Sam Snoop and the Grail Knights
(This is the tentative script to my next mini-film subject to change on account of time or the result of researching scenes. I have just started the story board, setup locations and collected some images. I have done no shooting and do not expect to shoot for a while yet)
Scene one:
(Film opens with the image of a mountain, and followed by movement through woods, feet along a thin dirt path. We are confronted by a carved face, and then a Nazi symbol -- with a draw back showing Dan Snoop (dad of Sam Snoop) from behind wearing Indy like hat, clothing and whip. Then a closer shot of him looking down at a map)
Scene two:
(Shots of Dan and his Aide approaching brick faced ruins, a few engraved Nazi symbols showing in the walls) They enter the ruins, wandering through its passages until Dan stops before one of the rooms)
DAN:
This is it
(Dan enters a room full of rubble, windows that are a skeleton of the former building, no class, no wood, just brick and stone. Dan stumbles over loose bones in the rubble, from some long-dead people who occupied this place in the past. Then, he moves towards a stone shelf, where he sees a dust covered book. He clears the surface with his hand, then blows off the rest of the dust)
It’s here
AIDE: (Looking extremely nervous)
Take it quickly.
Someone is coming. We must go.
Scene 3
DAN: (pauses for a moment looking at the book in his hands, fingering the imprint on the cover. Finally, he follows the Aide out. The woods are alive with sounds, cracking of twigs and the murmur of voices. Shots show dark shapes slipping through the trees to either side)
This way
(Dan leads the Aide through the undergrowth although the sound of pursuit grows louder around them, and the two start to run. Finally, near a rock overgrowth and under cover, Dan stops and crouches.
Scene 4
This is not good. Take this.
(He thrusts the book at the aide)
Make sure my son get this. Tell him to beware of the Grail Knights.
AIDE (Taking the book reluctantly)
What about you?
DAN: (Already darting out into the woods, pauses to look back)
Just go
(Dan shouts and runs, disappearing into the woods, pursuit clearing following the sound of his movement. The Aide slips the book into his bag, then withdraws more quickly in a different direction.)
scene 5
(Dawn shows over the Empire State building followed by a series of shots showing the busy streets and eventually focuses on a single figure approaching a single doorway)
Scene 6
(A clearly weary Sam Snoop stumbles over something in front of his door. When he bends, he recovers a book shaped package covered in brown paper and tied with string. His name is one it. He frowns, shakes his head, then pushed open the door to his office)
Scene 7:
(From inside camera draws back from him coming into the door to reveal a chaos of overturned furniture and drawers drawn out clearly indicating a frustrated search. The telephone, still in its cradle, is ringing)
Scene 8:
(Sam finds the wire, yanks it until the phone emerges from the rubble, then answers the call)
SAM:
Snoop here
VOICE:
Did you get the package?
SAM:
Who is this?
VOICE: (more insistent)
Did you get the package?
SAM: (pulls the package out of his jacket pocket and puts it down on the cluttered desk)
I got something.
VOICE:
Good!
Now get out of there.
They will be coming for you soon
SAM:
Who will come.
VOICE:
Don’t ask questions.
Just meet me at the old hotel
In the pub.
I’ll explain everything there
(the phone clicks dead. Sam hangs up. Outside car doors slam. Raised voices sound. The front door starts to open. Sam starts to flee towards the room’s rear door, halts, grabs the package from the deck, then escapes into the back alley).
Scene 9:
(Sam flees through the daylight streets chased by masked figures -- after weaving through an urban landscape he is familiar with and they are not, he eventually loses them.)
Scene 10:
(Dan arrives at the old hotel, and finds the nervous Aide seated in the corner, beckoning him over)
SAM:
Billy, is that you?
AIDE:
Keep your voice down, Sam.
It isn’t safe
SAM: (Takes a seat and looks around)
What’s this all about, Billy?
Is Dad in town, too.
AIDE:
It’s about the package.
Before he died, your father told me I should get it to you.
I went to your office, but heard someone inside. I dropped the damned thing trying to get away.
I’m just glad you got it and not them.
SAM:
My father’s dead?
AIDE: (Indicating the package)
He died trying to get that
He said you would know what to do with it. But he also told me to warn you about the Grail Knights.
(The table candle flickers. The shadow of three figures shows on the wall behind their table)
NAZI (Seen only as a shadow)
We’ll take the book, Mr. Snoop
AIDE:
It’s them!
SAM: (overturns the table casting the candle onto the floor which begins to spread fire. One of the other three figures fires a machine gun. Sam pulls out his revolver and fires back)
Get out of here, Billy!
I’ll cover you.
AIDE (tries to run, but his shot down in a hail of bullets, moaning for Sam to escape as he falls)
SAM:
You son of a ....
(He empties his pistol, then flees out a nearby door)
SCENE 11
(Sam runs through the darkened streets in a nightmare sequence sounds of pursuit and ghostly voices all around him, Aide’s voice about Dan’s death and to run echoing repeatedly, as is the sound of distant gun fire -- finally Sam reached a public telephone, which he dials with shaking fingers. Camera remains on Sam though the whole call sequence, ringing and then the voice of Doc picking up on the other end)
SAM:
I need your help, doc.
DOC:
No shark or flying saucers, is it, Sam?
SAM:
Something about Grail Knights.
DOC: (Clearly upset)
What?
Where are you?
SAM:
It’s not safe. I’ll come to you.
SCENE 12:
(Image of university, and then of the doc’s office, where Doc is seated at the desk looking through the book that Dan found earlier)
SAM:
I can’t make heads or tails of it, Doc.
It’s all Greek to me.
DOC:
Not Greek, Sam, Austrian
It seems to be a doctor’s journal – although a lot of it has little to do with medicine.
SAM:
My old man died for that?
DOC:
It’s more important than you would imagine.
This doctor appears to have been consulted on several prominently historic patients – one in particular.
SAM:
And who might that be?
DOC:
Eva Braun.
This journal records the birth of a baby.
SCENE 13:
(Doc and Sam board jet and settle into seats.)
SAM:
I don’t understand why we have to meet with the doctor?
DOC:
We’re not meeting with the doctor. We’re meeting with his son – because we need to know if the entry is true, and the son is the only one who can tell us.
SAM:
Son or not, he must be a million years old
We’re lucky he’s still alive.
DOC:
Gauging from what has happened to your father and his aide, Billy, I would say we will be lucky if he’s still alive when we get there.
(Behind them, a figure with a Life Magazine looks over the top of the magazine at them as the jet takes off. With the image of the plane imposed over a map of Atlantic Ocean travels from New York, to Paris, then onto Vienna.)
SCENE 14:
(We get a view of the city of Vienna from the air, and then see Sam and Doc traveling by car through the streets)
SAM:
A bridge seems a bit too public a meeting place to me.
DOC:
He insisted.
A hangover from the Cold War I guess.
He fears the Grail Knights as much as your father did.
SAM:
But why?
I thought the Grail Knights lived long ago.
DOC:
Apparently they still operate
SAM:
Searching for the cup Christ used at the Last Supper?
DOC:
That’s only one theory, Sam.
Another theory claims the Grail is not the cup of Christ, but his blood line – His descendants.
SAM:
And what does that have to do with Hitler?
DOC:
Germany was the last capital of the Holy Roman Empire.
The Nazis thought they were carrying on that tradition.
SAM:
Are you trying to tell me these fools think Hitler was the descendant of Christ?
DOC:
It would seem so, Sam..
SCENE 15
(car pulls up to area of bridge, Sam and Doc walk out into the middle of it, where they find an old man waiting. The elderly man is very nervous.)
ELDERLY:
I should not be seen with you it is very dangerous.
DOC:
We wouldn’t keep you long.
But we need to know if the entry in your father’s journal is correct?
ELDERLY: (Squints at the journal as Sam holds open the page)
I did not know the journal had survived.
SAM:
But you heard of it?
ELDERLY:
My father spoke of it once. But was afraid to speak too openly. They searched for it, and badgered him to reveal its location.
He believed it had perished in the bombing and told them so. They did not believe him, of course, which kept him alive until old age.
DOC:
Did you discuss what was in it – in particular this one entry?
ELDERLY:
Once briefly.
SAM:
So the entry about the child is true?
ELDERLY:
As far as it goes
DOC:
You mean there’s more?
ELDERLY: (looks around cautiously. A change of view shows several mask men watching the bridge from behind a tree)
The child perished at birth.
SAM:
Thank God!
ELDERLY:
Perhaps not.
He said the Knights came and demanded his preserve the child’s body in a special way, then he sent it to their castle. They returned later after my father’s death, demanding I give up any personal effects my father kept from the Fuhler – combs, brushes, locks of hair and such.
DOC:
Damn!
Come on, Sam?
SAM:
Where to?
DOC:
The Castle, naturally.
SCENE 10:
(Sam and Doc climb the mountain towards the castle tower, the trees stir with movement that makes them wary)
SAM:
If they’re cloning a pack of little Hitlers, why don’t we call in the military?
DOC:
And have them laugh at us like they did after the shark master blew up his lab?
No, we need proof first, before they have a chance to blow it up.
(Grail Knights pop up among the trees and start shooting. Sam shoots back, as he and Doc rush towards the castle steps, where more Grail Knights appear, several falling to Sam’s fire. The two successfully get inside, where they made the long climb up the stairs to the top, each niche filled with some new horror, as well as a lot of images of the Third Reich. They eventually shoot their way into the Chamber of Doom, where the head knight, hooded greets them)
HOODED:
You’re as bad as your father, Snoop, never knowing when to stop. But I shall soon take care of that.
SAM: (Watching at the door) There are a whole lot of them coming up the stairs, Doc. If you’re going to find your proof, do it quick.
HOODED:
You will not need proof. The world will soon learn of what we have done here.
DOC:
You mean you’re that close?
HOODED:
The child incubates in our laboratories, even as we speak. Soon he will become a living boy, and then a man.
DOC:
This is nuts!
We’re going to have to blow up this place.
SAM:
I don’t think we have time, Doc. They’re ready to mount an assault. It might be better that we escape and tell the authorities, proof or no proof.
DOC:
Escape, how?
SAM: (looking around)
Out the window
DOC
It’s a long way down, Sam
SAM:
Then we’d better learn how to climb
(Sam and Doc exit via the window and laughter from the hooded figure, the shadow falls on the wall in the shape of Sam’s father, Dan, and the Hooded figure ceases his laughing)
HOODED:
You! I thought you were dead
DAN:
Not by a long shot. But you and your dream will soon be.
(outside, Sam and Doc reach the ground just as the castle begins to explode, fire gushes from each of its windows, and rock falling down.)
SAM:
Run!
DOC: (staring up in disbelief)
But what happened?
SAM:
Who cares as long as it’s done?
(Both run from the flaming castle and back down the mountain, the glow of the burning castle still on the mountain top as the camera pulls back for a long shot in the dark.)