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Synopsis, The Anomaly by Wiley Russell
Spec Script, First 5 Pages of The Anomaly by Wiley Russell
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Logline:
In 1985 two USAF pilots fly over Mt. Ararat and rediscover Noah’s Ark, but when they get too close to the Armenian border their plane is shot down. Twenty years later, the daughter of the surviving pilot and the son of the dead pilot plan an expedition back, only to discover they’re being shadowed by a mysterious, deadly group of men who also has an interest in the Ark.
Synopsis:
The story begins in 1299 AD as a group of the Knights Templar make their way up Mt. Ararat on horseback with their cargo¾ a mysterious box covered in animal skins.
The knights arrive at a monastery and are met by several monks. The two groups continue up the mountain on foot with the box. Later, they enter a secret cave, which opens onto a plateau where Noah’s Ark rests. They enter the ship with the box, but exit without it.
In 1985 two USAF pilots fly over Mt. Ararat and spot the ship, but when they get too close to the Soviet Armenian border their plane is accidentally shot down. One pilot is killed and the other survives, but with a crippled leg.
The air force discounts their story and the Turkish government cancels all flights over Mt. Ararat, because of the increased tension with Armenia.
Twenty years later, Karla Lankhorst, the daughter of the surviving pilot, plans an expedition to the mountain to fulfill her father’s dream of the discovery.
The son of the dead pilot, Colton Sims, has lost belief in God since his father’s death. Karla sees the expedition as an opportunity to restore Colton’s faith; plus she can use his Army Special Forces training on the mountain. Not believing the Ark is there, Colton reluctantly agrees¾ for the right price.
Unbeknownst to the expedition, the Knights Templar placed the Ark of the Covenant inside Noah’s ship 700 years ago, but over the centuries the exact location of the vessel was lost. Now, a modern, evil group of the Templars plan to shadow the expedition, kill them and take back the chest.
The story concludes with the rediscovery of the ship and the Ark of the Covenant, followed by a nonstop fight between the expedition, Knights Templar, Armenian Air Force, and Iranian gunrunners.
In the end, Colton realizes that God knew one day the knights would become corrupt and return for the ark, and it was God’s plan all along to use him to stop them.
EXT. MOUNTAIN – DAY (AUTUMN)
Bird’s-eye view moving from a desert plateau to the base of a huge mountain. Continuing up as the trees thin below the permanent snow line. Past ridges, valleys, and deep gorges with glacier ice. Then over the 17,000-foot summit.
SUPER: "OTTOMAN EMPIRE 1299 A.D."
Halfway down the back side of the mountain, on a trail, are FIVE well-armed KNIGHTS on horseback. ONE KNIGHT rides in a horse-drawn cart with their cargo: an object, the size of a two-drawer file cabinet, covered in animal skins and rope.
The knights are skinny, with long greasy hair, brown teeth, and sunken eyes. Their clothing is tattered wool, with chain-mail vests covering a big red cross sewn onto each man’s shirt. These are the Knights Templar—crusaders.
EXT. MOUNTAIN MONASTERY – DAY
No trees, just patchy snow on black lava rock surrounding a church, living quarters, and horse stable. Each a simple mass of rough beams and rock.
The knights arrive and dismount.
FOUR MONKS in brown robes come out from the church. They bow to the knights. The groups speak to each other in an old English-Latin mix; it’s not clear what they’re saying.
The monks approach the cart and its cargo. A monk carefully pulls back the animal skin for a peek.
A moment later, the monk lets go of the skin and the group drops to their knees praying.
The knights draw water from a stream running through the monastery. THREE BOYS take the horses away as another BOY brings out a plate of bread for the knights.
As the knights eat, the monks approach. A heated discussion breaks out with lots of pointing toward the mountain, higher up. Black storm clouds have gathered in the distance.
The knights give in. They walk to the cart and set the covered box out onto the ground as the monks hurry into the living quarters.
The monks return with bags of supplies, ropes, and shovels.
A monk gives instructions to the four boys. They bow their heads and the monk says a blessing over them.
The boys pick up the box by the ropes, which wrap it. With one boy at each corner they easily lift it.
The group leaves the monastery on foot. Continuing up the trail, deeper into the mountain.
EXT. MOUNTAIN – DAY
The permanent snow line is still above them. The trail comes to an end. The boys continue carrying the box up the steep grade of loose rock, their feet occasionally slipping under them. The knights are in front and back; watching, helping.
LATER
At a sheer cliff, with half the group below, half the group up top on a winding ledge, they use rope and tackle to raise the box.
With the box and people on top, they walk a short distance on the ledge and come to a dead-end, solid rock.
The knights argue among themselves--the monks have got them all lost!
Two monks try to calm the knights as the other monks search the rocks, shoveling light snow out of the way.
One of the searching monks waves to the group, then turns to the mountainside and continues digging snow.
The group gathers together, all of them digging.
They uncover the entrance to a cave; just big enough for them to enter with the box.
They light torches, then carry the box--single file--inside.
INT. CAVE
The wind blows, fighting their torches. They follow a passage snaking back into the mountain; over tiny streams, below stalactites, through narrow passages where the box presses against the sides.
Daylight is in sight. For the first time the knights smile.
EXT. VALLEY
The group exits the cave onto a small plateau; a thirty-acre rectangle of virtually-flat volcanic rock covered in melting snow. Three sides surrounded by tall ridges. The fourth side a thousand-foot drop into a gorge.
Now it’s the knights who fall to their knees praying.
NOAH’S ARK rests near the cliff in the distance.
The ship is enormous: 450 feet long by 75 wide and 45 tall. The vessel a rectangle, without much angle to the bow or sides. Lengthwise, along the enclosed roof, is a raised area, two feet tall by three wide, with ventilation windows.
Water runs off the ship in the sunshine as dark clouds gather at the edges of the valley.
The monks casually step past the praying knights.
EXT. ARK
The knights gingerly touch the ship. It’s obvious the vessel is petrified.
An entranceway, five feet above ground and big enough for an elephant, is near the middle of the ship. At one time there was a ramp, but it’s long gone.
The knights look inside, but the interior is so dark none of the detail is apparent.
Two monks climb inside the ship with the help of the boys, who hand them torches. The boys pick up the box and set it on the threshold.
A light snow begins to fall.
The rest of the group climbs inside the ship.
LATER
The men reappear as the ship’s entrance. The box no longer with them. They climb out. As the last knight clears the entrance the falling snow picks up, quadrupling in volume.
The group hurries toward the cave. A knight takes one last look back. The Ark is nothing but a dark blur becoming lost in white.
EXT. DESERT PLATEAU – SKY – MOUNTAINS – DAY (SUMMER)
The snow-capped mountains of Greater and Lesser Ararat fill the distance.
A gray, two-seater F-15 Eagle jet flies across the sky. The plane marked: USAF 1227.
SUPER: "ANATOLIAN PLATEAU, EASTERN TURKEY 1985"
INT. F-15
Thirty-nine-year-old pilot RICHARD SIMS is at the controls. A copilot/reconnaissance officer TOM LANKHORST, a couple years younger, sits behind Richard in the cockpit. Oxygen masks cover the lower halves of their faces.
The copilot’s area is crammed with extra gauges, switch panels, and monitors. None of it for weapons’ systems, instead it’s reconnaissance equipment.
RICHARD (V.O. INTERCOM)
I’m taking her to altitude, Tom.
Tom adjusts several controls as Richard takes the plane almost straight up for several seconds, then levels out.
TOM (V.O.)
Lights, camera, action.
EXT. SKY - F-15
A camera spins inside a plastic bubble mounted underneath the plane and snaps photos, capturing a topograph of the desert and mountains. An electric motor hums, advancing the film.
The plane banks into a turn and dives back toward earth.
INT. F-15
The pilots remove their oxygen masks and adjust controls.
TOM
Why do the Turks care what the
Iranians are doing at ten o’clock
on a Saturday morning?
RICHARD
They don't. They just like to
know their Uncle Sam isn't
sleeping in.
An AIR-TRAFFIC CONTROLLER comes over the radio.
CONTROLLER (V.O.)
(Turkish accent)
U.S. twelve-twenty-seven, change
course to one-three-five north.
RICHARD
(radio)
What’s up, Haji?
CONTROLLER (V.O.)
There’s a group of training pilots
heading your way, Richard.
RICHARD
(radio)
Roger, Haji. Twelve-twenty-seven
heading one-three-five north.
Tom dials the equipment knobs, then studies a small radar screen.
TOM
I’ve got ’em. Six Phantom Twos
just lifted off.
RICHARD
Let’s give ’em a wide berth.
Richard bands the plane hard; the men lean.
RICHARD
How about a few shots of the
Soviet border for our NATO friends
TOM
Why not.
RICHARD
We’ll take her over Ararat, then
come back down the eastern border.
Tom busily sets up the camera controls.
TOM
Roger that.
EXT. SKY – MOUNTAIN – F-15
The plane is at 13,000 feet cruising over Mt. Ararat, above the Ahora Gorge, when the jet flies almost directly over Noah’s Ark, half covered in melting snow, the ship still resting near a cliff.
INT. F-15
Tom’s face is plastered to the side window.
TOM
Oh my God!
Richard’s eyes quickly scan the controls.
RICHARD
What’s wrong!
TOM
I saw something manmade on the
mountain.
RICHARD
A plane?
Tom’s expression is almost speechless.
TOM
I think it was a ship. The ship.
RICHARD
Where’d you see it?
Tom quickly writes the coordinates on a note pad.
TOM
It was at our three o’clock, near
the edge of a cliff between two
ridges. I’ve got the coordinates.
RICHARD
Forget the Soviets. I want to see
this ship.
EXT. SKY – F-15
The plane tops the Ararat summit and makes a turn to the right (east).
INT. F-15
TOM
We’re on the Armenian border,
Richard!
RICHARD
I’m going to line us up the best
shot down that valley.
EXT. SMALL ARMENIAN (SOVIET) AIR BASE – DAY
Sirens wail as TWO PILOTS run from a building onto the tarmac and up the ladders into two MiG-23 jets with red Soviet stars on the wings.
SOLDIERS run from another building toward a camouflaged tent.
INT. CAMO TENT
The soldiers hurry, plugging cables into portable monitors and missile-control panels.
LIEUTENANT NIKOLAI DEINEKA, sporting a bright-red head of hair and mustache, is in charge, pointing and issuing orders. Deineka steps to a table and studies a suitcase-mounted radar screen.
At the rear of the tent, a confused SOLDIER yells into a radio.
Deineka, irritated, storms back, about to grab the radio handset.
SOLIDER
(shouts)
Fire?
Deineka’s face melts. He spins around as the MISSILE OPERATOR flips a series of switches.
EXT. AIR BASE ─ DESERT
A camouflaged, remote-operated SA-8 Gecko, the size of a tank, but with four missiles mounted on top, lets one fly in a fiery blast.
INT. CAMO TENT
Deineka yells and hits the handset against the soldier who had been on the radio.
EXT. SKY – MT. ARARAT – F-15
The jet flies into a valley.
INT. F-15
RICHARD
I see the ship! Are you getting
pictures?
Warning lights and buzzers go crazy in the cockpit.
TOM
We’ve got a heatseeker coming up
our six o’clock!
RICHARD
Launch countermeasures! I’ll get
us down into the gorge.
EXT. SKY VALLEY – F-15
White-hot countermeasure flares blast out from the wings of the jet as it flies over the ark, only a few hundred feet below.
The plane dives into the Ahora Gorge as the heatseeker catches up and blows off the very tip of the tail section.
The plane struggles to stay airborne.
INT. F-15
RICHARD
I can’t hold her!
Tom pushes buttons and flips switches.
RICHARD
Eject on three!
TOM
Roger.
Richard fights the controls. Tom grabs a small photo of his wife and daughter from the console.
RICHARD
Eject! Eject! Eject!
EXT. SKY – MOUNTAIN – F-15
Only one seat blasts out of the plane. The chute opens and floats down as the jet dives farther down the gorge and disappears behind a ridge. The only sound is the cool, whipping wind.
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