll take a
few seconds to come down. When it
does burst, we shall be the first men
on earth to get a real look at these
invaders from space - whoever they
are! And there's the flare!
95. SPECIAL EFFECT - EXT. GULLY - FULL SHOT
The flare throws a cone of high-visibility light.
The Martian meteor has been cleared of dirt, stripped
of its oxydized shell. It is an oblong cylinder.
from the center of it, the hooded shape on the flex-
ible shaft has been pushed high, like & guarding
sentinel.
96. SPECIAL EFFECT - EXT. GULLY - MED. CLOSE SHOT
The hooded shape rears back on its flexible shaft,
angling up. The snout glitters, begins to glow,
brilliant, reddish. Then the heat-ray SCREAMS as
it lashes up into the sky.
97. EXT. T-CROSSING - MED. SHOT - GROUP
Clayton, the KGEB reporter and other watching the
sky tensely. The reporter has stopped gabbing, his
microphone forgotten. The blue-white glare of the
flare, mingled with the reddish glow of the heat-
ray, alternate in flickers over SCENE.
KGEB REPORTER
(Suddenly remembering mike)
They're after the plane with their rays!
98. SPECIAL EFFECT - EXT. SKY - FULL SHOT
The SCREAMING heat-ray lashes across the sky.
Writhing, seeking its target. It licks the flare
into oblivion, then whips downward toward the ears
and swings at us.
99. EXT. BLACK-TOP ROAD & T-CROSSING
Everybody dives for cover. The glare of the ray turns
everything fiery red.
100. EXT. FOOT OF EUCALYPTUS TREES - GROUP
The Colonel and the KGEB reporter flatten out to-
gether behind the low earth bank. Burning twigs
and leaves fall about them. Clayton cranes to look
out with the Colonel. The reporter yaks into his mike.
KGEB REPORTER
Well, here we are in ---
(Pulls at charred end of
mike cable - looks out)
Hey! They cut me off. They got
my truck!
COLONEL
It looks like they're going to come
out of that gully pretty soon ...!
We'd better build a shelter and be
ready when they do.
CLAYTON
You're going to need plenty of
reinforcements.
COLONEL
We'll get 'em.
(Calling off)
Lieutenant.
DISSOLVE:
101. QUICK CUTS & FLASHES - (NIGHT)
Troops and armament racing into the Linda Rosa
district: Trucks -- tanks -- weapons carriers --
half-tracks jeeps -- rocket lauchers.
102. EXT. COMMAND POST REVETMENT - (NIGHT)
A huge truck loaded with troops thunders past CAMERA.
Its passing uncovers the hastily erected sandbag revet-
ment for the command post. Nearby is an ambulance, a
Red Cross canteen truck with two women in uniform
working, several jeeps waiting with motors running.
Two jeeps start away in different directions. A jeep
rolls into SCENE, laying wire.
103. CLOSER ANGLE
Sylvia is at the rear corner of the revetment, holding
a tray of coffee mugs and doughnuts. She pauses to
watch more vehicles move past. She has changed out
of her dance frock into a tailored dress. She has a
Red Cross armband. CAMERA PICKS UP Clayton coming
from within the revetment inclosure.
CLAYTON
(Pausing beside Sylvia)
The troops are certainly moving in here!
SYLVIA
Didn't you have something to do with
this? I know you sent word to the
Sixth Army Command!
CLAYTON
(Taking coffee tray -
turning back with it)
I just told them the local situation.
Colonel Heffner's in full charge now.
SYLVIA
(Pausing - looking around)
You never know where you're going to
wind up when you go to a square dance!
104. INT. COMMAND POST REVETMENT - (NIGHT)
An opening in the sandbag breastwork for observation
high in the forward end. Storm lanterns provide
light. A huge tarpaulin is stretched over the revet-
ment as a roof and pulled down to cover the opening,
which overlooks the Martians in the gully beyond.
A field telephone switchboard and field telegraph
have been set up. On some boxes is an enlarged con-
tour map of the immediate territory, showing Linda
Rosa, surrounding roads, the site of the Martian
pit. A LIEUTENANT and a sergeant work on this map,
placing units as they report in position. A CAPTAIN
is on the phone. Communications men at other phones
constantly pass messages. A sergeant operates a
telegraph key. All are in full battle dress. The
atmosphere is alive, tense. There is constant b.g.
action of dispatch bearers coming and going.
As Sylvia and Clayton come in, the Colonel is brief-
ing officers at the map.
COLONEL
Locate your observation post on this
hill. Position your recoilless 75's
back here - Caroon Canyon.
(To another officer)
I want your battery here. You may
find at daylight that you're too
exposed -- so keep your prime movers
ready to pull you out fast.
(Smiling)
But you'll get first crack at 'em.
A CAPTAIN
That'll suit me! That all, sir?
COLONEL
Yes.
(As the lieutenant
hands a phone)
Report when you're set up.
Sylvia passes around coffee and doughnuts. Clayton
takes two mugs, bringing one across to the Colonel.
COLONEL
(At phone)
Half-tracks?...Okay. Get in back
of hill Thuh-ree. Follow up from
there if it's a moving target...
Roger!
He takes coffee from Clayton with one hand and a
Signal Corps message with the other.
COLONEL
(To Clayton)
They've located that second meteor.
(Passing message to
Lieutenant)
Mark it up.
105. BY THE MAP
As Pastor Collins comes in, wearing a Civil Defense
arnband. The Sheriff follows, pausing to reach for
doughnuts and coffee. The lieutenant marks another
Martian pit about five miles west, toward Whittier.
He draws a line linking it with the Martians in the
gully.
COLONEL
(To Clayton, poiting
to map)
There's one - there's the other,
and we're right between them!
PASTOR COLLINS
(Moving in)
So is the town, I notice!
COLONEL
I warned you Civil Defense people
to be ready if you have to evacuate.
PASTOR COLLINS
I just came to tell you - everyone
has been alerted.
The Colonel's glance is caught by something o.s. He
stiffens to attention.
GENERAL MANN'S VOICE (o.s.)
As you were...
106. INT. REVETMENT
SHOOTING toward the rear as GENERAL MANN comes in --
fiftyish, clipped mustache, wearing neat khaki.
Carries field glasses. His aide, a young MAJOR,
follows him.
COLONEL
(Moving to meet him)
General Mann -- I was told to expect
you, sir. I'm Colonel Heffner.
GENERAL MANN
(Smiling briefly)
I'm here to make up a report, not to
interfere with the operations you've
set up. You're still in command.
(Suddenly - warmly)
Clayton Forrester!
(Shaking hands)
I haven't seen you since Oak Ridge.
CLAYTON
Good to see you, General.
(Introducing)
This is Pastor Collins, director of
Civil Defense. Sheriff Bogany, head
of the local forces ... Miss Van Buren.
SYLVIA
Would you like some coffee, General?
GENERAL MANN
Thank you.
She starts out as his aide hands him some messages.
CLAYTON
(To Pastor)
General Mann's in charge of Intel-
ligence for the Pacific area.
107. GROUP - BY THE MAP
Favoring General Mann as he turns to scan the map,
continuing to glance at the messages. The lieutenant
is marking up more positions.
GENERAL MANN
That's their position?
(Grimly amused)
You've certainly got them surrounded.
(And then)
I suppose they've neutralized all
communications here.
COLONEL
Not all. Radio is out. But our field
phones are okay so far.
GENERAL MANN
And they'll go out the minute there's
another ray.
(Reading)
A cylinder reported down by Huntington
Beach. That's a job for the Navy.
CLAYTON
Do you have any news from abroad?
CAMERA ANGLES to favor him as he glances at messages,
sorting them, handing some to his aide.
GENERAL MANN (Cont'd)
They're coming down all over. South
America - Santiago has two cylinders.
They're outside London. And they're
in Naples.
(Going on)
We've got them between here and Fesno.
Outside Sacramento. Two on Long
Island...
CLAYTON
Are they just coming down at random?
GENERAL MANN
No, they're working to some kind
of a plan.
(Arter a moment)
But here's the most dangerous thing...
Once they begin to move -- no more
news comes out of that area!
108. INT. REVETMENT
SHOOTING past the General. Everyone is listening,
fascinated. The communications men have stopped
work. The morse key keeps repeating a call.
GENERAL MANN
We've been getting reports of destruction,
massacre ... Here's an instance!
(reading a message)
'Town of St. Julien, south of Bordeaux,
wiped out by ray of undetermined nature.
Local reports say nothing remains.'
(Looks around)
Nothing remains! What d'you make of that?
CLAYTON
We'll have to see what they do
here.
GENERAL MANN
A lot of our newest weapons are in
here. Washington wants to be sure
we stop them.
COLONEL
(Confident - smiling)
We will, sir!
GENERAL MANN
From the data - and from that picture
the Air Force took earlier tonight ...
(Thumbing toward the gully)
... what we've got in the gully out
there is a guide ship. One lands ...
Others follow later.
(To Clayton)
They appear to clear an area, then
drop in groups of threes, joined
magnetically. Is that possible?
CLAYTON
(Wryly)
If they do it, it is.
Sylvia brings coffee. The General takes it
automatically.
COLONEL
My orders are not to go into action
unless they make a move out of there.
GENERAL MANN
That's because we want a chance to
observe them.
(Gesturing to gully)
This is the only place we've had time
to surround them with sufficient force
to contain them. What happens here
will be a guide to all other operations.
The minute action begins and a pattern
of defense developes, I'll get my report
to Washington.
(Glances at map)
You've deployed your forces well.
COLONEL
Thank you, sir. If they start anything,
we can blast them right off the earth!
GENERAL MANN
(Checks watch, sips coffee)
They'll probably move at dawn.
DISSOLVE TO:
109 SPECIAL EFFECT - HIGH CAMERA - LONG SHOT - GULLY - DAWN
Silence. No movement anywhere. We see the burned
grass and blackened earth. The little gray ash-heaps
are still there. In the gully are dim, shining shapes.
Beyond the hills the sky is lightening. As the sun
comes up, one of the shining shapes begins to rise.
There is a SOUND of CRACKLING, HIGH-FREQUENCY ELECTRIC
SPARKS.
110. EXT. OBSERVATION POST
CAMERA is on an infantry lieutenant and a sergeant.
Their foxhole is camouflaged with burned grass and
bushes.
LIEUTENANT
(At field phone)
There's something moving in the
gully -- something's coming out!
111. FLASHES - TROOPS ALERTING
Men have been resting, dozing, waiting for dawn. A
signal reaches them.
a. Recoilless 75 men running to positions.
b. Crew racing to half-track rocket-launcher.
c. Machine-gunners readying for action.
d. Bazooka team alerting.
112 INT. REVETMENT
Lamps and candles being hurriedly extinguished. The
tarpaulin is yanked from the observation opening.
Everyone cranes to get a glimpse of the gully.
113. SPECIAL EFFECT - GULLY - (DAWN)
Burned-over ground runs straight to the gully, with
blackened scrub trees and bushes at either side.
Something is visible in the gully. Shining. Moving.
114. SPECIAL EFFECT - EXT. GULLY - MED. SHOT
Now, for the first time, we see a Martian machine
clearly. A metal shape is rising. The SOUND of high-
frequency sparks increases. It is a built-up section
of the cylinder. Domed in the center. Three vibrant
beams are projected like rods from below - stiff, joint-
less, incandescent. Effortlessly, the body of the
machine rises on the pulsating beams to a height of
thirty feet in the air, and hovers motionless. Then a
hooded shape extends above the body on a flexible shaft.
115. INT. REVETMENT
Favoring Clayton, Pastor Collins, General Mann and the
Colonel. All crowded to the opening in the sandbags.
The General and the Colonel use field glasses.
GENERAL MANN
(Softly - handing his
glasses to Clayton)
Look at it, will you?
PASTOR COLLINS
(Awed - half to himself)
Beings from another world ...
The Colonel signs to the Captain, who backs to the
fleld telephone switchooard.
COLONEL
(Quietly)
Stand by to fire.
CAPTAIN
(Into phone -
repeating)
All command posts stand by to fire.
PASTOR COLLINS
(Suddenly realizing -
protesting)
Colonel - shooting's no good!
COLONEL
It's always been a good persuader.
PASTOR COLLINS
Couldn't you try to communicate
with them first - and shoot later
if you have to?
The Colonel glances, then ignores him, using his
glasses. The uniformed men are all tense, watching
the gully, waiting for the order. Clayton is gazing
out with the Sheriff. Pastor Collins moves uncertainly
toward the open rear of the revetment. Sylvia sees
him, starts after him.
CAPTAIN'S VOICE (O.s.)
All command posts - target as indictated.
116. EXT. REVETMENT
Pastor Collins comes out, stands staring toward the
gully. Sylvia joins him. Behind them we glimpse
the tension of the men inside.
PASTOR COLLINS
(Looking o.s.)
I think we should try to make them
understand we mean them no harm.
Sylvia looks at him, not sure of what he means.
COLONEL'S VOICE (O.s.)
(Quietly - from inside)
There's another machine coming out.
117. SPECIAL EFFECT - EXT. GULLY
The Martian machines. The first machine is now
catching the early sunbeams. Turning golden, glis-
tening. In the shadows another machine is rising
from the gully. It, also, is armed with a hooded
shape.
118. CLOSE SHOT - SYLVIA AND PASTOR COLLINS
Both gazing toward the gully.
PASTOR COLLINS
(Meditative)
They are living creatures out there.
SYLVIA
But they're not human! Dr. Forrester
says they're some kind of an advanced
civilization --
PASTOR COLLINS
(Cutting in, smiling)
If they're more advanced than us,
they should be nearer the Creator
for that reason!
CAPTAIN'S VOICE
(Tensely, from inside)
Attention all batteries! Prepare
for volley fire! Repeat --
prepare for volley fire!
PASTOR COLLINS
(Meditative again)
No real attemot has been made to
communicate with them, you know...
Sylvia looks at him uneasily. She takes his arm.
SYLVIA
Let's go back inside, Uncle Matthew.
PASTOR COLLINS
(Shakes head, smiling)
I've done about all I can do here.
You go back in.
(Low - turning her
toward the inside)
Sylvia - I like that Doctor Forrester.
(Hand to her cheek)
He's a good man.
Sylvia presses his hand, smiling. As she leaves him,
the CAMERA PANS with her, losing Pastor Collins
momentarily.
119. HEAD CLOSEUP - PASTOR COLLINS
Looking in the direction of the gully, thoughtful.
120. FLASHES - PREPARATIONS FOR FIRING
a. Grouped bazookas bearing on the target.
b. Tanks waiting orders, at the ready.
c. Rocket launcher, loaded and ready.
121. SPECIAL EFFECT - EXT. GULLY
The Martian machine in f.g. is motionless. The second
one has paused half out of the gully. Its hooded arm
swings around on its shaft, as if under test.
122. EXTREME HEAD CLOSEUP - PASTOR COLLINS
Eyes serene. Smiles a little. Moves forward.
123. INT. REVETMENT
No sound except the telegraph key repeating a signal
over and over. No movement save for Sylvia, f.g.,
refilling coffee cups. General Mann, the Colonel,
Clayton and the Sheriff crouched by the opening.
COLONEL
(Suddenly)
Who's that?!
124. FLASH CLOSEUP - GROUP AT WINDOW
They stare out, disbelieving.
125. FLASH CLOSEUP - SYLVIA
She whirls, starts toward the opening.
126. SPECIAL EFFECT - INT. REVETMENT & VISTA
SHOOTING over the group at the opening to the VISTA
outside the revetment. In b.g. Pastor Collins is
walking away from the revetment, a solitary figure
moving over the burned-off earth. The Martian machines
beyond him are motionless, as if awaiting him.
COLONEL
(Choked voice)
What's he think he's doing?
127. CLOSE SHOT - CROSS ANGLE - FEATURING SYLVIA
SYLVIA
(Calling)
Uncle!
(Half screaming)
Uncle Matthew!!
She whirls to go after him. General Mann catches her
arm.
GENERAL MANN
Too late now -- he's too far away.
SYLVIA
(Lunges - appealing)
Stop him!
CLAYTON
(Holding her - looking out)
It's seen him.
128. SPECIAL EFFECT - MARTIAN MACHINE
It begins slowly to sink down as its glittering beam-
legs pulsate and grow shorter.
129. MOVING SHOT - EXT. BURNED-OFF FIELD
Pastor Collins brings out a cross, gazing ahead,
reciting the Twenty-third Psalm.
PASTOR COLLINS
(Softly)
Though I walk through the valley
of the shadow of death, I will fear
no evil ...
130. SPECIAL EFFECT - EXT. GULLY
SHOOTING past the first Martian machine, still sinking
down. The second machine has risen higher in the gully.
131. MOVING SHOT - EXT. BURNED-OFF FIELD
CLOSE on Pastor Collins, walking past more debris.
PASTOR COLLINS
(Whispering)
Thou anointest my head with oil.
My cup runneth over ...
132. INT. REVETMENT - GROUP
Featuring Sylvia and Clayton. All are crowded to the
opening. Sylvia is petrified with horror.
133. MOVING SHOT - EXT. BURNED-OFF FIELD - HEAD CLOSEUP
Pastor Collins moves ahead, eyes fixed on the machines.
He won't permit himself to be afraid.
PASTOR COLLINS
And I will dwell ... in the house
of the Lord .. forever.
He lifts the cross to shoulder height as CAMERA HOLDS
and PANS him on.
PASTOR COLLINS (Cont'd)
Amen.
(Murmuring)
May the grace of the Father and of
the Son ...
Beyond him we now see the Martian machine.
134. SPECIAL EFFECT - EXT. GULLY
Favoring the first machine, filling the SCREEN. Squat-
ting on its incandescent beam-legs, the hooded shaft
tilted forward. There is a moment -- then a magenta-
tinted heat-ray SCREAMS from it.
135. INT. REVETMENT - EXTREME HEAD CLOSEUP - SYLVIA
She SCREAMS, but her voice is drowned in the unearthly
SOUND of the Martian machine. We know, without seeing,
what has happened to the Pastor.
136. SPECIAL EFFECT - EXT. GULLY
VIEWPOINT from the command post revetment. The first
machine rises swiftly to full height, gliding forward.
The second clears the gully. The top of a third
machine appears.
137. SPECIAL EFFECT - EXT. GULLY & ROAD
The base ot the Martian machine's locomotor beam-leg.
Featuring, in f.g., the Pastor's cross, partly melted.
The glittering foot of the beam moves into SCENE,
leaving behind it molten rock and smoke. As it passes,
the intense heat it gives off acts like a blowtorch on
the terrain.
138. INT. REVETMENT - MED. CLOSE SHOT
SHOOTING from outside the observation opening. Sylvia
is CLOSE in f.g., horrified, unbelieving, supported by
Clayton. The Colonel whirls toward the switchboard.
COLONEL
Let 'em have it!
139. EXT. HILLSIDE - TANKS
The big guns of the tanks slam shells toward the gully.
140. SPECIAL EFFECT - MARTIAN MACHINE & SHELL BURSTS
Shells burst close to the Martian machine. Instantly
a beam -- different from the heat-ray -- strikes out
with a vicious, high-pitched DRUMMING SOUND. The beam
is electric-blue with a greenish tinge. Edges soft,
powdery. Fast, projectile-like discharges race down
its core, like a succession of balls, a deeper blue-
green. Beam and impulses are transparent.
141. SPECIAL EFFECT - EXT. HILLSIDE - TANK
The beam hits a tank. The tank changes color instan-
taneously. It turns bone yellow, then thins into an
oyster-white skeleton shape that is an echo of death
itself. The beam cuts off and the tank dissolves into
fine dust, the color of the beam, and blows away on
the breeze. Making pallid streamers in the early
morning light.
142. GROUP - AT OPENING
SHOOTING IN on the men - staring, transfixed. The
General lowers his glasses, looks at Clayton in stupe-
faction, then uses the glasses again.
143. QUICK CUTS - INSERTS OF MUZZLES - AS WEAPONS FIRE
CLOSE on the muzzles. Individual SOUND blasting.
a. Rocket-launcher muzzles as rockets fly.
b. Machine-gun muzzles shuddering.
c. Anti-tank gun muzzles explode and recoil.
144. QUICK CUTS & FLASHES - BATTLE (1)
The initial phase between man's weapons and the Martian
machines. The first Martian is out of the gully on the
burned-off field. The second is just clear of the
gully. The third has started to follow.
a. Special Effect - Full Shot - Gully. Increasing
shell and rocket fire bursting viciously about
the Martians. Short, blue jets are flashing
out around the turret heads of the machines.
These merge to form an impalpable, electro-
magnetic envelope which drops all around to
the ground.
b. Special Effect - Close Shot - First Machine.
Rays SCREAM from it, lashing in every direction.
c. Recoilless 75's - Close Shot. Muzzles Flash.
d. Rocket-launcher - Close Shot. In rapid suc-
cession, rockets roar toward the Martians.
e. Tank - Med. Shot. It's gun bucks violently
slamming an armor-piercing shell at the Mar-
tians.
f. Machine-gun Nest - Close Shot. 50 cal. machine-
gun chatters furiously, spitting a stream of
tracer shells.
g. Bazookas - Close Shot. In a sharp volley, a
group of bazookas let go with HE charges.
h. Mortars - Close Shot. In rapid succession,
Marines drop Napalm charges into the big muz-
zles of the mortars. Instantly the charges
fly high in the air in the direction of the
enemy.
i. Special Effect - Martian Machines. Projectiles
burst against their almost invisible protective
envelopes. Others ricochet off, exploding harm-
lessly in the air beyond. Napalm charges burst
around them, obscuring the machines in huge
balls of searing, orange fire and black smoke.
j. Special Effect - First Machine - Close Shot.
The flame of the Napalm clears. The machine is
undamaged. Rays slash from it, SCREAMING.
k. Special Effect - Second & Third Machines - Close
Shot. Flames and smoke clear. They lash rays
in every direction.
l. Special Effect - Rocket-launcher - Close Shot.
Hit by a heat-ray. The launcher and crew glow
white hot. Become a pile of ashes.
m. Special Effect - First Machine - Close Shot.
DRUMMING horribly, the blue-green disintegrating
beam darts forth.
n. Special Effect - Mortars - Med. Close Shot.
Hit by the skeletonizing beam. They literally
disintegrate - cease to exist. Men and machines
become a vapor of blue-green dust.
144-A. INT. REVETMENT - GROUP
Clayton, Sylvia and others duck below the shelter of
the sandbags as a heat-ray HOWLS close past the com-
mand post. CAMERA MOVES IN on Clayton and General
Mann, shouting above the uproar.
GENERAL MANN
(Fast, looking out)
What's that skeleton beam they're
using?
CLAYTON
It must neutralize mesons somehow.
They're the atomic glue that holds
matter together.
(Grimly)
Cut across their lines of magnetic
force and any object will simply
cease to exist.
145. SPECIAL EFFECT - FLASH CUTS - BATTLE (2)
The destruction of man's weapons by the Martians, and
the beginning of man's retreat.
a. Special Effect - Ext. Gully & Command Post
Revetment - Full Shot. A COMPOSITE SHOT of the
entire battle. One Martian machine on a hill
slope. The two others below. Rays and beams
lashing out. Shells and rockets and Napalm
exploding about them. Tanks scuttling about.
Rays hit them. Machine-gunners and tropps
abandon their stations, leaving their weapons.
Half-tracks, trucks, weapons-carriers, jeeps
pull out. Pandemonium.
b. Special Effect - Martian Machines - Med. Shot.
Smoke and fire clearing. Explosions about
them diminish. They redouble the activity of
their rays and beams.
c. Special Effect - Battlefield - Med. Full Shot.
Gray ash on a blackened road - the residue of
tanks. Men, jeeps, equipment flee past, es-
caping. Rays and beams reach after them.
d. Ext. Hillside - Med. Close Shot. Infantrymen
crash through burning bushes in headlong re-
treat, looking back in panic.
e. Special Effect - Martian Machine - Close Shot.
On skyline. Moving forward. Rays SCREAMING,
beams DRUMMING. No counter fire from our
forces.
146. EXT. REVETMENT - MED FULL SHOT
Parked jeeps, General Mann's car, a few Marines, the
Red Cross truck. The heat-ray slashes through them,
hits the revetment and swings away. Men fall in
ashes, jeeps glow and burn, the Red Cross truck and
General Mann's car are singed and blazing. The huge
tarp stretched over the revetment blazes.
147. INT. REVETMENT - MED. FULL SHOT
The inclosure is a madhouse - men trying to extinguish
burning switchboards - the lieutenant gathering up the
scorched maps - the captain shouting uselessly into
the field phone - Clayton up by the opening using the
field glasses, Sylvia and the Sheriff crouched near
him. General Mann and his aide rush out.
LIEUTENANT
(At the opening)
There's a Martian machine headed
straight for us!
COLONEL
(Shouting to Captain)
Order all command posts - everything
pull back north of Highway Sixty
tunnel bunker!
148. SPECIAL EFFECT - MARTIAN MACHINE - MED. CLOSE SHOT
Moving along the burned-off swathe from the gully,
rays slashing.
149. INT. REVETMENT - MED. SHOT
COLONEL
(At observation
opening - yelling)
They're going to roll right through
here. Sheriff - get into Linda Rosa.
Tell Civil Defense - evacuate everybody!
Clayton, at the opening, watches the approaching
machines, absorbed by them. A heat-ray slashes near,
casting its ruddy glare. Shreds of the burning tar-
paulin fall. Sylvia grabs him, pulling him down.
COLONEL
Doctor Forrester - get out of here!
He literally jerks Clayton and Sylvia to their feet,
shoving them toward the rear.
COLONEL (Cont'd)
Everybody out! The Air Force'll
take care of these babies now!
(Runs toward CAMERA)
Everybody out --- Everybody ----
He is in EXTREME CLOSEUP, shouting. The red heat-ray
seems to envelope him in a blaze of color, SCREAMING.
Suddealy the SCREEN explodes into deadly blue-green -
the disintegrating beam! The Colonel's shout is frozen
on his lips. The skeletal structure of his head glows
incandescent -- greenish-white -- through the flesh
of his face. In an instant he vanishes into a shred
of blue-green vapor which swirls and is lost in the
ruddy flames of the ray.
DISSOLVE:
150. EXT. SKY - FULL SHOT - (STOCK)
A huge formation of fighter bombers flashes across
the sky, the chorus of their jets pulsating like
thunder.
DISSOLVE:
151. EXT. ROAD - MED. SHOT
A weapons carrier clatters past at breakneck speed.
Men from mixed units jump from behind scrub trees,
running. A crowded jeep flashes past as Clayton and
Sylvia appear. The two run after the men. Clayton
pulls her to a stop, looks o.s., then runs across
the road with her.
152. EXT. FIELD - MED. SHOT
A Piper Cub - battery observation plane - is just
taking off. Another is on the ground, no one near it.
Clayton and Sylvia enter, running. Beyond one wing
of the machine we see smoke, explosions and rays and
beams ripping against the sky.
CLAYTON
We can't go into town - everybody's
getting out of there!
(Steering her toward plane)
I'll fly you over to Pasadena.
SYLVIA
Can you handle one of these?
CLAYTON
Sure...get in!
He shoves Sylvia up into the plane and climbs in at
the wheel.
DISSOLVE:
153. EXT. SKY - MED. SHOT
The Piper Cub in flight, hedge-hopping.
154. INT. PIPER CUT - CLOSE SHOT (PROCESS)
SHOOTING PAST Clayton to Sylvia. The tops of utility
poles and trees skim past, almost at their level.
The plane wobbles. Clayton is unconcerned.
SYLVIA
(Hanging on)
You'll hit something! Can't
you go higher?
CLAYTON
(Looking up)
No. The air's going to be full of
Jets in a minute...And there they
are!
155. EXT. SKY - QUICK CUTS OF JETS - (STOCK)
Jet fighter-bombers in formation, colorful against the
sky, peeling off to dive.
156. INT. PIPER CUB - CLOSE SHOT - (PROCESS)
Clayton looking o.s. as he banks sharply. Sylvia
looking after him.
157. EXT. SKY - QUICK CLOSE SHOT (STOCK)
Jet fighter-bombers diving, firing, launching rockets,
dropping bombs. SOUNDS of explosions.
158. EXT. SKY - MED. CLOSE SHOT
The piper cub porpoising over the treetops, banking
and turning.
159. QUICK CUTS - WRECK OF PIPER CUB
a. Int. Piper Cub - Close Shot (Process).
Clayton looking up. Sylvia turns and
looks ahead, SCREAMS.
b. Special Effect - Piper Cub - Full Shot.
SHOOTING AHEAD. It rises over a low
hilltop - flying directly toward a
Martian machine on the flat fields
beyond. Plane banks sharply to change
course.
c. Special Effect - Piper Cub - Med. Shot.
The wing snags a tree. The plane cart-
wheels toward the ground.
160. SPECIAL EFFECT - EXT. BEAN FIELD - MED. SHOT
The Cub lands on one wheel, bounces, goes into a
ground loop, a slashing skid and stops, tilted on
a torn wing. Propeller shattered.
161. EXT. BEANFIELD - CLOSE SHOT - (MOVING SHOT)
Clayton half-falls out of the wrecked plane, looking
o.s., as he helps Sylvia. She looks with him, gasps.
They run and dive into an irrigation ditch, CAMERA
FOLLOWING.
162. SPECIAL EFFECT - EXT BEANFIELD & DITCH - FULL SHOT
SHOOTING over the torn wing of the Piper Cup among the
tangled bean plants. Across the field is a low, wooded
hill. Coming into sight at the foot of the hill is the
Martian machine, its cobra-like weapon turning on its
shaft, swinging toward the plane.
163. EXT. DITCH - CLOSE SHOT - CLAYTON & SYLVIA
Ducked low, taut, terrified. He sneaks a look over
the edge, then flings himself down with Sylvia again.
There is the SOUND of the horrible DRUMMING of the
disintegrating beam, which quickly flickers out, mark-
ing the destruction of the Piper Cub. Their faces are
lit blue-green. Then, down into the ditch, the eerie
vapor of unglued atom flows, icandescent, swirling
in the breeze.
Clayton and Sylvia begin to stir. The CRACKLING of
HIGH FREQUENCY ELECTRICITY from the machine's loco-
motor mechanism grows louder - it's coming for them!
Clayton grabs Sylvia, half-dragging, half-carrying
her back along the ditch. He pushes her behind a
pile of broken irrigation pipe, falls across her.
The CRACKLING swells to a ROAR of SPARKS. Where they
had just lain, the glittering, flickering base of a
beam-leg dips down into the ditch, moves across and
up the other bank, leaving a smoking path of fused
rock and debris.
163a. EXTREME CLOSEUP - CLAYTON & SYLVIA
Smoke swirling about them. Heads thrust into the
dirt. Frozen with terror. Faces crushed together.
The machine's ROAR diminishes. They begin to breathe
again. The tension of Clayton's grip on Sylvia's
shoulders lessens. The suspended functions of her
mind resume. Her eyes turn to him. He looks at her.
Shock overwhelms her. She faints.
FADE OUT.
FADE IN:
164. EXT. DOWNTOWN STREET, LOS ANGELES - (DAY)
CAMERA is on a CORNER NEWSSTAND. Tip-sheets and
papers are clipped around the front, sides and to a
wire between uprights. Headlines: MEN FROM MARS -
Europe Cities Blasted - KILLER RAYS; MARS MACHINES
IN CALIFORNIA - Fighting Near L.A. - U.S. INVADED -
MARTIAN THREAT. A little crowd on the sidewalk
reads papers avidly. Cars stop at the curb to buy
others. An elderly woman sits behind the newsstand,
knitting, hawking her sensations.
165. CLOSEUP - ELDERLY WOMAN
ELDERLY WOMAN
(Thin - piping)
All about the Martian Invasion - They're
in New York and Miami - Fighting outside
Los Angeles - All about it! - Radio black-
out - Killers from Mars - World-wide
Crisis - United States invaded - all
about the Martians!
(Sells a paper)
Thank you, mister.
The SOUND of approaching sirens comes over SCENE.
She and her customers look o.s.
166. EXT. STREET - (Location)
Traffic is slowing, stopping. The SOUND of massed
sirens comes to a peak. Two motorcycle cops race
past, blinkers working. Four more follow. Then
comes General Mann's dirty, fire-blackened car.
CAMERA PANS the car, going fast, then ANGLES UP
the front of the stately Federal Building.
DISSOLVE:
167. MOVING SHOT - INT. ARMED FORCES INFORMATION, MAIN
OFFICE - (DAY)
Five desks. Walls covered with maps and thumb-tacked
notices. The doors of three private offices across
from the entrance. The place is crowded with Army,
Navy, Marine and Air Force personnel, police of-
ficials, CD directors, reporters, photographers. Two
cops shoulder in from the corridor by a door marked:
ARMED FORCES - Public Information Office - Entrance.
General Mann follows with his aide. Reporters and
cameramen crowd around the unshaven, grimy General,
impeding him on his way toward a private office out-
side which sits a WAC secretary. Naval and military
men come to attention, then press toward him. The
General looks past them all, calling to CD directors
and civic authorities.
GENERAL MANN
(Beckoning)
You're the gentlemen I asked to
come here.
(To his aide)
Get Washington.
The aide pushes ahead while flashbulbs blink and repor-
ters surround the General. He keeps moving. A FAT
REPORTER - thin-nosed, sweating - tries to buttonhole
him.
FAT REPORTER
General Mann, what d'you think of
this situation --
GENERAL MANN
Sorry. I've no time!
FAT REPORTER
(Wily, fast)
Is it your opinion the Army can
hold 'em?
POLICE CHEIF
(Moving in, sharp)
All right, boys - let it go!
SECOND REPORTER
(Jumping in, over him)
You had guns and equipment going out
there all night! Weren't they enough to --
GENERAL MANN
(Tired, exasperated)
I said I've no time!
POLICE CHIEF
C'mon, now - break it up!
During this, General Mann has pushed to the door of
the private office. With a concerted effort, the
General and the civic officials push inside. The
door closes. A big Marine bars further entry. CAMERA
HOLDS on the reporters and photographers.
FAT REPORTER
The way he's hedging, maybe the
Army didn't hold 'em!
(Significant)
Because from the news that's coming
through, nobody's stopped 'em yet!
(Looking toward door)
We'll wait.
168. INT. PRIVATE OFFICE
It belongs to the Chief of Army Information. General
Mann's aide is talking into a phone in b.g. The
General faces the civilian group which includes police
and fire chiefs, Pacific Electric and other trans-
portation officials, Air Raid wardens, Red Cross.
GENERAL MANN
Who's the General Director for
Civil Defense?
C.D. DIRECTOR
Here, sir. We're all ready for action!
GENERAL MANN
I want to know if the city must be
evacuated...?
C.D. DIRECTOR
(Smiling)
Lots of people got scared and moved
out as it is!
P.E. OFFICIAL
We're holding emergency cars and
buses ready in the yard, sir!
RED CROSS LEADER
Red Cross is standing by.
C.D. DIRECTOR
I believe, sir, I can speak for
everyone. We've got the whole
city on the ready!
GENERAL MANN
That's what I wanted! For your in-
formation - they're twenty-five or
thirty miles outside Los Angeles.
They're not down in force yet, but
that can happen any minute. We've
got a developing situation. It'll
come to a crisis if they move into
the metropolitan area and --
AIDE
(Cutting in, quick)
Washington on the wire, sir.
GENERAL MANN
(Taking phone, turning away)
General Mann...
169. CLOSE ON GENERAL MANN
listening at phone, keyed-up.
GENERAL MAN
(Atter a pause, low, fast)
I'd say our effective losses were
nearly sixty percent men and ninety
persent materiel!
(Grimly)
The new delta-wing jets went in, but
not one of them came out. I watched
high-level bombers drop everything
they carried. They were knocked out
of the sky and the bombs did nothing.
170. GROUP - CIVILIAN LEADERS
straining to catch what he is saying, glancing at
one another, alarmed.
GENERAL MANN'S VOICE
Nothing was effective against them!...
Yes, they have some sort of electronic
umbrella. It's quite impenetrable. And
Doctor Forrester believes they generate
atomic force without the heavy screening
we use -- That's where they get the
power for their rays!
171. INT. PRIVATE OFFICE - MED. CLOSE SHOT
General Mann at phone, his aide in b.g.
GENERAL MANN
Very well, sir.
(Hanging up - to aide)
Call Victorville. Tell them I
want the fastest plane they've
got!
SHOT WIDENS as he turns to the nearby group.
GENERAL MANN (Cont'd)
You'll get all further instructions
from Sixth Army Command.
(To Police Chief)
Now I'll make a statement to those
reporters.
The Police Chief opens the door. Hubbub comes from
the outside as reporters and photographers crowd in.
The civic authorities leave.
FAT REPORTER
(Barging forward)
General, we heard Doctor Clayton
Forrester was out there with you.
What's he think about this?
GENERAL MANN
Ask him. He's back at Pacific-Tech.
FAT REPORTER
No, he's not! We tried to get him.
He hasn't shown up there.
DISSOLVE:
172. SPECIAL EFFECT - EXT. FARM & BEANFIELD - (NIGHT)
Peaceful. Crickets chirruping. A mocking-bird SOUND-
ING off. Low ground mist. Out of the distance comes
the MUTTER of gunfire and remote EXPLOSIONS.
CAMERA SHOOTING across the edge of the dry irriga-
tion ditch toward the farmhouse in the middle dis-
tance. A farm cat appears over the edge of the
ditch, carrying something in its mouth. It hurries
down into the ditch, CAMERA PANNING.
172a. EXT. IRRIGATION DITCH - MED. CLOSE SHOT
Clayton is sitting alongside Sylvia who is stretched
out asleep. Clayton's jacket is covering her. His
attention has been attracted by the cat.
172b. EXT. DITCH - CLOSE SHOT
The cat stops in the bottom of the ditch and puts
her burden down on some grass. It is a tiny puppy.
She lies down. It snuggles to her, whining weakly.
172c. CLOSEUP CLAYTON (PAN SHOT)
He smiles a little wryly, looks down toward Sylvia.
CAMERA PANS to CLOSEUP of Sylvia. She is breathing
softly, regularly.
172d. CLOSE SHOT - CLAYTON & SYLVIA
He bends over, looking at her for a long moment,
then his hand touches her shoulder, shaking it to
waken her.
CLAYTON
(Softly)
Wake up....
Her eyes open, close, then open again.
CLAYTON (Cont'd)
(Gently)
Let's get moving, huh?
She doesn't move, only looks at him.
CLAYTON (Cont'd)
(Concealing his anxiety -
smiling)
Are you all right?
SYLVIA
(Still half-awake)
I never noticed before - that's a
cowboy tie....
CLAYTON
I bought it for the square dance.
I thought I ought to wear some-
thing Western.
She laughs dreamily, looking up at him. Her smile
goes suddenly. She glances out over the edge of the
ditch.
SYLVIA
Is that... machine...?
CLAYTON
It's gone now.
SYLVIA
Where are we?
CLAYTON
Southwest of Corona, somewhere.
There must have been another
cylinder down here. They've been
through this whole area and cleared
everybody out.
(Peering from the ditch)
There's a farmhouse. Let's see if
we can find something to eat...!
As they prepare to leave,
DISSOLVE:
173. INT. FARMHOUSE - KITCHEN - (NIGHT)
CLOSE on a skillet loaded with bacon and eggs.
CAMERA ANGLE WIDENS. The kitchen is not modern.
Old gas refrigerator. High-oven stove, its flaming
gas-jets make an eerie glow. Coffee percolates.
Sylvia has tidied her hair, renewed her make-up.
Clayton is taking a jug of orange juice from the
refrigerator. He uses it to indicate the farmhouse
as he glances around.
CLAYTON
We're doing all right.
He puts it on the table, which he has set, then looks
warily out the window. He goes to the stove as
Sylvia begins dishing up. She is pensive. They keep
their voices down.
CLAYTON
I almost forget when I ate last.
(Genuine)
It looks so good.... You know,
mostly I get my meals in coffee
shops and restaurants.
SYLVIA
(Astonished)
Don't you live at home?
CLAYTON
No, on the campus. I haven't
any family.
SYLVIA
I come from a big one. Nine of us.
All in Minnesota, except me.
CLAYTON
I have no close folks. My parents
died when I was a kid.
174. ANOTHER ANGLE - CLAYTON AND SYLVIA
Shooting across the table to the stove. Sylvia
comes toward CAMERA, bringing bacon and eggs. He
follows with the coffee.
CLAYTON
A big family must be fun...I
imagine it makes you feel you
belong to something.
SYLVIA
It does...Maybe that's why I feel
kind of lost right now.
CLAYTON
(Reassuring, pouring coffee)
We'll get safely out of here, don't
worry.
SYLVIA
(Pouring orange juice)
But they seem to murder everything
that moves...!
CLAYTON
If they're mortal, they must have
mortal weaknesses. They'll be
stopped -- somehow!
175. CLOSE SHOT
They begin to eat.
CLAYTON
I've been as close to them as anyone.
But not close enough for real observation...
SYLVIA
(Over him - not listening)
I feel like I did one time when
I was small.
(Not sorry for herself,
merely telling him)
Awful scared and lonesome...I'd
wandered off - I've forgotten why -
but the family and whole crowds of
neighbors were hunting for me.
(And then)
They found me in a church. I was
afraid to go in any place else.
116. CLOSE SHOT - SYLVIA
Half smiling at the memory.
SYLVIA
I stayed right by the door - praying
for the one who loved me best to
come and find me.
(And then)
It was Uncle Matthew who found me.
CLAYTON
(Quietly)
I liked him.
177. AT THE TABLE
Sylvia touches away a tear, keeps her voice con-
trolled.
SYLVIA
He liked you ... I could bawl my
head off!
CLAYTON
But you're not going to. You're
not the kind.
(Encouraging, gentle)
You're tired, anyway. You've been
up all night. You cracked up in a
plane. Slept in a ditch. But you
want to know something?
(Removing glasses
looking, smiling)
It doesn't show on you at all.
As she smiles, holding his gaze, a greenish glow
begins to spread through the kitchen. Clayton rises,
startled. The light becomes a glare that limns
everything sharply - emerald and black. A smashing
and roaring SOUNDS outside, approaching like an
avalanche. Clayton grabs Sylvia as the house shakes.
Part of the ceiling crashes down. The floor rocks
under them. They fall, Clayton shielding Sylvia,
as the walls smash in.
178. HIGH CAMERA - SPECIAL EFFECT - EXT. FARMHOUSE AND
MULTIPLE METEOR
A multiple meteor has fallen. Through the ground
mist we see that one cylinder has gouged up earth
and is hitting the farmhouse in f.g. Two other
cylinders land in the far distance and are obscured
in the mist. All movement ends. Silence follows.
DISSOLVE:
179. INT. WRECKED FARMHOUSE - (NIGHT)
CLOSE on a broken pipe, gushing water. Sylvia's hand
comes into SCENE, soaking a cloth. CAMERA PANS as
she draws the cloth away. Clayton is sprawled near
the living room doorway, hunched, holding his head.
She crouches by him - shaken, anxious - pressing the
cloth against his temple. He sits up slowly, holding
the cloth against his head, then pressing it over his
face and eyes. He is hurt. Finally, he drags the
cloth down his face and sucks in his breath. She
holds him while his brain steadies.
CLAYTON
How long was I out?
SYLVIA
(Small, whispering)
Hours. I've been so scared...!
He starts to get up. She holds him down.
SYLVIA (Cont'd)
(Whispering)
They're right outside! Several of
them came down together!
Clayton is immediately alert. He rises quietly,
CAMERA PANS as he tiptoes to the wall and peers out
a vertical break.
180. SPECIAL EFFECT - EXT. WRECKED FARMHOUSE
Clayton's VIEWPOINT. Everything is seen through or
above low ground mist. In b.g. is fencing, trees, sheds.
Visible above the mist is a Martian machine, gliding
slowly. It stops. CLOSE in f.g., is part of a glit-
tering leg that rises to the underside of another
machine standing sentinel, straddling the house.
181. INT. KITCHEN - CLAYTON & SYLVIA
Clayton's eyes reflect his excitecent. He leaves the
opening, looks up, starts quickly toward the living
room.
CLAYTON
(Whispering)
There's a machine standing right over us!
182. INT. LIVING ROOM - MED. SHOT
The attic has been crushed down in a mess of beams
and plaster. The roof has spilled over at one side.
Clayton reaches up, pulling at beams and plaster,
trying to get a better look. He peers out through
an opening to the farmyard again. Sylvia, by the
door to the patio, regards him fearfully.
183. SPECIAL EFFECT - EXT. FARMHOUSE
Clayton's VIEWPOINT from the living room. The Martian
machine in b.g. is now slowly submerging into the mist.
From this vantage point, a third machine is now vis-
ible, still on the ground in the farmyard. Now this
machine begins to rise on its glowing beam-legs.
184. INT. LIVING ROOM - MED. SHOT
Clayton is peering through the opening in b.g.
Sylvia, f.g., standing beside the broken door to the
outside patio, turns and looks out. She suppresses
a scream, starting away. CAMERA MOVES IN fast, SHOOT-
ING past her to the EXTERIOR. The patio is blocked
with debris, fallen fuchsias, potted cacti in bloom.
A form is just disappearing beyond the debris. Smooth,
reddish, indefinite.
185. CLOSE SHOT - SYLVIA & CLAYTON
Clayton jumps to her side.
SYLVIA
Something moved outside!
Clayton brings out a flashlight, starts to move out to
the patio. Sylvia clings to him as he looks.
CLAYTON
(Whispering, tense)
Nothing there now.
SYLVIA
It was...
(Indicating Martians)
...one of them!
CLAYTON
What was it like?
SYLVIA
(Drawing him back
toward kitchen)
I couldn't see much in the dark -
but it was one!
CLAYTON
We're right in a nest of 'em! ...
I've got to get a look at them.
He pulls away from Sylvia and works quickly at a
shattered wall, making an opening. From the other
side of the room comes the SOUND of shifting debris.
Sylvia calls a warning. Clayton spins, backing to
join her. They shelter in the kitchen doorway,
watching cautiously. The thrusting and RATTLING
of displaced wood and plaster continues.
186. INT. LIVING ROOM - MED. SHOT
Their VIEWPOINT. Through the debris appears a long,
slender mechanism in the shape of a flexible metal-
lic tubing. At the head of it is an enlarged section
which splits and slides back, disclosing a bright
lens - like an eye, but larger. It begins to quest
about the room, glittering in the deep shadow.
187. CLOSE - CLAYTON AND SYLVIA
He is fascinated. She is frozen with fear.
CLAYTON
(Bated)
It's looking for us!
She pulls him down behind the upset dinette table,
jammed in a corner with other debris.
188. CLOSEUP - MARTIAN SCANNING EYE
It is divided into three striated lenses, each faintly
colored with one of the optical primaries - red, blue
or green. It comes through the doorway. It turns
ceaselessly around and back again on a sheathed
universal joint, making a faint CLICKING SOUND on
each movement. Questing. Suspicious. Reflected in
each lens is a tinted, peculiarly distorted view of
the wrecked kitchen.
189. CLOSE SHOT - CLAYTON & SYLVIA
Huddled behind the table, watching through a crack.
190. SPECIAL EFFECT - EXT. FARMHOUSE & MARTIAN MACHINE
CAMERA PICKS UP the plastic-covered nose of the
machine, within which the honeycombed circle has
now become a luminous screen. On this translucent
surface, projected from inside, is a curiously
twisted picture of the kitchen - as transmitted
by the scanning eye in the house below.
191. INT. KITCHEN - CLOSE SHOT - CLAYTON & SYLVIA
Clayton has picked up a peoble of broken plaster.
He flips it against the ceiling of the living room
beyond. He grabs Sylvia, pulling her down.
191a. INT. LIVING ROOM - MED. SHOT - SCANNING EYE
The eye is turning around and back as Clayton's pebble
and a little broken plaster dribble from the ceiling.
The eye snakes upward to look. It comes down again.
Slowly, suspiciously, it lowers to the floor.
192. CLOSEUP - CLAYTON & SYLVIA
She is clutching him. He comes up a little, pokes
cautiously where plaster is broken from the wall
and peers into the living room.
193. INT. LIVING ROOM - MED. FULL SHOT
Clayton's VIEWPOINT. The mechanical eye is in the
middle of the floor, turning around and back.
Watching. Waiting.
194. INT. KITCHEN - CLOSEUP - CLAYTON & SYLVIA
He covers the peephole with his hand.
CLAYTON
Maybe they aren't too sure we're here.
SYLVIA
(Bated)
They could be as curious about us
as we are about them.
CLAYTON
Maybe ...
(Looks up)
Maybe they want to take us alive.
195. SPECIAL EFFECT - EXT. FARMHOUSE - MED. FULL SHOT
A Martian machine is moving through the mist in b.g.
The one in the farmyard has moved nearer. The honey-
combed circle is alight, showing the picture of the
kitchen in the house. Suddenly this goes off.
196. INT. KITCHEN - CLOSE SHOT CLAYTON & SYLVIA
He is using the peephole to the living room again.
CLAYTON
(Whispering - sharp)
It's pulling out!
197. INT. LIVING ROOM - MED. FULL SHOT
VIEWPOINT from kitchen. The sheath is closing over the
eye. The flexible tubing is withdrawing. It disappears.
198. CLOSE SHOT - CLAYTON & SYLVIA
He gets up, comes cautiously from the kitchen, with
Sylvia following. She grasps his arm.
SYLVIA
(Gasping)
Let's get out of here!
He gestures her to silence, moves toward the wall
and the opening he had made. She peers fearfully
out through the broken patio door.
SYLVIA
(At the door, shocked)
They've blocked it!
CLAYTON
(At opening in wall)
It's blocked here, too!
(Furiously clawing at
the hole)
They've pushed up earth or something
all around outside.
(Moving to fireplace)
Here, this way...!
He snatches an axe from the woodbox by the fireplace,
jabbing between fallen ceiling beams. Sylvia looks
fearfully around.
199. CLOSEUP - SYLVIA & CLAYTON - PAN SHOT
CAMERA WHIPS UP from them. The Martian eye is hanging
in the dimness above their heads, through a split in
the ceiling.
SYLVIA
Look out!!
Clayton sees it, leaps, slashing with the axe. A
loose beam is dislodged in a shower of dust and frag-
ments, falling across the tubing and the eye, pinning
it to the floor.
200. CLOSE SHOT - CLAYTON
As he holds a foot on the tubing behind the eye,
hacking with the axe. He cuts the lens clear. The
rest of the mechanism is withdrawn fast, snaking up
into the debris.
CLAYTON
We've got to get out now - fast!
(Grabs up metal shape
containing the eye)
This is something tangible to
work on....
(Excited, exultant)
It'll tell us a lot about them...
He jumps to where he was working, hacking furiously
with the axe, careless of noise now.
CLAYTON (Cont'd)
I've got to get to Pacific-Tech -
quick!
201. CLOSE SHOT - SYLVIA
SHOOTING past Clayton. She comes into SCENE behind
him, pulling on a loose beam to give him room, using
a piece of cloth to protect her hands. Behind her
is a door leading to the den. It is broken, sprung
from its hinges.
CAMERA MOVES IN past Clayton as out of the dark cavity
behind Sylvia comes a hand that is more than a hand,
on an arm that is thin, lean, with degenerate muscu-
lature. Thick veins cross it, pulsating. Back of it
is a dim form. The hand-shape has three fingerlike
suckers. They fasten on Sylvia's shoulder, spreading,
huge. Her eyes and mouth open in horror. She tries
to scream but her vocal cords are paralyzed, shocked.
She is drawn back, drops the loose beam. Then she
forces a SOUND between her lips. Clayton hears and
leaps to help her, sending the beam of his flash-
light at the figure behind her.
202. FLASH - CLOSE SHOT - MARTIAN
We see a head, hairless, reddish like the planet
itself, crossed by protruding veins which pulsate.
Dominant is a single multi-lensed eye with colored
pupils. The Martian is staggered by the light. He
lifts his strange, suckered hands to ward it off.
203. LIVING ROOM - CLAYTON, SYLVIA AND MARTIAN
Clayton turns with Sylvia to escape. The Martian
lunges after them. Clayton turns the flashlight on
the figure again. It stops, staggered. Clayton
flings the axe and the Martian reels back as the axe
hits. An unhuman SCREAMING sounds as it disappears
back into the cavity. This continues overscene as
Clayton swings Sylvia to the opening in the ceiling.
He snatches up the piece of cloth Sylvia dropped,
then follows.
204. INT. WRECKED FARMHOUSE - ATTIC
Sylvia comes up through the sloping floor, slides to-
ward a broken window, its frame sprung half out of
the wall. Clayton slides after her, through the
dormer window. They drop out between frame and wall.
The SCREAMING continues.
205. SPECIAL EFFECT - WRECKED FARMHOUSE AND MARTIANS
The unhuman SCREAMING comes overscene, wild. We see
the red leg of the sentinel Martian, which is moving.
In b.g. a machine is on the ground, misted. From an
opening comes a yellowish, strange-colored beam.
Visible in this are three moving creatures. Squat.
Thick through. Everything about them sags downward
under air weight and the pull of gravity. In f.g.,
Clayton and Sylvia flee wildly from the house.
206. EXT. FARMYARD - (NIGHT) - FEATURING CLAYTON AND SYLVIA
The two run from the direction of the house, smashing
through a burned hedge, their feet stirring hot ashes
and bright sparks in the darkness. The SCREAMING
trails away.
207. SPECIAL EFFECT - LONG SHOT - EXT. WRECKED HOUSE AND
MARTIAN MACHINE
The sentinel Martian has moved back from the house
and is hitting it with a heat-ray. Beyond, in the
night sky, the green streak of a multiple meteor sud-
denly slants down. Glowing, sinister. Another slows,
falling at the same angle. Both loom big before they
hit the dark earth in turn and disappear behind the
curtain of the ground mist.
FADE OUT.
FADE IN:
208. EXT. WASHINGTON, D.C. - FULL SHOT - (DAY - STOCK)
An establishing shot.
DISSOLVE:
209. INSERT - EXT. GOVERNMENT BLDG. - (DAY)
CAMERA on wall lettering: DEPT. OF DEFENSE.
DISSOLVE:
210. INT. MESSAGE CENTER - MED. CLOSE SHOT - (DAY)
CAMERA SHOOTING DOWN on an enormous table map of the
world, scattered with black patches, indicating dead
areas cleaned out by the Martians. Attack arrows
extend from these. Metal - each with a bright, min-
iature Martian machine. Around the edge of the map
are WACs and special personnel constantly enlarging
the blacked-out areas, pushing arrows forward as the
Martians advance. The map indicates that the world
is fighting for its existence. Spain is dead from
Valencia to Seville. Martians occupy the west of
France up to Nantes. They're thick from Cherbourg
across Belgium, Holland. The Italian boot is blacked
out near Rome. Dark patches are in Greece, Yugo-
slavia. In the southeast corner of England; in
South Wales, Scotland and in Ireland from Tralee to
Cork. They're in Sweden, Lithuania, Marrakesh,
Tripoli, Egypt, South Africa and strategic places in
the U.S.S.R. In the Levant and India, Malaya and
Australia. Some dead areas are large. Some small.
But the small ones grow larger all the time.
210a. INT. MESSAGE CENTER - MED. SHOT
A reception area occupies the floor around the map
on the table. In this area, and in rooms off it,
are batteries of teletypes, phones, wirephoto
machines. Present are high Army, Air Force, Navy
and Marine Corps brass, with a colorful scattering
of worried foreign attaches - phoning, conferring,
arguing. Seated personnel receive messages and use
phones to direct the workers at the map.
CAMERA MOVES IN on a big group near a wall covered
with pull-down maps, listening to General Mann. His
aide stands near, holding colored chalks. There is
a control-bank of TV screens close by, lifeless.
211. CLOSE SHOT - GROUP
Shooting past General Mann. We see high brass, all
stars and staff insignia. The only civilian is the
SECRETARY OF DEFENSE - neat, without fat, disting-
uished, badger-gray hair, cool. He stands beside the
CHIEF OF STAFF - balding, seven rows of decorations
and five stars; a tight-lipped man with calculating
eyes.
The rest are mature tacticians and fighters. They
include the FRENCH ATTACHE - rugged, tough. The
ITALIAN ATTACHE - fat, suave. The BRITISH ATTACHE
has a trim mustache, three rows of ribbons, graying
hair. The incessant SOUNDS of phone calls, teletypes,
quick orders come over SCENE.
GENERAL MANN'S VOICE
And this much is certain -- it is
vital to prevent the Martian machines
linking up. Once they do, they adopt
an extraordinary military tactic.
(Forceful - indicating map)
You can see from those blacked-out
areas that they're using it very
effectively. They form a crescent...
212. CLOSE SHOT - GENERAL MANN
He uses colored chalk to draw a thick, crescent-
shaped line on the blackboard. He continues drawing,
illustrating his words.
GENERAL MANN
They anchor it at one end, and sweep
on until they've cleared a quadrant...
He draws three crescent-shaped lines to a quadrant,
showing the movement of the Martians.
GENERAL MANN
...Then they anchor the opposite end--
and reverse direction!
As the strange diagram progresses across the black-
board, it takes on an unearthly, centipedular aspect.
GENERAL MANN
They slash across country like scythes,
wiping out everything that's trying to
get away from them!
213. GROUP - FAVORING GENERAL MANN, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE
AND CHIEF OF STAFF
As Staff Colonel hands messages to the Chief.
SECRETARY
That explains why communication is
cut the moment their machines
begin to move.
CHIEF OF STAFF
(Reading a message)
Madrid has just blacked out!!
Nothing more coming through.
SECRETARY
The same thing that happened on our
Pacific Coast.
(Calling)
Anything from them yet?
STAFF COLONEL
No, Mr. Secretary. We've had nothing
from San Francisco for over five hours.
STAFF MAJOR
(Moving in, urgent)
Those pictures are ready now, sir!
All turn at once to follow him.
STAFF MAJOR
I've included that wirephoto from
Paris, Mr. Secretary.
CHIEF OF STAFF
(Glancing toward map)
Are we still in touch with Paris?
WAC
(After a moment)
No, sir.
214. ALCOVE
as the group files in. No seats in the alcove. No
lights. CAMERA FAVORS the foreign attaches.
ITALIAN ATTACHE
(Gesturing - in French)
We set cannon wheel to wheel above
Napoli. They melted them like candles.
FRENCH ATTACHE
(To Italian attache - in
French - with gestures)
Our planes dived at them. All
that happened --
(A sweep of the hands)
-- They crumple like papier-mache!
During this, the Staff Major snaps his fingers. A
pictures hits the screen.
STAFF MAJOR
This film clip was flown in from
the West Coast... Golden Gate
Bridge.
A Martian machine is coming off the bridge, moving
out from under one of the 750-foot towers.
STAFF MAJOR (Cont'd)
This other is from New York. One
of them crossed from the New Jersey
side...
We see a Martian machine on the waterfront, caught
against the New York skyline, using a ray against
a skyscraper.
STAFF MAJOR (Cont'd)
(As film cuts off)
And here are the wirephotos.
215. GROUP - AT VIEWING BOX
Everyone turns from the screen to a tall box with
a tilted glass top.
STAFF MAJOR
(Going on)
This is the Paris wirephoto. It
must be the last thing out of
there!
CAMERA MOVES IN on the glass. In a still picture
transparescy, we see the Eiffel Tower collapsing.
There is a Martian machine in a lower corner. A
ray has blasted three of the tower's legs and is
just hitting a fourth.
FRENCH ATTACHE'S VOICE
(In French)
My God!
STAFF MAJOR'S VOICE
And this is another - from Rio de
Janeiro.
Day. Seen from the harbor, with the Corcovado Peak
and huge Christus statue against the sky. A Martian
machine shows among the ruins at the waterfront.
STAFF MAJOR'S VOICE (Cont'd)
Outside London. The River Thames,
near Windsor Castle.
Windsor Castle in b.g. A Martian machine wading the
river, half-hidden by misty steam. A heat-ray hit-
ting the water. In f.g., an overturned rowboat and
people in the water.
BRITISH ATTACHE'S VOICE
The water's boiling from the Martian
heat-ray!
STAFF MAJOR'S VOICE
...And here's that Los Angeles picture!
216. ALCOVE - GROUP - FAVORING STAFF MAJOR
The light from the viewbox tints their faces blue.
STAFF MAJOR
This is a sonic-radar picture, taken
from extreme altitude. It shows de-
tails of the Martian nest outside
Los Angeles.
CAMERA MOVES IN on the viewing glass.
STAFF MAJOR'S VOICE
Their machines show as round blobs.
Newly fallen cylinders are elongated.
We see an odd, blue-tinted photo. It shows a clear
pattern of small, shining shapes. Sentinel Martians
make the outer points of a triangle. Inside these
are smaller triangles, formed where multiple cylin-
ders have come down.
CHIEF OF STAFF'S VOICE
We know there are three cylinders to
each group. Three machines to every
cylinder...
(Appalled)
That's over fifty machines right here!
217. CLOSE SHOT - SECRETARY AND GROUP - (MOVING SHOT)
CHIEF OF STAFF
(To Secretary)
Mister Secretary - if they link up
with those others near Fresno...
SECRETARY
All right - I've seen enough!
He strides from the alcove - CAMERA FOLLOWING - and
moves to the big map on tha table and looks down at
it. The others follow and gather around.
218. INSERT - OPERATIONS MAP
Blacked-out areas increasing. Arrows being moved.
Activity all along the map.
219. MED. CLOSE SHOT - GROUP
The Secretary looks up to the others.
SECRETARY
There's only one thing that will stop
the Martians! We've held back pre-
viously because of the danger of
radiation to civilians. Now there's
no choice.
(To Chief of Staff)
The United Nations has voted authority
to the United States. The White House
will confirm an order to use the Atom
bomb.
CHIEF OF STAFF
(Nodding - decisive)
Then our first target will be the
initial landing place outside Los
Angeles.
SECRETARY
I'll request the scientists from
Pacific-Tech to monitor the drop.
(Toward General Mann)
We'll clear the area all around. After
that we'll hit them all over the world.
I'll have long-range bombers alerted,
loaded and standing by.
DISSOLVE:
220. EXT. CAMPUS, PACIFIC-TECH, HIGH POTENTIAL BLDG. (DAY)
Shooting from the portale, past an iron railing and
a pillar with a framed plan of the campus, marked:
PACIFIC INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY.
DISSOLVE:
221. INT. ROOM IN HIGH POTENTIAL BLDG. - (DAY)
A group of Pacific-Tech doctors and assistants are
sorting out anti-radiation suits, rubber gloves,
Geiger counters, masks and special equipment. They
are modern scientists, natural in manner, alert. Dr.
Pryor - high man in aerodynamics - turns sharply as
Clayton comes in with Sylvia. A gray-haired man
faces around with him - DR. DuBROCK, Nobel prize-
winner in physics.
DR. PRYOR
Forrester - everybody's been looking
for you!
CLAYTON
I know. We've walked halfway from
Corona! Finally found an abandoned
truck. Miss Van Buren - this is
Dr. Pryor ... Dr. DuBrock...
(Talking right on, bringing
out Martian 'eye' and
stained cloth)
What's this I hear about the A-bomb?
DR. PRYOR
We're going in right afterwards!
Study its effect.
DR. DuBROCK
We leave in half an hour.
(Looking)
What's that?
DR. PRYOR
A king-size fish eye?
CLAYTON
We took this off the Martians.
All move in sharply as he sets the eye on a table.
DR. PENNINGTON - astro-physics and optics -
examines it closely.
CLAYTON
(Going on, quick)
It'll tell us a lot about their
metals and alloys.
DR. PENNINGTON
(Roused)
If this is a lens, we can find out
something about their optics.
DR. PRYOR
Interesting...very interesting...
CLAYTON
(Showing cloth,
pointing to stain)
And this is the blood of a Martian!
DISSOLVE:
222. INSERT - SLIDE SEEN THROUGH MICROSCOPE - MARTIAN
BLOOD
Pallid pink. Full of tiny crystals.
DR. GRATZMAN'S VOICE
I've never seen blood as anaemic as
this!
223. INT. LABORATORY - HIGH POTENTIAL BUILDING - (DAY)
CLOSE ON a big microscope with twin eye-pieces.
DR. GRATZMAN is looking up from it - biochemist and
research man, alert, red-haired. CAMERA BEGINS TO
PULL BACK as he speaks.
DR. GRATZMAN
They may be mental giants, but by
our standards, they're physically
degenerate.
Most of the Pacific-Tech scientists are grouped with
him at a bench where the stained cloth is under
examination; Clayton and Sylvia with them. In a
corner is an epidiascope; Dr. Pennington is rigging
the Martian 'eye' to this. The instrument has a
big screen.
There is a wall-board chalked with notes and form-
ulae. High-pressure cylinders - one red, one green -
in a wheeled carrier. Benches with asbestos tops and
discarded apparatus - mercury jars, holders, switches.
Big, gay-colored electronic tubes.
DR. DuBROCK
(To Sylvia, commenting)
That hand - fingers like suckers!
(Amused)
It sounds as though they may have
evolved from fish.
SYLVIA
They're cold-blooded enough!
224. GROUP - FAVORING DR. BILDERBECK
'Baldy' Bilderbeck, mathematician and top-drawer man
in nuclear physics.
DR. BILDERBECK
(Commenting mildly)
Isn't it curious how everything about
them seems to be in threes?
CLAYTON
Their eyes have three lenses and
three distinct pupils. And strong
light shocks them.
DR. PENNINGTON
They're not accustomed to it! Sunlight
on Mars is about half as strong as we
get it. Add their clouds and dust and
it amounts to no more than twilight.
(To Clayton)
We've rigged this epidiascope to reflect
whatever your Martian lense picks up.
(Clicks switch)
Move in a little ... Thank you.
CAMERA ANGLES to favor Clayton, Dr. Pryor and Dr.
Bilderbeck as they ease nearer. Light from the
epidiascope screen shows on their faces. Its density
changes. Suddenly, everyone gasps, horrified.
DR. PENNINGTON'S VOICE
That's how the Martians see us...!
225. SPECIAL EFFECT - GROUP - AND EPIDIASCOPE SCREEN
Shooting CLOSE PAST the three to a terryfying image of
themselves on the big glass screen. Colors hideously
changed. Eyes enormous and peculiar. Green faces.
Hands elongated. Fingers like bony talons with blue
claws. Proportions gone crazy, and all movement
exaggerated. There is a moment of horrified silence.
DR. DuBROCK'S VOICE
If that's how they see us, no wonder
they want to kill us on sight!
DR. BILDERBECK'S VOICE
If I saw creatures like that I'd want
to kill them myself.
CLAYTON'S VOICE
Evidently there's a shift in the spec-
trum. And color absorption of the
Martian retina is completely different
from our own.
(Amused)
But maybe they look good to each other!
DR. PENNINGTON'S VOICE
Let's find out why they were so curious
about you, Miss Van Buren.
The others move back and Sylvia seems to surge on to
the glass screen. Her face is a nightmare mask,
violently colored. She recoils in a little shocked
movement.
CLAYTON'S VOICE
(Lightly)
Well, well -- a Martian's idea of
beauty!
DR. DuBROCK'S VOICE
(Calling)
Time we got started, gentlemen!
The glass screen picks up a distorted image of
Clayton's face as he moves to Sylvia and turns
with her to go out.
225A INT. LABORATORY - MED. SHOT
They are all moving toward the door. Clayton pauses
by the microscope, glancing toward Gratzman.
CLAYTON
(Touching cloth - thoughtfully)
This Martian blood...
(Suddenly suggesting)
Let's make a quick analysis and see
what we've got!
GRATZMAN
(Looking at him - thinking)
It might give us something.
Sylvia glances at them in turn, not understanding,
but sensing the importance of what they are saying.
Pennington pauses behind them.
CLAYTON
(Nodding - glancing from
cloth to Gratzman)
Something we could use...
PENNINGTON
Let it go. If you're interested in
Martian blood, you'll be able to get
all you want right after the plane
drops the bomb!
They all start toward the door.
DISSOLVE:
225B. EXT. AIR FIELD - FULL SHOT - (STOCK)
A great six-jet flying wing bomber races down the
runway and takes to the sky.
DISSOLVE:
225. EXT. HIGHWAY TUNNEL - MOVING SHOT - (DUSK - OVERCAST)
CAMERA is CLOSE on the lips and mouth of a RADIO
REPORTER for the Pacific Broadcasting Company as he
speaks rapidly and dramatically into a microphone.
REPORTER
The target for the A-bomb drop is this
nest of Martian machines in the Puente
Hills - where more of these meteors
came down early last evening.
The SHOT WIDENS to show the Reporter -- dishevelled,
tired, dirty -- with a portable tape-recorder slung
over his shoulder. He moves forward, CAMERA FOLLOW-
ING, to disclose Sylvia, gazing through field glasses.
The Reporter exits, still talking rapidly. Sylvia
lowers the glasses momentarily, then looks through
them again. CAMERA leaves her, PANNING.
The mouth of the vehicular tunnel is on the slope of
a high ridge, about halfway up to the summit, so that
a view from the tunnel itself is one of sky only.
Right at the mouth of the tunnel, the highway makes
an abrupt turn to enter, and the outer side of the
roadway is protected by the usual concrete buffer
wall. This has been augmented by the military with
massive sandbag breastworks to protect those in the
tunnel and the necessary observers in forward posi-
tions from enemy action from the valley below. With-
in the tunnel proper, CAMERA PICKS UP the scientists
from Pacific-Tech, who are gathered in a cul-de-sac
in the tunnel wall. Doctors DuBrock, Pennington and
Bilderbeck have already got into their colored anti-
radiation suits. Doctors Pryor and Gratzman are
present with sundry assistants. Gloves, masks, and
special equipment are being laid out. Clayton is
putting on a suit. A jeep stands by. During this:
REPORTER'S VOICE
A plane will pinpoint the target for
the drop from six miles up. Conditions
are perfect. The bomb will be about
ten times more powerful than the one
used at Hiroshima. Nothing like it
has ever been exploded before, and
we're going to be pretty darn close --
but there are observers down in the
valley in a forward bunker and they'll
be a lot nearer than us!
CAMERA MOVES to PICK UP, near the outer breastworks,
Army, Navy and Air Force brass, with special observers
from the Atomic Energy Commission, and a First-Aid
unit. To one side is a group of high officers and
officials, for liaison and observation from Allied
Nations within the roster of the united Nations.
Everyone is equipped with field glasses. Observing
officers use them constantly and talk quietly, tense-
ly. There is a BUZZ of comment in foreign tongues
from the United Nations Group. A spread of loud-
speakers is mounted on a jeep. Other vehicles include
a Radar Scanning truck with antenna cocked skyward,
constantly scanning.
REPORTER'S VOICE (Cont'd)
There must be a couple of million people
back of us in the shelter of the San Gabriel
hills -- waiting to find out whether they
can go home again! This will decide the
fate of civilization and all humanity --
whether we live or die may depend on what
happens here!
LOUDSPEAKER VOICE
(ECHOING in the tunnel)
Attention, please...Thuh-ree minutes
to bomb time!
CAMERA PICKS UP General Mann with a group of officers
and staft of Sixth Army Command, behind a big breast-
work. Nearby is a field telephone unit. Beyond are
cameramen in battle dress. The Radio Reporter moves
into SCENE, talking in to his mike.
REPORTER
Direct cable communication is being
maintained with Washington, and from
there to key centers around the world,
but thera's no radio communication at
all - even with the bombing plane that's
coming over. All radio is dead. Which
means that these tape-recordings I'm
making are for the sake of history --
if any!
226A. EXT. SKY - FULL SHOT - (STOCK)
The big delta-wing bomber takes off and speeds toward
the clouds, heading for the target.
227. EXT. TUNNEL MOUTH - GROUP
Clayton, Drs. DuBrock, Bilderbeck. All are helping
each other with their anti-radiation suits. Sylvia
moves into SCENE and assists Clayton.
CLAYTON
General Mann says Washington is cer-
tain the Martians are aiming at complete
saturation. They intend to take over
the entire earth.
DR. DuBROCK
And Bilderbeck has calculated exactly
how long we've got before they do it!
All look at Bilderbeck.
DR. BILDERBECK
(Mildly)
If the A-bomb fails, that is.
DR. PENNINGTON
It won't.
DR. BILDERBECK
(Evenly)
If it should fail, the Martians can
conquer the earth in six days.
There is a moment's pause.
SYLVIA
(Quietly)
The same number of days it took
to create it.
All look at her.
LOUDSPEAKER VOICE
Attention, please...two minutes
to bomb time!
228. TWO SHOT - CLAYTON AND SYLVIA
She helps adjust the cuffs at his wrist, and his
belt. Then, after a moment, making it casual:
SYLVIA
Is it possible to go in right
after the explosion?
CLAYTON
Yes, with these suits. We've used
them before on atomic tests... Odd-
looking, aren't they?
SYLVIA
Very futuristic.
(Smiling)
Yours doesn't really go with that
butch haircut!
CLAYTON
(Hand through hair)
I could wear it longer -- but it's
less trouble this way.
SYLVIA
My kid brother has one. You know
why?
CLAYTON
Yes ... Fits better in a football
helmet.
SYLVIA
(Amazed, staring)
How'd you guess?
CLAYTON
(Smiling)
That's the kind of a kid brother
you'd have!
LOUDSPEAKER VOICE
Attention, please! One minute to
bomb time. Take shelter!
229. EXT. MOUTH OF TUNNEL - FULL SHOT
All move into position behind the barriers. Staff
officers consult watches. Some try to sight the
plane.
LOUDSPEAKER VOICE
Fifty seconds to zero. Stand by! If
you have no goggles, turn away. Remember,
the heat flash and afterblast are danger-
ous!
229A. EXT. SKY - MED. SHOT - (STOCK)
The A-bomb plane circles above the clouds, heading
for the Martians.
230. EXT. TUNNEL - FEATURING RADAR SCANNING TRUCK
The antenna scans the sky ceaselessly.
231. INT. RADAR TRUCK - MED. CLOSE SHOT
An officer and a sergeant are tensely watching the
radar screen. The pip suddenly resolves into a dot.
OFFICER
There's the plane!
The sergeant runs out.
232. EXT. TUNNEL - PAN SHOT
CAMERA is on the Radar truck. The sergeant bolts out
the rear door, runs toward General Mann and the scien-
tists, CAMERA PANNING with him. All are standing
tensely, looking OFF toward the Martian nest.
LOUDSPEAKER VOICE
Forty seconds to zero.
233. GROUP & YELLOW-BREASTED ORIOLE
SHOOTING in toward the tunnel. Perched on a scrub
tree, f.g., is an oriole, singing. Clayton and Sylvia,
the scientists, General Mann and others. The sergeant
reaches General Mann.
LOUSPEAKER VOICE
Thirty seconds to zero.
From here on, every second is marked by a CLICKING
metroname-like beat. Every fifth second is empha-
sized by the VOICE over the loudspeaker.
SERGEANT
(To General Mann)
We've sighted the bomber, sir!
General Mann and the others look toward the sky.
LOUDSPEAKER VOICE
Twenty-five seconds to zero.
DR. DuBROCK
(Glancing o.s. - suddenly)
Look... look!
Field glasses swing quickly in the direction of the
Martian nest.
234. SPECIAL EFFECT - FIELD GLASS VIEWPOINT - MARTIAN NEST
It is a hell of a scene. Sentinel Martian machines
are darting back and forth on the perimeter of the
massed group. All the machines glitter and glow in
the waning daylight, suddenly imbued with a furious
activity. Cobalt jets are stabbing upward from
every machine.
LOUDSPEAKER VOICE
Twenty seconds to zero.
235. EXT. TUNNEL - MED. CLOSE SHOT - GROUP
Favoring Dr. DuBrock and the scientists.
DR. DuBROCK
They must have sighted it, too!
236. SPECIAL EFFECT - MARIAN NEST
The indlvidual electro-magnetic envelopes expand, merge
and grow rapidly to form blue-tinged bubbles clinging
to the ground, still expanding. Racing up from each
machine to form part of an over-all canopy.
LOUDSPEAKER VOICE
Fifteen seconds to zero.
Thin blue-colored jets stand like rods above the
trees, pulsating furiously, lifting the envelopes
until they are enormous billows in the sky. Every-
thing inside them takes on a different color.
237. FLASH CUTS - ABOUT THE MOUTH OF THE TUNNEL
Everyone sheltering behind the breastworks and in
the cul-de-sacs and behind vehicles in the tunnel.
Clayton, Sylvia, the scientists - Navy, Army, Air
Force brass, Foreign representatives, cameramen,
tense and goggled. The yellow-breasted oriole, still
singing.
LOUDSPEAKER VOICE
(Measured - clear)
Ten seconds to zero.
238. EXT. MOUTH OF TUNNEL - FULL SHOT
Pacific-Tech men in f.g. Everybody without goggles
turns away, head bent. All duck behind sandbags.
LOUDSPEAKER VOICE
Nine - eight - seven - six - five -
four - three - two - one - ZERO!
A blinding flash of light murders all color.
239. SPECIAL EFFECT - MARTIAN NEST
A blunted spear of light has lanced out of the sky.
It explodes into a gigantic, reddish heat-flash.
An elephantine swirl of dust and smoke, shot with
orange and peach and pink, engulfs the Martian
Machines. Then comes the SOUND of a cataclysmic
explosion and the SCREAM of a great wind.
240. FLASH CUTS - EFFECT OF THE BOMB
a. Brass ducked behind sandbags. Dust, branches,
papers, debris slashing through the air.
b. A Signal Corps corporal, incautiously ex-
posed, being blown end-over-end.
c. The Radar Truck almost topples over under the
concussion of the blast, antenna torn loose
and falling.
d. Clayton, hanging onto sandbags with one hand,
clings to Sylvia with the other.
e. A FULL SHOT inside the tunnel. Every object
is limned sharply and brutally in the white-
hot glare of atomic fission. The deafening
ROAR of the explosion ECHOES and RE-ECHOES
along the tunnel.
f. Special Effect - the glare outlines a cowering
group inside a highway gas station as the
plate glass windows shatter over them.
g. A Series of CUTS - EARTHQUAKE EFFECT (STOCK).
A bus overturns - a car is wrecked - a house
and sheds collapse - utility poles sway, wires
snapping and sparking - buildings shudder and
shower masonry - bridges and oil derricks sway
and collapse - people flee, panic-stricken.
h. A hillside - families cower in the shelter of
rocks, stark faces to the glaring sky.
i. Special Effect (Matte painting). The San
Gabriel Hills, showing thousands upon thousands
of families massed in the barrancas and gul-
lies - a scene reminiscent of Mount Rubidoux
of an Easter morning. As the bomb glares, a
GASP of human terror and agony joins with the
ROAR of the great concussion wave.
j. The titanic mushrooming pillar of smoke and
dust obscures the Martian nest.
241. EXT. TUNNEL - MED. SHOT - GEN. MANN & OFFICERS
The General is at the field telephone. The blast
is swirling all around.
GEN. MANN
(At phone - shouting)
Hello! Hello, there! What can
you see?
242. INT. FORWARD BUNKER - CLOSE SHOT
Two military observers - in concussion helmets and
anti-radiation suits - peering through periscope
slits in a heavily sandbagged bunker. Wind blows
dust in through the slits.
OBSERVER
(Gasping - into phone)
It's beginning to clear out there, sir!
243. SPECIAL EFFECT - MARTIAN NEST - PERISCOPE VIEW
The blue envelopes are shrinking upon themselves,
going down, color deepening. They are unpunctured.
244. INT. FORWARD BUNKER - CLOSE SHOT
The observer yells into his field telephone.
OBSERVER
There's something moving...!
245. SPECIAL EFFECT - MARTIAN NEST - MED. FULL SHOT
Out of the coiling dust and smoke a Martian machine
is gliding. Another follows. A third shows.
OBSERVER'S VOICE
(Yelling)
They haven't even been touched!
246. GROUP - GENERAL MANN, SCIENTISTS, CLAYTON AND SYLVIA
The Pacific-Tech men run into the breastwork, Clayton
and Sylvia with them. The suction blast whips and
swirls, dust filling the air. CAMERA FAVORS the
General, using field glasses.
GENERAL MANN
(Shaken)
It didn't stop them...
DR. PRYOR
They knew what to expect!
DR. DuBROCK
(Excited)
They're way ahead of us electronically.
They've had the atom bomb and forgotten
it!
GENERAL MANN
(Desperate)
Guns - tanks - bombs - they're like
toys against them. We can't go on
ordering men to attack...!
247. WIDER ANGLE - GROUP - SYLVIA IN F.G.
Army, Navy and Air Force Brass coming over, listen-
ing, anxious. The wind fades.
DR. PRYOR
They'll exterminate every living
thing!
DR. PENNINGTON
So what do we do -- run aoout like
ants until they hunt us down?
GENERAL MANN
We'll establish a line and fignt them
all the way back to the mountains!
DR. BILDERBECK
(Mildly again)
But it can end only one way ...
We're beaten.
Sylvia looks at him, moves away. Clayton follows.
CAMERA MOVES IN on Dr. DuBrock and Dr. Bilderbeck.
DR. DuBROCK
(Quietly, looking out)
Six days, you said ... six days.
248. EXT. MOUTH OF TUNNEL - NEAR BREASTWORK
Featuring Sylvia, as Clayton comes to her. Dr.
DuBrock is approaching from b.g. Sylvia looks up
at the empty branch where the oriole was perched.
SYLVIA
Maybe they won't kill all the birds.
DR. DuBROCK
Washington issued orders - in event the
A-bomb failed - immediately evacuate
all cities under attack!
(Looking out toward Martians)
And they're moving in on Los Angeles
now!
CLAYTON
Tney'll stamp the city flat!
DR. DuBROCK
(To Clayton)
If we take all the instruments we can
establish a base in the Rocky Mountains...
CLAYTON
(Nodding - looking o.s.)
A forlorn hope - but there is a chance.
GRATZMAN
It might give us time to search out
some weakness in the Martians.
CLAYTON
I believe we can get a lead from their
anaemic blood.
DR. DuBROCK
(Glancing at Clayton)
You mean some biological approach...?
CLAYTON
(Forcefully)
We know now that we can't beat their
machines -- but we can beat them!
(Looking o.s. again)
They are mortal beings...The only
question is whether we have time enough
to do anything!
GRATZMAN
(To DuBrock)
If we get what transportation we can,
and pick up instruments and books
from Pacific-Tech...
DuBROCK
(To Sylvia)
Could you help us? Drive for us?
SYLVIA
Of course.
DR. DuBROCK
(Hurrying o.s.)
Thank you!
CLAYTON
(Quietly, watching Sylvia)
The Rockies...! You'd rather get
back to that big family of yours
in Minnesota, wouldn't you?
SYLVIA
I wonder if they're going through
this too...?
Clayton looks at her sympathetically, not speaking.
SYLVIA
(Going on)
I probably wouldn't be able to get
to them if I tried...
CLAYTON
You'll be all right with us....
(Looking out again)
...for as long as anybody's got!
SYLVIA
(Touching his arm)
Don't let's lose each other.
He tucks a hand under her arm, reassuring, turning
away with her.
SYLVIA
(Wryly, smiling)
Because then I really would feel lost!
DISSOLVE:
249. FLASHES AND QUICK CUTS - SIRENS - (DAY)
a. CLOSE SHOT - Siren - City Hall in b.g. It
begins to blast, full-throated, screaming
its warning.
b. MEDIUM SHOT - Ext. Street Corner. Traffic
light in f.g. with air raid siren on top.
It starts to howl. ANGLE showing traffic
in b.g. Pedestrians turn quickly. Cars
drive erratically, pulling toward the curb.
c. Ext. Cornice of Office Bldg. A nest of sirens
on the rim of the roof, wailing.
d. MEDIUM SHOT - Ext. Cahuenga Pass at Freeway
Entrance. Sirens on a light pole take up the
warning. Cars head toward curbs, then speed
away, turning against traffic. Confusion.
e. MEDIUM SHOT - Ext. Firehouse. Sirens wail.
A red Underwriters sedan crashes out inot the
street.
250. EXT. SUBURBAN STREET, LOS ANGELES
A police car coming slomly down the street. Red
blinker working. Siren going furiously. It has
a windshield sticker: Civil Defense.
Following the police car is a pick-up, with a loud-
speaker horn. A man with a Civil Defense armband
stands in the truck, shouting into mike.
LOUDSPEAKER
Now listen carefully. This is a military
evacuation order. All populated areas are
to be abandoned. It is imperative that
you leave the city.
251. MOVING SHOT - ANOTHER ANGLE - FAVORING LOUDSPEAKER
TRUCK AND WARDENS
CAMERA MOVES with loudspeaker trucker. C.D. wardens,
wearing old-style steel helmets, shouting to pedes-
trians and cars. Some run to the houses. In b.g.
people dash from their homes, gathering up kids,
piling possessions on cars, yelling at one another.
A few cars spurt out of driveways and barrel off.
A chorus of wailing sirens overscene.
C.D. OFFICIALS - AD LIBS
(Over loudspeaker)
The Martians are coming - Take what you
can carry and get out - Take food and
water with you - Get away from all popu-
lated areas - Go to the desert or the
mountains - The City's being evacuated -
Get going for your lives!
252. EXT. FLASHES AND QUICK CUTS - STREET AND PLANT SCENES
ALARM
Giant rubber, aircraft and cracking plants caught as
shifts break. Thousands of men racing for their
cars. Sirens SCREAMING o.s. (Second Unit with con-
cealed 16 mm camera. Stunt men beefing it up.)
253. FLASHES AND QUICK CUTS - EVACUATION EFFECT (1)
Everything moving from right to left on the screen -
all going one way, merged with FAST DISSOLVES. Haste
and urgency.
a. Low angle, cars flooding a highway. Bundles
on fenders, roofs. Rolling bumper to bumper,
fast.
b. People piling onto buses as they pull out,
toting suit cases and bundles.
c. Deserted ice-cream wagon, wheel broken, tipped
over against a wall. Kid on the back step,
stuffing himself with ice cream.
d. Sweating C.D. officials and cops waving
traffic past, urging it faster - faster.
e. Refugees cramming aboard a pullman.
f. Man crowding last bundle onto a car roof;
woman yelling at him from the car. As he
starts away, he sees he has a flat tire.
g. Ext. General Hospital. Nurses, internes,
evacuating stretcher and ambulatory cases to
ambulances in f.g.
h. A single line of refugees trudging over a
firebreak in the hills.
DISSOLVE:
254. EXT. YARD BEHIND PACIFIC-TECH - (DAY)
Overscene is the distant SOUND of the Martian
approach - roaring explosions, the thunder of
destruction and gunfire. The scene itself is desper-
ate with urgency and activity. Scientists working
frantically to load books, heavy instruments, papers,
files - even a blackboard from which there is no
time to copy the formulae it bears. For transporta-
tion they have a small moving van, a school bus,
stake truck, two light pick-ups and four cars.
As we come into scene, the moving van roars past us
to the street. Beyond this, the last baggage is
being slammed aboard the yellow school bus. Dr.
DuBrock waves it away. It comes PAST CAMERA -
Sylvia driving - as Clayton climbs up behind the
wheel of the stake truck.
255. BY THE STAKE TRUCK
Clayton reaches for the starter button as Gratzman
hurries past.
CLAYTON
(Calling)
Gratzman! -- Gratzman! Did you
get those biotics?
GRATZMAN
No. I thought you had them.
CLAYTON
All right. I'll get them!
(Drops off truck)
(Shouts to DuBrock)
Go ahead - go ahead! I'll catch
up with you.
He runs o.s. Other vehicles start to move out as
their frantic loading is completed.
256. INT. LABORATORY - HIGH POTENTIAL BUILDING - (DAY)
The room is in a state of abandonment and disorder.
Clayton runs in. He grabs two big cartons, throws
out their contents and hurriedly loads them with
glass and packed plastic vials which have been left
on one of the benches. He starts out again.
256-A YARD BEHIND PACIFIC-TECH
It is littered with discarded material. All the other
vehicles have gone when Clayton runs to the stake
truck. He is a lonely, desperate figure in the empty
yard, as he clambers aboard pushing his load across to
the passenger seat. He starts the motor. The truck
screams away.
257. INT. TRUCK CAB - EXIT FROM YARD AND STREET
Motor roaring as Clayton steps on the gas. He shifts
gear, peering ahead, anxious to overtake Sylvia.
DISSOLVE:
258. EXT. CITY STREET - (DAY)
The stake truck turning a corner onto a wide street,
rolling fast, tires squealing. Clayton's brakes go on.
259. INT. TRUCK CAB - FEATURING CLAYTON
Braking hard. Standing on everything. Staring
ahead.
260. WHAT HE SEES - EXT. CITY STREET - AND MOB
A mob has attacked and piled aboard a P.E. bus.
Others are swarming all over a couple of taxis.
These vehicles begin to move on, with men on roofs
and bumpers. The mob rushes the stake truck.
261. STAKE TRUCK AND MOB
Men jump up at both sides of the cab, wrenching open
the doors before Clayton can back up.
262. INT. TRUCK - CLAYTON AND MEN
SHOOTING through the windshield. Men attacking Clayton
from both sides of the cab.
263. STAKE TRUCK AND MOB - STREET
It is a strange mob. Men and women. Desperate. Piling
over the open sides of the now halted truck, while
Clayton fights behind the wheel. He is thrown out.
A man slides into his place. CAMERA PANS the mob,
fighting to get aboard - emptying the truck to make
room. Scientific instruments crash to the road. Books
and papers shower down. The truck gets under way.
People hanging on outside are shoved off.
264. MOVING SHOT - BACK OF TRUCK
A well-dressed man is clinging to a rear corner,
perched precariously, holding a bag. Another man is
struggling, elbowing him to make his own hold secure.
WELL-DRESSED MAN
(Desperate)
Let me up there!
MAN
(Shoving)
Get off!
WELL-DRESSED MAN
(Hanging on, gasping)
I'll give you five hundred dollars
for your place!
(Wild)
I'll make it a thousand! Two!
MAN
(Shoving him off)
Money's no good no more, bud!
265. ROADWAY - FEATURING WELL-DRESSED MAN
His bag bursts open as he falls. Bills, gold coins,
jewelry spills out. He scrambles to pick up his money.
Running feet trample on it. Trample on him.
266. EXT. STREET - MED. CLOSE SHOT - CLAYTON
He gets to his feet, winded, holding his ribs,
gazing after the truck. Stragglers run past him.
Only the well-dressed man is left behind, still
grabbing for his valuables. Clayton gets his
breath, looks around.
267. MED. SHOT - WELL-DRESSED MAN
Strewn on the pavement is the precious debris the
mob left. The shattered barrel of an electron micro-
scope - biochemical vials, spilled and shattered -
electric induction furnace - laboratory cameras -
electronic tubes - microscopes - books - the jars
and containers of organic chemistry. The well-
dressed man is scrabbling among this wreckage as
Clayton comes into SCENE.
CLAYTON
(Still gasping)
Did that mob grab the truck ahead
of me?
The man glances at him but doesn't answer. Clayton
moves nearer.
CLAYTON (Cont'd)
(Desperate)
Hey - there were a lot of Pacific-Tech
men with those trucks! Did you see them?
MAN
I don't know. There was fighting
up the street.
CLAYTON
(Still moving in)
Did the mob get a school bus? A
girl was driving it.
The man is on his knees, grabbing, panting.
MAN
If they saw it, they took it! They
take anything on wheels. You can't
buy transportation for love or money...
(Pausing)
Money...!
268. ANOTHER ANGLE - FAVORING WELL-DRESSED MAN
He sits back on his haunches, looking at the bills
and coins in his hand. He looks from the bag to
Clayton and back again, suddenly shaken and terribly
shocked.
WELL-DRESSED MAN
My whole life's savings...Now it
won't even buy a ride on a truck!
Slowly he stands up. Suddenly he grabs a big fistful
of bills and jewels from the bag.
WELL-DRESSED MAN
(Twisted)
You want five thousand dollars...
ten...twenty?
(Tosses bills toward Clayton,
throws down the bag)
Help yourself -- there's a hundred
thousand in there!
He turns and starts after the mob. Clayton eyes the
ruin around him. He picks up a shattered microscope,
looking from it to the way he has come. Again he
looks at the debris of the instruments, hopeless. He
turns to the way he was traveling and lets the micro-
scope fall from his hand as he starts away, beginning
to run. CAMERA ANGLES to PICK UP the money and broken
instruments. It MOVES CLOSE on the shattered micro-
scope as we
DISSOLVE:
269. EXT. FARTHER ALONG THE STREET (1) - (DAY)
Deserted. Late afternoon shadows. Littered with
dropped garments. Doors stand open. Curtains flap
at windows. Clayton is running, glancing back as an
old, open car rattles into scene. Loaded with three
families, their kids and two barking dogs. Bundles
and baggage tied all over it. Clayton thumbs for a
ride. Sprints and tries to leap on the running board.
Hands shove him off. He falls. The car clatters on.
Clayton gets up off the road and begins to run again.
Two more cars come past CAMERA and race by him, over-
loaded, driven recklessly.
DISSOLVE:
270. EXT. FARTHER ALONG THE STREET (2) - (EVENING)
Clayton dog-trots into scene. It is beginning to get
dark. We see debris from a hasty road-block placed
by a mob - chairs, settee, furniture dragged out of
a nearby store. To the side of the road is one of
the pickups from Pacific-Tech, distinguished by its
color, overturned, its load spilled, wheels buckled,
jammed between a telephone pole and shop front.
Strewn on the road are piles of papers, books, files
and instruments thrown off the other Pacific-Tech
vehicles. Clayton stares around, sees something and
hurries to pick up a yellow board: SCHOOL BUS -
Southridge. He holds it, looking around. The road is
scattered with baggage thrown off the little bus. A
car streaks past, heavily laden and going fast. Three
bicyclists follow, pedaling hard, possessions tied all
over themselves and their machines. One wobbles, but
recovers. Clayton starts forward, hesitates, still
holding the yellow board.
CLAYTON
(Suddenly shouting)
DuBrock!
(And then - wilder)
Bilderbeck -- DuBrock! SYLVIA!
No answer. He looks up at the sky and the unearthly
flicker of the Martian rays. He glances at the
board again. The first drops of rain hit it, driz-
zling down. He drops it across the curb, moves
away toward the broken barrier, turning up his coat
collar.
CAMERA DOLLIES IN on the school bus sign, lying in
the gutter.
DISSOLVE:
273. FLASHES & QUICK CUTS - EVACUATION (2) - (NIGHT)
The rain has stopped. The streets are wet and
glistening.
a. Rooftops and utility poles silhouetted against
the smoky sky. Local explosions. Flashes of
Martian rays and beams.
b. Traffic thin, fast and frightened on a highway
out of the city.
c. Moving cars in CLOSER ANGLE. All overloaded.
Carrying extra riders wherever they can perch -
on fenders, bumpers, roofs.
d. Refugees running down the cloverleaf off
a freeway.
DISSOLVE:
274. EXT. CITY INTERSECTION - FAVORING CLAYTON - (NIGHT)
A traffic light, not working. A mailbox overturned.
There is a broken suitcase at one end of a rain-
washed bus bench. Clayton enters, pausing by the
bench. He is sweating, irresolute, as he looks
around, breathing hard. He's worn out, walking on
his heels. An MP Jeep - two MPs in it - rolls into
SHOT, coming past the intersection. The driver sees
Clayton, brakes hard.
M.P. DRIVER
Hey, you! Better get outa here!
CLAYTON
I'm looking for some Pacific-Tech
professors...
M.P. DRIVER
There's nobody left around here
now.
CLAYTON
(Half to himself, desperately)
We had a chance...We could have
stopped them!
(To the staring M.P.'s)
The mob stole the trucks and smashed
everything up. The fools! They cut
their own throats!
OTHER M.P.
He's nuts. C'm on - jump in!
The MP's look up.
275. SPECIAL EFFECT - SKY - ABOVE INTERSECTION
An overshot ray from some Martian machine slashes the
air, high overhead. Squealing, pulsating. Vicious.
Seen beyond the power and phone wires.
276. SPECIAL EFFECT - QUICK CUTS AND FLASHES - LOS ANGELES
CIVIC CENTER AND MARTIAN MACHINES
a. Civic Center. Streets empty. Martian
machines active in distant b.g.
b. Martian machines, belly-deep in flame,
rays and beams working.
c. CLOSE ON a Martian machine among collapsing,
burning buildings. It sends a beam slanting
upward.
d. CLOSE ON City Hall. Its top section is hit
by the beam it falls, disintegrating into
colored dust.
277. INTERSECTION WITH SIGN - FAVORING CLAYTON
The MP's are half-ducking from the menace of the
overshot ray.
M.P. DRIVER
Hurry up! Jump in!
CLAYTON
(Appealing)
There was a girl with them...If I
could find her....
OTHER M.P.
Jump in here, will you?
CLAYTON
She's kind of lost.
M.P. DRIVER
You look kinda lost yourself.
CLAYTON
(Looking o.s. - suddenly
remembering)
But I think I know where she'll be....
OTHER M.P.
C'm on, c'm on! It's your last chance
to get outta here!
Clayton waves the jeep away and it roars off. He
starts in the direction from which the jeep came,
beginning to run.
DISSOLVE:
276. SPECIAL EFFECT - EXT. STREET (Same as 270) - (NIGHT)
CAMERA is CLOSE on a muddy puddle of rainwater in the
gutter. Floating in the muck is the yellow sign:
SCHOOL BUS - SOUTHRIDGE. Angrily reflected on the
surface of the water is the glaring sky, rays slashing,
flames and explosions towering. Silent, except for
the b.g. ROAR of destruction. No light except the
glare from the sky. CAMERA PULLS BACK as the long,
wavering shadow of a man moves across the sidewalk,
looming larger and closer. His FOOTSTEPS ECHO in the
deserted street. Then his feet enter the SHOT and
pause by the puddle and the yellow board. CAMERA MOVES
UP to disclose Clayton in CLOSE figure, looking down
at the sign. Slowly he looks OFF. CAMERA PANS away
from him to show the street beyond. Smashed windows
and looted shops. Cracked-up, abandoned vehicles.
Discarded bundles. A jalopy has overturned against a
fire hydrant and water geysers high in the air. Clay-
ton re-enters the SHOT, running a little way, walking
a little, then running again. He looks around as he
goes, seeking a clue.
279. OUT
280. EXT. STREET - CLOSE MOVING SHOT - CLAYTON
Breathing hard, sweating. No life anywhere. Sprat
from the broken hydrant drips from him. He trots
toward a nearby corner.
281. SPECIAL EFFECT - EXT. STREET CORNER - FULL SHOT
A REVERSE ANGLE, SHOOTING along a side street from
the corner. Clayton enters, f.g., stops by a lamp
post, looking ahead. Along the dimly lit street is
a church. Faint light shows at the windows. Above
and beyond it is a burning ray-shot sky. As Clayton
starts toward it, the distant SOUND OF VOICES SINGING
is heard.
281a. SPECIAL EFFECT - EXT. CHURCH & STREET - FULL SHOT
A DOWN SHOT from high alongside the church steeple
and belfry. The dark, Gothic outline of the tower
looms huge in f.g. Below in the distance, the tiny
figure of Clayton uncertainly approaches the church
over the glistening pavement. The MUSIC of the
VOICES GROWS LOUDER, but muffled and ECHOING through
the structure of the steeple.
282. EXT. CHURCH - MED. FULL SHOT (MOVING SHOT)
Clayton stumbles from f.g. toward the steps and doors
of the church, CAMERA FOLLOWING. The MUSIC of the
HYMN SWELLS, but is still muffled and indistinct.
He climbs the steps, pushes open the doors. The
MUSIC SWELLS to full volume, VOICES joined in suppli-
cation to God. No one is seen but Clayton.
282a. INT. CHURCH (MOVING SHOT)
CAMERA is CLOSE on Clayton as he opens the doors
and pauses, looking off. The SINGING reaches a
CRESCENDO and dies away. The SHOT WIDENS and CAMERA
PANS with Clayton to people standing near the door.
Light in the church comes from kerosene lamps and
candles placed wherever they will stand - on pew-ends,
window-ledges. CAMERA FOLLOWS Clayton, as he looks
anxiously about. The congregation is a scattered
gathering of distressed humanity. Those who couldn't
run - children, cripples, the sick, aged - and those
who felt it was useless to run. They make groups
and clusters in the aisles and benches and pews. The
church is full of quiet movement - first-aid for the
injured, water for the faint, comforting children,
soothing babies. The VOICE OF the MINISTER is lifted
in prayer. Mumbled 'Amens' join, above the RUMBLE
of destruction, growing with the Martian advance.
MINISTER'S VOICE (O.s.)
We humbly beseech Thy divine guidance,
O Lord. Deliver us from the fear which
has come upon us - the evil that draws
ever nearer - from the terror that will
soon knock at the very door of this, Thy
house. We pray Thee, Lord - grant us
the miracle of Thy divine intervention....
Clayton begins to back out. A Deacon catches
his arm.
DEACON
(Pale, calm - whispering)
It's useless to run, brother. Stay
with us.
CLAYTON
(Whispering in reply)
I'm looking for someone...She'll be
in a church, near the door.
DISSOLVE:
283. SPECIAL EFFECT - STREET SHOTS & MARTIAN MACHINES
a. Clayton running down a street toward
flaming sky.
DISSOLVE:
b. Ext. Boulevard & Martian machine. Looking
along the boulevard. A machine visible a
block away, flames and falling buildings be-
hind and around it. Clayton cuts across,
running.
DISSOLVE:
283a. INT. SECOND CHURCH - MOVING SHOT - (NIGHT)
CAMERA is CLOSE on a statue of St. Anthony with the
Infant Jesus, dimly lit by flickering candles. CAMERA
MOVES BACK, showing scores of votive candles all banked
around the statue. The congregation is saying the
Rosary. Clayton enters shot, looking around. CAMERA
MOVING, he passes through the crowded room. Two el-
derly women with Red Cross armbands are helping dis-
tressed and injured people. As Clayton goes past them,
CAMERA PAUSES and MOVES IN on a particular group. The
Red Cross woman steps away, disclosing Bilderbeck,
looking off after Clayton. He is lying on the floor
near a rack of hymn books and prayerbooks. He is
pale, clutching a stained, bloody bandage against his
side.
BILERBECK
Clayton...!
Clayton moves sharply into SCENE, bending over him.
CLAYTON
Bilderbeck! Are you all right...?
(Bilderbeck shrugs
weakly)
Where are the others?
Clayton tries to make him comfortable.
BILDERBECK
A mob swarmed all over us. I don't
know what happened to the others.
I got knocked under our truck.
(Whispering as Clayton
pillows his head)
There's nothing you can do for me....
CLAYTON
What about Sylvia?
BILDERBECK
I didn't see her, Clayton....
Both look o.s. as a Martian ray SCREAMS outside, its
light catching their faces.
284. SPECIAL EFFECT - CITY SECTION & MARTIANS
Martian machines loom through the smoke. A heat-ray
hits a row of buildings, turning them white-hot.
They flare and change to gray ash. The ray reaches
out beyond them, SCREAMING.
284a. EXT. STREET - CLOSE MOVING SHOT - CLAYTON
Amidst an inferno of flashing light and the THUNDER
of a city being destroyed, Clayton proceeds along
the street toward the Martians.
285. SPECIAL EFFECT - ANOTHER STREET
As Clayton runs into it, checks. The sky is red and
lurid. The night is filled with CRASHINGS and ROAR-
ING. A ray fires the tip of a tall building. A
skeleton beam hits another. It collapses, falls. A
Martian machine comes into sight, ray slashing. The
ray swings toward Clayton, in f.g. He jumps frantic-
ally. Flames envelope the SCENE. Huge falling blocks
of building stone blank out ths SCREEN.
285a. SPECIAL EFFECT - CLOSEUP CLAYTON
In the lurid glare of the heat-ray, falling masonry
is blocking off the SHOT. Then, as Clayton is dis-
closed, cowering in a doorway, the REFLECTION of the
street shows in the plate glass window behind him.
Choking dust and debris almost obscure everything.
The ROAR and RUMBLING is overpowering. Clayton looks
around frantically. He sees:
296. SPECIAL EFFECT - EXT. COMMUNITY CHURCH - FULL SHOT
From Clayton's VIEWPOINT. Up the street is a church
with a white cross on the outside, lit by pot-flares.
Buildings beyond it are aflame and falling. It stands
in the very path of the Martian advance, as their
machines race nearer.
DISSOLVE:
287. INT. COMMUNITY CHURCH
The CRASH and growing ROAR of falling buildings and
explosions sounds overscene, drawing always nearer.
The windows are full of crimson glare, almost drowning
the light of storm lantern and lamps. A mixed con-
gregation kneels wherever there is space to kneel.
Bums with nothing. Gray-haired women in bedraggled
fur coats. Young. Old. Lame. Blind. Weary people,
some still clinging to bags and bundles. The VOICE
of the REV. BETHANY comes over scene.
REV. BETHANY'S VOICE
(Vibrant, not loud)
God never leaves us, no matter how
dark the hour - how deep our despair.
we are told - have faith and ye shall
be saved!
288. ANOTHER ANGLE - FAVORING REV. BETHANY
A strong-faced man, a leader, seen in the glow of a
kerosene lamp, wearing surplice. Beyond him is the
space for the choir, sparsely occupied, a boy in the
f.g. The SCREAM of a ray comes from overhead. Its
light makes an added glare. The Rev. Bethany raises
his arms. Not ranting. Sure in his faith. Under
great stress.
REV. BETHANY
(Supplicating)
In our peril we plead! Succor and
comfort us in this hour.
(Almost whispering)
Please God....
He lowers his arms. A terrifying, rattling explosion
sounds nearby. We hear the vicious screech of a
skeleton ray and the chuting roar of falling masonry.
Rev. Bethany signs toward the choir.
289. CLOSE SHOT - CHOIR BOY
Tears on his cheeks. Scared to death. Lips trembling.
But his clear soprano sounds.
CHOIR BOY
(Singing)
Abide with me ....
290. MOVING SHOT - INT. COMMUNITY CHURCH
The congregation picks up the hymn, the Rev. Bethany's
voice coming strongly. CAMERA TRUCKS the congregation.
Sudden flashes burn at the windows. Crackings and
roarings increase overscene, racing closer. Some people
glance from the corners of their eyes. Some cling to
one another, shuddering at the high-pitched sounds of
Martian rays. They know any moment may be the last.
CAMERA PICKS UP:
a. Elderly couple holding hands,
singing the hymn, and waiting
patiently for the end.
b. Rev. Bethany, out of his pulpit,
putting a comforting arm around
the choir boy.
c. Stained-glass windows, aflame and
brilliant from the glare of a ray
passing outside.
d. Young husband and wife with two kids,
seven and four years old. The parents
have their arms about them. The little
girl has an arm around her brother. She
is praying: "Set four angels round my
bed...one to watch...and one to pray...
and two to carry my soul away." The
mother bites her lip. Her husband kisses
her. They cling to each other.
CAMERA PICAS UP Clayton searching frantically, try-
ing to push in past people, beginning to lose hope.
CAMERA MOVES ON. We see a doctor doing what he can
for sick and injured. As CAMERA MOVEMENT CONTINUES
the overscene noises begin almost imperceptibly to
diminish, as though the Martian advance is myster-
iously slowing. Finally, CAMERA PICKS UP Sylvia.
Kneeling a little way in from the church porch.
Beyond her is a stained-glass window of St. Peter.
The SOUND from outside is lessening all the time.
CAMERA MOVES CLOSE on Sylvia. Praying softly. As
she prayed when she was small. We don't need to
hear the words. We know what she is asking when we
see the light that comes in her face as she hears:
CLAYTON'S VOICE
Sylvia.......!
She whirls around and comes upright. CAMERA ANGLE
WIDENS. Clayton takes her in his arms, just as
the stained glass window is momentarily lit by an
orange glare. Loud in the strange and sudden quiet
comes a tremendous explosion. Colored glass showers
in from the window, but the haloed head of St. Peter
remains intact. So do his keys. Woodwork, masonry
and dust spill down from the roof. People scatter
from it, moving out of SCENE PAST CAMERA with
Clayton and Sylvia. CAMERA PANS and HOLDS on the
congregation as the hymn dies out. Now it is al-
most completely quiet. People begin to rise. Lis-
tening, turning to gaze o.s. Some begin to move to
the doorway and steps outs1de.
291. EXT. CHURCH STEPS - MED. SHOT
Sylvia and Clayton are standing on the steps. Still.
Listening with everyone else. The Doctor comes for-
ward to look out. Sylvia gasps suddenly, holdind
tightly to Clayton. A woman near her points o.s.,
SCREAMING wildly.
292. SPECIAL EFFECT - CHURCH & STREET - FULL SHOT
A Martian machine is coming from the corner of the
block. Rolling toward the church, filthy with dust,
tangled with every sort of debris. Ugly and enormous,
rays flickering into the air. It blunders into a
building. Comes on.
293. EXT. CHURCH - MED. SHOT
Everyone still, staring fearfully off at the machine.
Faces lit by the shuddering glare of nearby flames.
The Rev. Bethany shows in b.g., coming forward,
gazing out.
294. SPECIAL EFFECT - MARTIAN MACHINE (2)
Its colors dimmed, muddy. Foul with earth and oil
streaks. Dribbling debris. Rays lick weakly, fading.
It blunders into and breaks overhead wires and cables.
A telephone pole smashes down under it. Fallen wires
are entangled underneath, burning and smoking in the
sputtering high-frequency beam-legs. The beams flick-
er, off and on. The machine rocks as its supports
falter. It crashes to the street.
294a. EXT. STREET - MED. CLOSE SHOT - MARTIAN MACHINE
An aperture slowly splits open. The hand and arm
of a Martian struggle partly out, reaching and clawing.
295. EXT. CHURCH - MED. CLOSE SHOT
Everyone staring, full of fear and wonder. The Rev.
Bethany joins Clayton and Sylvia.
296. EXT. STREET - CLOSE SHOT - MARTIAN
The triple-suckered hand is reaching out, trying to
find a grip. We see the protruding veins, their
pulsation weakening, slowing.
297. EXT. CHURCH - MED. CLOSE MOVING SHOT
Clayton moves out. The Doctor follows with Sylvia.
The Rev. Bethany moves out. Others follow. Clayton
pauses, looking o.s. Others look with him.
298. SPECIAL EFFECT - EXT. STREET - FULL SHOT
F.g. is the machine on the pavement. Beyond at a cor-
ner, is another, heat-ray flicking wildly. It lurches
against a building, caroms off, blunders into another
and moves out of sight.
299. EXT. STREET & CHURCH - FULL SHOT
A REVERSE ANGLE, with the downed Martian machine in
f.g. People from the church begin to approach the
machine, but they are wary and keep their distance.
Clayton leads the way with the Doctor. Suddenly
Clayton gestures and they all stop and look off
past the f.g. machine.
300. SPECIAL EFFECT - EXT. DEVASTATED STREET - MED. SHOT
A Martian machine almost enveloped in flames, moving
slowly. Its beam-legs flicker. It sinks down.
301. EXT. STREET & MARTIAN MACHINE - MED. CLOSE SHOT
Clayton steps forward again.
CLAYTON
(Looking off - exclaiming)
Something's happening to them!
He looks down at the veined arm extending from the
opening in the machine.
302. CLOSE SHOT - MARTIAN & GROUP
SHOOTING across the Martian's arm in f.g. The skin
of the arm is losing its ruddy color. The pulsation
of the veins has slowed. The clutching of the hand
lessens. The arm becomes brownish-yellow. The hand
stills. Clayton and the Doctor, b.g. move closer.
The Doctor kneels by the Martian, touches the yellow
flesh.
303. EXT. STREET & CHURCH - MED. FULL SHOT
People streaming from the church and the street
beyond. Staring. Inching forward.
304. EXT. STREET & MACHINE - GROUP - (MOVING SHOT)
The Doctor straightens up from his examination of
the Martian. There is a strained look of awe on
his face as he looks off toward the now silent city.
DOCTOR
(Low-voiced)
We were all praying for a miracle...
The SHOT WIDENS to include the forefront of the
crowd. Reverend Bethany, the choir boy, Clayton,
Sylvia, all waiting on his words. They, too,
look off, listening.
304a. SERIES OF CUTS - COLLAPSE OF THE MARTIANS
a. Special Effect - Ext. Viaduct (as previously).
Flames of the burning oil reservoir previous-
ly destroyed. The Martian machine sinks to
the ground.
b. Special Effect - Ext. City Hall District (as
previously). Rays and beams in the smoke-filled
sky grow weak, flicker and stop. There is
silence.
c. Special Effect - Ext. Street (as previously).
Wreckage everywhere. Smoke-laden sky.
Devastated buildings. Flames. Two Martian
machines prone on the street, color fading.
A jeep races through down the street, dodging
obstacles.
d. Special Effect - San Gabriel Hills (as previous-
ly). The thousands of families huddled in the
barrancas and gullies are turned, facing the
holocaust in the distant city. A last few
rays streak the sky, then cease. A BABBLE of
VOICES grows into an inarticulate hosanna.
304b. EXT. STREET - MED. CLOSE SHOT
The Doctor is center of the group.
DOCTOR
After everything men could do has
failed - the Martians are being killed
by the littlest things that God, in
His wisdom, has put upon the earth.
People are looking at him. At one another.
DOCTOR
(Quietly)
The Martians come from a sterilized
world. They have no resistance to
diseases from which we are immune.
(To Reverend Bethany)
This one died of septicema. Anaerobic
baccili.
(To Clayton - grim, glad)
An embolism of his overdeveloped brain
has burst an artery - killed him and
saved us! They're doomed - all of
them. Germ are killing them!
CAMERA MOVES IN on the faces of the crowd. Hardly
believing what has happened. Beginning to hope.
Wonder and gladness growing.
REVEREND BETHANY
Saved by the littlest things God made...!
DOCTOR'S VOICE
Once they are infected, it's quick --
twenty-four hours. It's hit all these
at about the same time.
304c. EXT. STREET & CHURCH - MED. SHOT - (PAN SHOT)
Near the church, the MP jeep speeds in, braking as
it nears the people. They jump aside, leaving a
lane to the fallen Martian machine. CAMERA PANS
with the jeep. Half-standing, the MP Driver and
his PFC aide yell orders, gesticulating, faces grim.
MP DRIVER
Keep to your shelters - stay in your
shelters! Everybody back!
OTHER MP
There's still danger - wait for orders!
MP DRIVER
You'll get orders!
The jeep stops beside the main group. The two MPs
jump out, guns at the ready, and advance to the
dead Martian.
304d. CLOSE SHOT - GROUP
Clayton, Sylvia, Rev. Bethany, Doctor. Breathless,
eyes questioning mutely.
304e. CLOSEUP MP DRIVER
He rises and turns toward the group.
MP DRIVER
(Understanding their
tension)
Nothing official yet -- but it looks
like it's over. First reports are
they're folding up in droves all
over the world!
He grins and wipes his brow.
304f. CLOSEUP CHOIR BOY
He draws a breath, eyes shining.
CHOIR BOY
(Singing - clear)
Now thank we all our God...
305. SPECIAL EFFECT - BELFRY & CITY - FULL SHOT
As the words of the ancient hymn swell OVERSCENE
from a myriad throats, bells begin to peal through
the smoke and ruin of the devastated city.
VOICES
(Singing)
...With heart and hand and voices,
Who wondrous things hath done...
306. EXT. STREET & CHURCH - CROWD (MOVING SHOT)
Some singing. Some in silent prayer. Some in silent
ecstacy. The young husband hugging his kids. An old
woman all alone, singing softly with the others, eyes
turned to heaven. They start to move toward the
church. CAMERA PICKS UP IN CLOSE SHOT, Clayton and
Sylvia. She is radiant. He smiles, holding her gaze
as he takes off his glasses, folds them and puts them
in his pocket, bending to her. She takes his arm,
smiling up at him. They move after the crowd. She
starts to sing as they go.
307. SPECIAL EFFECT - EXT. STREET & CITY BEYOND
CAMERA SHOOTING DOWN into the street as the crowd
moves toward the church. Almost unconsciously, people
have formed a lane, along which the small figures of
Clayton and Sylvia walk. CAMERA PANS UP the facade
of the church to the belfry, where bells begin to ring
out, joining the chorus of SOUND from the VOICES and
other belfrys. CAMERA PANS ACROSS burned, smoking
buildings to an untouched sector of the city - CROSSING
other belfrys with their ringing BELLS. A dawn sun is
rising beyond rooftops as the SINGING VOICES end in a
great "AMEN."
FADE OUT.
T H E E N D