TENNESSEE QUAKE
(The following is an excerpt, beginning on page 6)
EXT. NASHVILLE,
TENNESSEE
LEGEND: NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE
INT. GOVERNOR’S OFFICE
FRANK
Mornin’
Melissa. Anything interesting on the schedule today?
MELISSA
The usual boring meetings, Governor.
INT. CORPORATE BOARDROOM
ZACK ARMSTRONG, the youngish chairman of a Nashville record company, is about to start a board meeting. BOARD MEMBERS sit around a large oak table. Zack gets a cell phone call from TRINA.
(CUTTING BACK AND FORTH BETWEEN ZACK and TRINA)
TRINA
The child support check is late — again.
I sent it.
TRINA
Well, I don’t have it, and Christal needs dental work, badly.
ZACK
I promise to look into it, but I know it’s on the way. Look, I’m in a board meeting now. I need to get off the phone.
TRINA
Don’t think you can brush me off like that. You have two children depending on you, but they’re out of sight, out of mind.
ZACK
That’s not fair, Trina. I want to help the kids — and you. But you won’t let me see them. You had to move back to West Memphis. It would be easier for everybody if you would move back to Nashville.
TRINA
Easier for you if I drop everything and give up the job I just started.
Car horn BEEPS on Trina’s end. She turns and looks over her shoulder.
ZACK
Are you driving and talking on the phone, Trina? You know you shouldn’t do that.
EXT. MEMPHIS BRIDGE
Suddenly, the bridge begins to shake.
TRINA
(SCREAMS)
INT. BOARDROOM
ZACK
Trina? What’s wrong?
As Zack speaks, the boardroom begins to shake. Board members crawl under the massive table. Zack joins them but tries to stay on his cell phone.
ZACK(Cont.)
Trina?! Trina?!
INT. GOVERNOR’S OFFICE
Room begins shaking violently. Frank holds on to his desk from a sitting position while Melissa grabs the Governor’s desk from a standing position.
EXT. MONTAGE MEMPHIS AND NASHVILLE
In both Memphis and Nashville, rows of old brick buildings crumble, water mains break and water sprays. Gas lines break, too. Bridges and overpasses break up, debris and cars fall onto othef cars below.
In Memphis, the bridge over the Mississippi twists and breaks. Trina and other motorists are terrified as they are sent to the bottom of the river.
West Memphis resident SETH HIGHTOWER is in his backyard when his house and his neighbors’ houses partially collapse.
EXT. MISSISSIPPI RIVER
LEGEND: COMMERCE, MISSISSIPPI
The surface of the river tips at a thirty-five-degree angle and begins to flow backward with such force that large boats uncontrollably collide with smaller craft that quickly splinter and sink. DECKHANDS on a barge, and the towboat pushing it, try to keep their cargo from sliding off into the river. Two DECKHANDS are swept overboard. First mate PETE REYNOLDS tries to grab one of the men, but the deckhand slips out of his grasp.
Waves sink three smaller boats. MEN from the other boats are cast overboard and drawn down into the churning waters. Captain Mike DURWARD sees that the barge is drawing closer and closer to the big paddleboats docked along the shore. He makes a command decision.
MIKE
All hands, come back aboard! Prepare to cast off the barge!
PETE hesitates.
MIKE (Cont.)
Get the hell off that death trap. Prepare to cast off on my command!
Nearby, the river floods its banks, rapidly devastating riverside communities, including a strip dotted with casino hotels in Commerce.
EXT. OPEN-AIR DOWNTOWN MALL
LEGEND: CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA
EAN and JILL PHERICK are drinking lattés when suddenly Jill’s coffee cup falls off the table and shatters on the red brick pavement. The bricks on the Mall rattle and some of them buckle slightly. Everyone and everything up and down the Mall shakes. Some storefront windowpanes crack, but they do not shatter. The shaking is not nearly as strong as the shaking we have seen elsewhere. In the Virginia scenes, no one is killed or injured. There is very little property damage.
MONTAGE: MEMPHIS, NASHVILLE AND SAINT LOUIS
Violent damage occurs in Memphis and Nashville simultaneously, but in Memphis the destruction is far worse. Severe damage occurs in Saint Louis, as well.
EXT. WEST MEMPHIS, ARKANSAS NEIGHBORHOOD
SETH HIGHTOWER runs from his backyard into his house calling the names of his wife, MARY, and his Children--RONNIE, BRENDA, and LUCIA.
SETH
Mary! Ronnie! Brenda! Lucia!
MARY
Seth! We’re here! We’re over here!
Seth is just barely able to get them out.
Then the shaking stops as suddenly as it began.
In the backyard, Seth hugs his family as they watch their house and their neighbors’ houses continue to collapse and burn.
CHARLOTTESVILLE
The tremors let up. Everything is still.
EAN
That would have been relatively mild — if we still lived in California.
JILL
What do you think it was?
EAN
On the Richter? It depends on where the epicenter was. Nearby? It’s maybe a three or a four. But if the epicenter is in Missouri like the tremors we picked up at the lab last night, then somebody just experienced a severe quake.
Ean’s cell phone buzzes. He answers it.
EAN
Debbie, what’s happening?
INT. SEISMOLOGY LAB
DEBBIE GLENN, Ean’s associate at the seismology lab is on the landline.
DEBBIE
Ean, the epicenter of that quake was the New Madrid fault. It just hit the whole region surrounding Tennessee, Arkansas, and Missouri.
EAN
Don’t tell me. It was an eight.
DEBBIE
No. It was an eight-point-five.
EAN
(letting
this sink in)
This
isn’t over, Deb. There are going to be aftershocks. I’ll be there as soon as I
can.
Ean hangs up. Turns to Jill. They both stand up. Ean looks a little unsure, but Jill gives him a quick kiss on the lips and then backs off.
JILL
You go. We both have to get to work.
They hurriedly part with another quick kiss. Jill walks in one direction. Ean goes in the other. He reaches a parking lot and gets in his car.
As he drives to the university, he turns on his car radio.
NATIONAL RADIO ANNOUNCER (O.S.)
…over the Midwest and Central Southern states, buildings, bridges, and highways are still collapsing after the quake, which is believed to be a whopping eight-point-five on the Richter scale. On the almost mile-long Memphis-Arkansas Bridge, hundreds of cars have plunged into the Mississippi River. While the damage is worst near the Mississippi, the temblor was felt from New York to Minneapolis and New Orleans to Toronto. But Memphis has been hardest hit. Meanwhile, governors from Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Arkansas, Missouri, and Mississippi have requested…
INT. GOVERNOR’S OFFICE
Melissa and Frank still hold onto the desk even after the room has stopped shaking. Melissa looks terrified.
FRANK
You felt that, right.
MELISSA
Uh-huh. Was that a quake?
FRANK
Either that or about eight semi-trailers just crashed into the capitol building all at once. Melissa, are you gonna be o.k.? Because we got a lot of work to do. Can you get Ed on the horn and find out what he knows?
MELISSA
Public Safety, right. I'm on it.
FRANK
(Picking up his phone)
Myrtle, can you get me through to Washington? I want to call the White House.
INT. CORPORATE BOARDROOM
Zack and the Board Members crawl out from under the big table. The city beyond their cracked picture windows is a heap of rubble. Fires are already blazing and sections of overpasses can be seen to have collapsed onto the roads and cars below them. ALARMS make a mad cacophony all over the city.
FIRST BOARD MEMBER
Look at this. It’s like the Apocalypse! Why are we still standing?
ZACK
Because this is one of the few buildings in Memphis that’s been earthquake-proofed.
FIRST BOARD MEMBER
I guess we have you to thank, then.
ZACK
Don’t thank me, Mel. At the time, I wasn’t in charge, and I thought the retrofit was a waste of money. Excuse me a sec.
Zack punches numbers on his cell phone.
ZACK (Cont.)
Trina?
AUTOMATED MESSAGE (O.S.)
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