| dark sea, has been offended by our priest. Poseidon bids us seize our prize! | |||||||||
| At this command, the Trojans CHEER, produce ROPES and, in a SERIES of SHOTS, begin dragging the enormous horse towards the walls of Troy, leaving the STONE STATUE behind... | |||||||||
| AT THE GATES | |||||||||
| MASSES of TROJANS are widening the entrance, literally pulling down the walls before our eyes. The HUGE GATE tumbles crashing down, dust everywhere... | |||||||||
| THE HORSE moves majestically, ominously forward as Synon watches... | |||||||||
| THE HORSE | |||||||||
| is pulled inside the walls as an ORGY erupts. These people have been under siege for ten years. As NIGHT FALLS the party becomes more frenzied, around and beneath the mute giant structure. MEN, WOMEN, BOYS, GIRLS - everyone drinking and fornicating. Not merely men with women, but also with other men. Finally - | |||||||||
| DISSOLVE TO: | |||||||||
| LATER - STILL NIGHT | |||||||||
| silence. The ground and streets strewn with hundreds of PASSED OUT REVELERS... | |||||||||
| SEVERAL ANGLES | |||||||||
| Troy's defenseless population - FEATURE the BREACH in the wall as we find Synon, slowly opening one eye, then the other. He looks | |||||||||
| around, then UP... | |||||||||
| CLIMB SLOWLY UP BENEATH THE HORSE, SYNON'S POV. | |||||||||
| THE HORSE'S BELLY | |||||||||
| a trap door opens as we CLOSE IN TO | |||||||||
| ODYSSEUS | |||||||||
| peering out. He wears his terrifying helmet. Only his eyes and mouth visible. He smiles at what he sees. | |||||||||
| A stream of Greek warriors steal down a ROPE from the horse's belly. Odysseus runs atop the walls and signals with a FLAMING TORCH. | |||||||||
| HIS POV | |||||||||
| a MILLION LIGHTS on the NIGHT HORIZON - the GREEK FLEET. | |||||||||
| Odysseus smiles. | |||||||||
| DEMODOCUS' VOICE OVER | |||||||||
| "And so it was that wily Odysseus accomplished what ten years and ten thousand warriors could not, and brought about the fall of Troy. | |||||||||
| EXT. ALCINOUS' BANQUET - NIGHT | |||||||||
| lit by TORCHES now as the poet chants, stroking the LYRE... | |||||||||
| DEMODOCUS (cont'd) | |||||||||
| "The city was sacked and put to the sword. In time all the heroes that lived returned to their homes and | |||||||||
| destinies. It is now ten years again since the Greek victory and only princely Odysseus, cunning architect of their triumph is unaccounted for, MISSING, his wife abandoned for TWENTY YEARS to a life of - " | |||||||||
| ODYSSEUS | |||||||||
| Stop. | |||||||||
| He is standing in their midst, his eyes flooding TEARS. | |||||||||
| ODYSSEUS (cont'd) | |||||||||
| I beseech you. | |||||||||
| They all look at him. | |||||||||
| ALCINOUS | |||||||||
| I see the tale affects you, friend. | |||||||||
| NAUSICAA | |||||||||
| Had you relatives in Troy? | |||||||||
| Odysseus has to struggle for the words. Finally - | |||||||||
| ODYSSEUS | |||||||||
| I am that wretched man of whom you sing. (off their looks) I am Odysseus. | |||||||||
| CU DEMODOCUS' HANDS | |||||||||
| slowly leave the STRINGS of the lyre... | |||||||||
| Stunned reactions from the GUESTS and SERVANTS. | |||||||||
| NAUSICAA'S EYES | |||||||||
| are popping from her head. Alcinous half rises - | |||||||||
| ALCINOUS | |||||||||
| Odysseus? | |||||||||
| ODYSSEUS | |||||||||
| Aye, Odysseus. Odysseus, the clever, the cunning, the tale-teller, that man "skilled in all ways of contending..." Odysseus, who thought man the measure of all things BECAUSE HE HAD WHAT ANIMALS LACK - A BRAIN. God's gift and for shame to ignore it... | |||||||||
| He laughs bitterly. | |||||||||
| The guests are sitting up at his declaration, amazed. | |||||||||
| ALCINOUS | |||||||||
| Odysseus...but... ten years! What circumstance has so delayed your return? And what brings you to our shores, bereft of all you possess? | |||||||||
| CU ODYSSEUS | |||||||||
| he looks at the Princess NAUSICAA, her radiant young face, her eyes wide with compassion, her lips parted... Finally: | |||||||||
| ODYSSEUS | |||||||||
| I could not tell the difference between | |||||||||
| intelligence and wisdom. | |||||||||
| * THE WOODEN HORSE, towers over the burning city of Troy as we PAN OVER TO WHERE | |||||||||
| EXT. PLAINS OF TROY - NIGHT | |||||||||
| *ALONE, Odysseus staggers drunkenly on the beach as the surf washes over his feet. He is covered in BLOOD. | |||||||||
| *ODYSSEUS | |||||||||
| (shouting) | |||||||||
| A man can do anything! ANYTHING! Do you hear, O Gods? A man can forge his own destiny. I DO NOT NEED YOU! I NEED ONLY MY MIND! | |||||||||
| He laughs, hiccoughs, takes another drink, and leans up against the statue of the dead priest and his sons, twined about with sea serpents. | |||||||||
| The TIDE is IN; waves LAP the base of the statue. Odysseus slides down the side of the statue, to where the surf mingles with the BLOOD on his body... | |||||||||
| In the TORCHLIGHT a SHADOW passes over him and he looks blearily up. The SOUND OF THE WAVES FADES TO SILENCE... | |||||||||
| ODYSSEUS (cont'd) | |||||||||
| Who's that? | |||||||||
| VOICE | |||||||||
| (a terrifying whisper) | |||||||||
| Odysseus, you have offended me - ME, | |||||||||
| that was your truest ally. | |||||||||
| ODYSSEUS | |||||||||
| Who - | |||||||||
| VOICE | |||||||||
| I am Poseidon, Earth-shaker, lord of the wine dark sea. You have blasphemed... | |||||||||
| Odysseus squints, confused, disoriented. A giggle - | |||||||||
| ODYSSEUS | |||||||||
| (protesting) | |||||||||
| But I took the city... I! | |||||||||
| POSEIDON | |||||||||
| With my help. Or have you forgot? | |||||||||
| The SHADOW lengthens, rising impossibly HUGE, to blot out the contorted features of the dead priest, frozen in stone. | |||||||||
| POSEIDON (cont'd) | |||||||||
| Without me to silence this priest and his sons, your plan would have failed. But you do not give thanks. A man is nothing without the aid of God. | |||||||||
| Odysseus, trying to sober up, wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. | |||||||||
| POSEIDON (cont'd) | |||||||||
| Now attend as I pronounce your fate: for | |||||||||
| your foolish pride, you never more shall reach your home. You shall be nothing and nobody. No more shall you see your wife and son. Obstacle upon obstacle shall I heap in your path. The sea itself shall do my bidding - and if you overcome one hurdle I shall place another behind it - until at last you and all your followers join the army of the dead in Hell. | |||||||||
| As Odysseus stares in helpless terror, the SHADOW recedes. Almost at his heels, HORDES of drunken Greeks, carrying all sorts of GOLD and TREASURE, spill onto the beach, find him, cheer him and put him on their shoulders, crying "ODYSSEUS!" | |||||||||
| They carry him in triumph around the statue created by the God who is now to be his nemesis as Troy BURNS behind them. | |||||||||
| ODYSSEUS | |||||||||
| (crying above the babble) | |||||||||
| I am accursed! | |||||||||
| One of his men, ELPENOR, (an immature 27 year old), on whose shoulders he rides, hears. | |||||||||
| ELPENOR | |||||||||
| What? | |||||||||
| ODYSSEUS | |||||||||
| Poseidon has spoken to me. Here. Now. I am condemned! All who follow me will die. | |||||||||
| ELPENOR | |||||||||
| (laughs) | |||||||||
| My lord, you are drunk! | |||||||||
| ODYSSEUS | |||||||||
| I am doomed - so are you all...The sea god has spoken. | |||||||||
| PERIMEDES | |||||||||
| (chubby, maybe 36) | |||||||||
| My lord, no god has spoken here. (laughing) It's just your imagination! | |||||||||
| The word goes around to his drunken men: "Odysseus is imagining things!" Under the circumstances, the idea convulses them. End on Odysseus' dismayed features... | |||||||||
| *ODYSSEUS' VOICE OVER | |||||||||
| Drunk with triumph, my men paid no heed to my warning...they could not know that soon we would set sail for Hell... As for my son, little Telemachus, I could only imagine what sort of Hell was to be his... | |||||||||
| EXT. ODYSSEUS' PALACE COURTYARD - DAY | |||||||||
| *Telemachus, aged ten (as we last saw him), is playing with small WOODEN SOLDIERS in the SUNLIGHT entry way to the great *THRONEROOM & BANQUETING HALL. The DOG is asleep. | |||||||||
| As always, he wears the FADED RED HORSEHAIR NECKLACE... | |||||||||
| A SHADOW falls across him and both look up, startled. | |||||||||
| VOICE | |||||||||
| Is your mother home? | |||||||||
| Telemachus squints up, trying to see. The DOG snarls... | |||||||||
| TELEMACHUS POV | |||||||||
| TWO YOUNG MEN (20's) smile down at him. They are handsome, well dressed - but something is odd, perhaps it's a sort of casual arrogance. Young nobility. One of them pets the dog. | |||||||||
| TELEMACHUS | |||||||||
| Who are you? | |||||||||
| lst MAN | |||||||||
| My name is Antinous... | |||||||||
| The second man kneels with ominous intimacy before the boy. | |||||||||
| 2nd MAN | |||||||||
| My name is Eurymachus. Yours is Telemachus, isn't it? | |||||||||
| TELEMACHUS | |||||||||
| My father is the king. | |||||||||
| Eurymachus, wide-eyed, makes a show of looking around. | |||||||||
| EURYMACHUS | |||||||||
| Is he now? The king, indeed? (smiles) Where is he? | |||||||||
| TELEMACHUS | |||||||||
| He's - away. | |||||||||
| Antinous kneels on his other side; pushes the dog away. | |||||||||
| ANTINOUS | |||||||||
| Where are the king's men? There's none here but nursemaids and grandfathers... | |||||||||
| TELEMACHUS | |||||||||
| They went to the war. With father. | |||||||||
| ANTINOUS | |||||||||
| Father's been gone a long time. | |||||||||
| EURYMACHUS | |||||||||
| Can you remember your father? | |||||||||
| ANTINOUS | |||||||||
| Can your mother remember him? DOES she remember him? | |||||||||
| EURYMACHUS | |||||||||
| Perhaps he's dead. | |||||||||
| ANTINOUS | |||||||||
| (to Eurymachus) | |||||||||
| After all this time? And in a war? Yes, he must be dead. (to the boy) Do you know what that makes your mother, my son? It makes her a widow. | |||||||||
| EURYMACHUS | |||||||||
| A rich widow. | |||||||||
| They look at each other. | |||||||||
| ANTINOUS | |||||||||
| I wonder what's for lunch. | |||||||||