The Rewilders Page 3
RACHEL
But the vegetable garden, too?
CHARLIE
Mmm. Sell 'em at the local market.
RACHEL
You must do very well.
TO THE PODIUM/CROWD AREA
Most in the crowd are leaning forward in their seats.
BRADWICH
Quickly, now! Release the awful creature! Quickly, quickly, before we reverse ourselves and instead insert the vehicle exhaust hose into the thing's cage!
Ally scowls and shakes her head, as Bradwich gestures dramatically to the cage and his Games Keepers.
The cage bounces again. The crowd mumbles audibly OFF-SCREEN.
The Games Keepers wiggle the cage bolts and raise the door, as the animal inside goes motionless and quiet.
BRADWICH (OFF-SCREEN )
Release it! Release the thing!
From the darkness of the cage, the wild boar bursts out, knocking the Games Keepers off their feet, ferociously honking, coughing, speed and energy, darting to and fro'.
Spectators jump from their chairs, fleeing every which way.
Ally and Wally help the people away amidst the rising dust clouds and screams and oinks-from-hell.
Charlie is outraged, but Rachel is horrified. He protects her as the beast races past them, within two yards.
BRADWICH (OFF-SCREEN )
Kill the thing! Kill it!
The beast barges through Charlie's fence and plunders his garden, trampling the flowers. Then it turns and chases people and kids walking and cycling a laneway to school.
As the Games Keepers chase the creature on foot, Roger and Yabby grab tranquillizer crossbows from their pickup.
The huge boar tears into Charlie's house through the front door, chased by him and the others.
Ally is over to console Rachel, who's crying and quavering.
They watch and listen as terrific smashing and banging comes from inside the house. Then the beast crashes out through a patio door and flees off into the grassy field.
BRADWICH (OFF-SCREEN )
Chase the thing! Chase it! The horror! The horror!
Charlie emerges from inside with a shot gun, but the Games Keepers grab him. One peers back into his house.
GAMES KEEPER #1
What's that I see? This man has a plastic water bottle on the counter!
GAMES KEEPER #2
And tungsten light bulbs?! Those are banned!
Bradwich shows up.
BRADWICH
Where are your energy efficient fluorescents, sir?
Rachel leaves Ally, and rushes over and tugs at the elbow of the man yanking the gun from Charlie's hands.
CHARLIE
But what about my property? It's ruined. And I won't even be able to sell it, now that beast is roaming free!
Bradwich turns away to make a phone call.
INTERIOR - OFFICE/MINISTER PROCTOR (SAME TIME)
PROCTOR
(into phone)
Yeeesss?
BRADWICH (VOICE-OVER)
(filtered over phone)
Minister, it's a Code Red -
PROCTOR
What the dickens?!
EXTERIOR - FARMHOUSE/WOODLANDS
The horrid oinks of the boar echo from the distance. Ally, Rachel and Charlie shout at the phone, held by Bradwich.
ALLY/RACHEL/CHARLIE
The wild boar is loose! It's wrecking everything! Help!
BRADWICH
(into phone)
Yes? Yes?! Minister?
Proctor's response is loud enough for everyone to hear.
PROCTOR (VOICE-OVER)
(filtered over phone)
You're fired! Your whole team! Oh, good God, the Sufferer's Compensation Award we'll have to pay for this.
Bradwich slumps.
PROCTOR (VOICE-OVER)
Is Ally there? Professor Gruberstein?
Walls and fences fall over in Charlie's farm, as dust rises.
ALLY
(takes phone)
Yes, Minister, I'm here. What about us?
PROCTOR (VOICE-OVER)
Take over, Ally. Get back to your office. I'll have a list for you there. You've got work to do!
DISSOLVE TO LATER
Ally's Team, especially Rachel, pick up articles around Charlie's property as he sits, slumped, on his front step.
Roger and Yabby stand, stunned, beside the now-empty cage.
ROGER
Well, that was a royal bugger-up.
The storytelling Mom from the future resumes her narration:
GIRL (VOICE-OVER)
Bugger-up? What's -
MOM (VOICE-OVER)
Never mind it, dear.
BOY (VOICE-OVER)
But poor Charlie, mother!
GIRL (VOICE-OVER)
It's so sad.
Charlie glares at Yabby, still wearing the Boar t-shirt. The others have removed theirs. He starts to take his off.
MOM (VOICE-OVER)
Well, we haven't heard the last of Charlie, have we? But this is how Rachel, and Ally and Wally and Roger and funny Yabby, became important in the Rewilding Program.
GIRL (VOICE-OVER)
They got to do all the re... rewoo... rewildings?
BOY (VOICE-OVER)
Yes, silly!
From the nearby forest, the other, now-jobless, rewilding team shouts as they still chase the boar. Otherwise, the place is desolate as all the spectators have fled the scene.
MOM (VOICE-OVER)
Mmm-hmm! Now they'll work with the biggest and rarest animals, just like Wally wanted to. However, the one they did first wasn't very big, though it turned out to be the most important!
The Next Assignment
INTERIOR - GOVERNMENT OFFICE/C.R.A.P. - DAY
Everybody's slumped around the outer office; no members of the public are there today. At a desk, Rachel, staring blankly, lovingly cradles a hamster. Roger saunters over.
RACHEL
That poor, poor man, Charlie Rath.
ROGER
Who? Oh, that was the farmer? Well, he'll get a check. There's no future in horticulture anyway. Being banned soon, I heard.
There's a squawk OFF-SCREEN. Proctor is on the line in Ally's office.
INTERIOR - OFFICE/ALLY GRUBERSTEIN (LATER)
The Team sits around the computer, showing Proctor's face.
PROCTOR (VOICE-OVER)
(filtered over video)
The Department of Re-Introduction, my good people, is today gracing the world with the European Beaver, a short ways from Loch Lomond.
WALLY
That's more like it!
Yabby imitates the beaver with a plaintive whine, and nibbles playfully on the binding of a book.
PROCTOR (VOICE-OVER)
Hop up there and take care of it, will you? We need a success after that mess with the boar.
The T.V. News
INTERIOR - HOUSE/KITCHEN - DAY
Evey's fixing dinner as the T.V. plays in the BACKGROUND.
HARRY
What's for dinner tonight, Evey?
T.V. ANNOUNCER (VOICE-OVER)
... the Asian Carp. This predatory flying fish is generally two or three feet long and can weigh over thirty pounds -
EVEY
Got some fresh carp at the market yesterday.
HARRY
Mmm-mmm!
T.V. ANNOUNCER (VOICE-OVER)
They were imported to America to clear parasites from ponds in Arkansas and Mississippi -
EVEY
Your favorite! At least they haven't banned it yet.
HARRY
(shakes head)
The day we can't eat the fish from the sea, Evey. That'll be the day.
CLOSE-UP - THE TELEVISION SCREEN
T.V. ANNOUNCER
Flooding let the carp enter the Mississippi River, and now they've moved all the way up to Lake Michigan, causing terrible -
The Beaver Rewilding
EXTERIOR - WE
TLANDS/BOG - DAY
At this Scottish Bog today, our happy, smiling Rewilders are dressed in beaver t-shirts.
There's a crowd of 50 parents, kids and dignitaries. Rachel hands out brochures to parents in the stands and answers questions from some young children.
CLOSE-UP - HANDS RECEIVING PAMPHLETS - TITLES INCLUDE:
"Don't swat Wasps! Eat them!"
"Solar Power for Idiots"
"Don't Redo! Renew!"
CHILD AGED 8 (VOICE-OVER)
Is the beaver a meat eater?
RACHEL (VOICE-OVER)
Oh, no, beavers are gentle, hard-working animals who help the environment!
RETURN TO SCENE
CHILD AGED 6
Are they fast runners?
RACHEL
Uh, well...
CHILD AGED 4
Can they jump up and bite my nose?
Meanwhile, Wally pokes his head out the window of the pickup as it backs up to a pond. Roger and Yabby, in the back of the truck, swivel a large cage up to the tailgate.
Pleasant pictures of beavers are on the side of the cage.
Walking in front of the spectators, Ally brings a loudspeaker to her mouth:
ALLY
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, visiting dignitaries of the Department of Re-Introduction, Mayor, and everyone else! I take great pleasure today in reinstating the lovely European Beaver to Scottish soil!
We hear our first sounds from the caged beavers. Similar to Yabby's imitation, they're cute cries like HOOT-HOOT-HOOOOT, repeated: http://www.tempesta-tormenta.ca/media/beaver.wav
ALLY
Of the family castoridae, of the species castor fiber, the beaver is a mostly nocturnal, semi-aquatic animal. It is the second-largest rodent in the world, after the Capybara -
Yabby holds up a poster of a Capybara, which basically looks like a tailless beaver, and does a bark sound.
Now, accompanying Ally's narration, CUT TO video, worthy of National Geographic, showing the beaver at work and play:
ALLY (VOICE-OVER)
Beaver colonies build magnificent water dams to provide quiet, deep water to protect their families against predators. You know, the beaver population in North American was once more than eighty million, and that doesn't count how many there were here, and on the Continent.
Old drawings and pictographs show hunters and fur traders, and photos illustrate the beaver dams and lakes.
RETURN TO SCENE
The whining from the cage continues, and heightens.
ALLY
Well, I don't know if we need eighty million here in Scotland, but after centuries of hunting, and because their dams can interfere with human land uses, beavers nearly died out. But in nature, their habitats encourage water conservation and prevent erosion. That, and they're so cute!
Roger and Yabby pull up on either side of the gate on the cage, revealing the blackness inside.
The whining goes quiet.
PAN the spectators' expectant faces, ending at Rachel. She crosses her fingers.
ALLY (OFF-SCREEN )
So, rewilding ahoy!
Just as Roger leans down to peek into the dark cage, a rather chubby beaver tentatively emerges. He has a light spot in the fur in the middle of his forehead.
Audible sighs and coos come from the crowd, OFF-SCREEN.
ALLY (OFF-SCREEN )
We shall call you "King Beaver"!
The critter pauses, looks around, burps or farts, and starts its whining as it waddles out and heads for the pond.
A gentle applause starts from the crowd OFF-SCREEN.
ALLY (OFF-SCREEN)
Go away and prosper, my little friend!
(fart OFF-SCREEN)
Build the beaver dams and beaver lodges of your beaver dreams!
More applause starts up OFF-SCREEN as a few smaller beavers poke their noses out, sniff, and follow "King Beaver" off, waddling through the mud and splashing out into the pond.
The Mom's storytelling to her Kids resumes, as we watch the gentle creatures wade out into the water.
MOM (VOICE-OVER)
And so the King Beaver swam out into the great pond, my children.
GIRL (VOICE-OVER)
King Beaver?
MOM (VOICE-OVER)
It was a very special beaver. Somehow, he was to become "smart".
BOY (VOICE-OVER)
A smart beaver?
MOM (VOICE-OVER)
Well, "smart", along with their work ethic, and this one beaver became the leader of all the others. But more about King Beaver later, because the rewilding by Rachel and her Team had just begun.
DISSOLVE TO:
Montage of Successful Rewildings
EXTERIOR - AIRPORT PARKING LOT (GLASGOW PRESTWICK AIRPORT) - DAY
The green pickup truck navigates the lot looking for a spot.
INTERIOR - PICKUP (TRAVELLING)
As before, Wally's driving, with Rachel and Ally up front. Ally's pointy hair almost jabs the others. Roger and Yabby poke their heads through a sliding window from the back.
RACHEL
So this is what you've been asking for, Wally!
WALLY
Going international!
ALLY
And doing the Pleistocene Rewilding!
EXTERIOR - RUNWAY/AIRPLANE (LATER)
The Team members mount the escalator to a prop plane.
All the jet aircraft are parked off to the side, covered in tarps, some being disassembled for parts by men on cranes.
Our narrator, the Mom, helps out her kids a bit.
GIRL (VOICE-OVER)
Plish... Plice... Plasticine...
MOM (VOICE-OVER)
"Pleistocene Rewilding."
MONTAGE - PLEISTOCENE REWILDING WITH PROXIES (N. AMERICA)
Before ever-increasing crowds, the Team releases animals into the wild where their giant ancestors lived aeons ago:
A) In the prairies, they release an African Elephant as a proxy for the extinct American Mastodon.
BOY (VOICE-OVER)
This is my favorite kind of rewilding!
MOM (VOICE-OVER)
Yes, as it was Wally's! Pleistocene Rewilding is when they bring in today's animals, that are a lot like the old, giant, extinct animals from a long, long time ago.
B) In a semi-desert valley, they let go a modern Dromedary camel as a proxy for the extinct Camelops.
BOY (VOICE-OVER)
Like the giant ground sloths!
GIRL (VOICE-OVER)
Oh, and woolly mammoth elephants?
MOM (VOICE-OVER)
Right! Except there aren't any big sloths or mammoths, so instead they let out animals from today, that are similar.
C) A caravan of animal poster-decorated trucks pulls up in Montana's lowlands, with the mountains in the BACKGROUND. Stands are being set up beside a podium, and spectators are already collecting.
EXTERIOR - REWILDING STAGING GROUNDS/MONTANA (LATER)
Everything's set up, lots of happy kids have surrounded Rachel in the big crowd, Roger and Yabby move cages on a big trailer, and Ally and Wally go over notes at the podium.
ALLY