Phantoms (1998) Movie Script

Ronnie? It's Lisa.
I know, I know.
I want to, baby...
but I can't. I've basically been
abducted.
She looks like my older sister.
The Surgeon General.
You know...
Me too.
Ditto.
Listen, I can't talk here.
Take my number. Call me back.
It's area code 303-560...
Ronnie?
That was low.
That was really low.
Thank you so much.
Okay, fine.
I'll stay a month.
A month won't be so bad, right?
No offense, but I don't think
Snowfield can compare to L.A.
activity-wise.
And besides...
Mom needs me back.
Mom will be fine, Lisa.
Anyway, it's healthier up here.
Less smog, less gunfire.
I like smog and gunfire.
- Less Ronnie.
- You don't know him.
I know the type.
He's cute.
They always are.
Many people here?
In the summer, with tourists,
it can be 4,000.
It's kind of cute,
in a dorky sort of way.
Is it always this quiet?
No.
No, it isn't.
Hilda, we're home!
You'll love Hilda.
Housekeeper of the Gods.
When I left this morning,
she was promising apple pie.
No message.
Jenny!
Go. Go stand over there. Go.
Looks like someone
beat the shit out of her.
She died suddenly.
How do you know?
There's no blood.
There's no sign of struggle.
What's going on?
Phone's dead.
Out of order now, it's
strange, don't you think?
What if she was killed?
What if the killer's
still in the house?
Shit!
Police station's four blocks.
We'll walk.
- You okay?
- I'm going to be sick.
We're almost there.
- It's a disease.
- Just wait.
I don't want to die like this.
We're not going to die.
Let go!
- Calm down.
- Why?
You brought me here!
I'm sorry.
You're just scared.
I am too.
Just let me do this.
Here, check the phone.
Anybody...
Nothing.
You weren't shooting
at a disease, were you Paul?
- He got off three rounds.
- More.
He's a pro, right?
He hits what he aims at.
So?
Where's the blood, Jenny?
Why do you need a gun?
For whatever.
Know how to use it?
I understand the concept.
It's like this.
See? L.A.'s good for something.
Everybody's dead.
No, it can't be.
Not a whole town.
Is there a nuke plant around?
No.
Big military base?
No.
Thought maybe...
it's radiation?
Radiation doesn't kill in a blink.
Besides...
there'd be burns, lesions.
It was running before.
I saw it.
Jacob and Anna. It's their
bakery. They're always here.
Let's go around in back.
Something's up there.
Keep moving!
Jacob!
Anna?
What the hell?
The stump's, like, cauterized.
It's some freaking maniac.
One maniac can't wipe out a town.
Just a Bundt cake.
It's just a Bundt cake.
Not that way. Out the front!
Who are you?
- What do you want?
- What is it?
Come on.
How you doing?
What's going on here.
Stu, let's go!
Stu, you okay?
Yeah.
Fine.
Can we go yet?
No, not yet.
I want to get a forensic here.
Right? Get a coroner.
You can't do that.
Get 3 more deputies.
Sheriff Hammond?
You can't bring people.
It could be toxic.
Toxic? Yeah.
Whatever got those,
definitely toxic.
They were decapitated.
Not your deputy, Henderson.
Or my housekeeper.
It was something else.
We should get them out.
You don't know what it is.
Just calm down.
You can't risk spread...
Doctor, I'm in charge here!
All right?
I'm going to get on the radio.
I'll figure this out.
Good. Let's go.
Henderson was on the phone.
The line just went dead.
We got here as soon as we could.
He used to be FBI, like me and Bryce.
He was a good cop.
Why didn't Paul see
an attack coming?
He didn't make mistakes.
Just one.
Excuse me?
If anybody was alive,
that would have brought them out.
Those lights are the Candleglow Inn.
Steve, bring them along.
Are you okay?
Yeah.
Okay, because I need
you to be okay here.
All right?
I'm okay.
You okay?
Yeah.
Okay, then.
Have you heard any barking.
Barking? No.
- Seen any dogs or cats?
- No.
There are only 4 rooms booked.
All upstairs.
There might be someone
in the manager's apartment.
Where you want...
to start, chief?
Nothing.
All right.
Holy shit!
Hi.
Want to tell me what happened?
What are you doing?
Jesus.
I was just...
Looking for clues?
Yeah.
Watch the hallway.
Are you okay?
You feel sick?
I feel good.
Doctor?
Stay here.
Be careful.
Watch the hallway, Stu.
This door was locked from the inside.
I had to break it open.
Nobody in there.
So how'd she get out?
- Window?
- There is no window.
Look at this.
You want to see something?
What?
You want to see something?
No.
Who's Timothy Flyte?
I've no idea.
I was hoping you would know.
He's no one local.
- Think it's one of the killers?
- It seems so.
She locks herself in here, to
get away from him, and writes...
Then why not write a clear message?
She wrote it in lipstick.
But where's the tube?
Vanished.
along with whoever used it...
from a locked, windowless room.
What is this?
Whatever it is, it wasn't here before.
That's a gold tooth.
Like Nazis.
In the camps, they'd
leave anything of value.
This is junk.
Don't touch it.
Buttons.
Strips them to their skins.
Beyond the skin.
Jenny, what is that?
It's a pacemaker.
Got to be kidding.
Now this guy...
this guy's got an edge.
There's been no guest Timothy Flyte.
There are 7 people in those 4 rooms.
Only found one body.
Where's everybody?
Maybe they're still alive...
somewhere.
No mistake. We were to come here...
and find that message.
I'll run the name Flyte
by headquarters and see what it does.
What?
I don't like this.
- That was not here before!
- No way.
We'd have seen it.
I fall to pieces...
Help!
- Help me!
- Bryce, cover me.
Steve, wait!
The message read: "Timothy Flyte,
The Ancient Enemy."
- That's Flyte: F-L-Y-T-E.
- 10-4, Sheriff.
Set up a roadblock at the turnoff,
and close the town down tight.
Nothing comes in, nothing goes out.
Federal assistance.
- Armed federal specialists.
- 10-1.
Receiving poorly, Sheriff.
There is an anti-terrorist unit
for chemical/bacteriological threats.
Breaking up! Repeat.
Fort Sherwood, all right?
The whole strike force.
Big firepower, full
analytical assistance...
Send everyone they have.
One, possibly two officers dead.
I may have hundreds dead.
Jesus! Joe!
Come on, Joe!
Hello?!
What is this?
Same thing on the phone.
They didn't get the message.
There won't be any help coming.
Of course there will, Lisa.
Not in time.
So...
Guess we're on our own.
Wait a minute, Stu.
Nobody's going off.
We have a chain of command.
This has to be a managed response.
"Managed response?"
I'm sorry, Sheriff.
Don't have my book on me.
Is that an FBI term?
What's your problem?
Nothing.
I'm just trying to learn
to be a better cop.
You know what?
The doctor sure is cute.
I'm not going to have
this conversation with you.
What conversation?
- Any conversation.
- I'm saying...
it seems like you two
are hitting it off.
I don't know what your problem is.
I know what you are trying,
so cut it off.
I like the little sister, though.
Stop!
Shut up, all right? Enough!
Easy, chief.
Easy.
I got Witnesses.
Why don't you calm down.
Is that what you meant by...
a "managed response"?
Who are you?
What was that?
It came from over here.
No, it's over here.
The window!
Was that a bird?
No way.
If help's coming,
it won't be till daybreak.
I wouldn't worry.
Wahtever it was won't
be coming back in here.
What makes you so sure?
Well, for one thing...
we probably just shot it
about thirty times, Sheriff.
That doesn't mean it's dead.
It ate through his face...
consumed the eyes...
most of the soft tissue...
and the entire brain.
Impossible. The brain alone
weighs 6 or 7 pounds.
It just devoured it in seconds.
It almost got Lisa.
No.
It wanted Deputy Wargle first.
It wants men like him most of all.
What do you mean, "men like him"?
It's the devil, don't you think?
Come up from hell tonight.
I think he wants to dance with us.
Dr. Flyte?
Wilson and Hawthorne.
FBI.
We're here to ask questions...
about articles you've written.
The FBI reads Wide World News?
Only if it's about...
"The Ancient Enemy".
They're based on a treatise
I published at Oxford.
Got you kicked off.
They weren't that rude.
No boot to the bottom.
It's a pretty radical theory.
I believed any theory...
published with evidence
became open to discussion.
But I've learned how vicious
the academic community can be.
They're swine. Polite swine,
but swine, nonetheless.
Convincing the world
to consider a new idea...
takes patience, perseverance,
and willingness to fight...
in any media forum one can find.
Which is why a bigtime...
paleobiologist, like yourself,
works here.
No. I need the money.
Come with us.
Whatever for? I merely
exercised my rights to...
National security.
You okay?
Your sister's holding up...
I don't know.
She had a rough time.
Our mother is not exactly...
the best role model.
- How do you mean?
- She drinks.
But I thought bringing Lisa
up here would help.
Help you, or her?
Both of us.
I have this need to...
take charge.
I noticed that.
So...
Harvard...
a few years with the FBI.
What are you doing here?
Yeah.
See...
He had a gun.
He was hiding in a closet.
And the gun turned out to be a toy.
Carrying his picture with you...
Why torture yourself?
He shouldn't be forgotten.
I need an escort.
I'll do it.
Okay, you're all set.
This is so embarrassing.
I'll be right outside.
That was stupid.
Want to see something?
You are so fucking cute.
My God, he's in there!
There's nobody in there.
Yes, there was.
They couldn't just evaporate.
It's like that bathroom.
No windows, a locked door...
Yes!
- They're here!
- Thank God!
What the hell?
Come on!
Reconnaissance.
Infrared photography.
It's not going to stop.
Get your stuff.
I'll get you out of here.
I am a legal resident
of the United States.
I have the right to an attorney.
If I'm not arrested,
this could be construed...
as kidnapping.
If you people really know
where Elvis is...
we'd like to know.
What?
We've been looking
for him a long time.
Yes, sir.
The King sure is slippery.
You can't stay here alone,
miles from anyplace.
Someone has to be here.
Just go, okay?
- Come on!
- AI right, pop the hood.
You got to be kidding.
Looks like it's been
crushed in a press.
Help me! Somebody! Please!
Please! For God's sake! Help me!
No one's really out there.
It's just trying to bait us.
Like your deputy at the inn.
Let's go back inside.
Gun's won't do it, General.
We're not just about guns.
Why not shoot me dead
right here, right now...
and save trouble?
Do you people hire
only stunt drivers?
We're interested in
"The Ancient Enemy".
Not the tabloid stuff.
The hard science.
History is filled with
mysterious disappearances...
and neither archeologists
nor anthropologists can provide...
- explanations.
- For instance?
December 10th, 1939, in the
hills outside Nanking, in China...
an army of 3,000 Chinese soldiers...
vanished without a trace...
long before reaching the battlefield.
No bodies. No graves. No Witnesses.
The Mayan cities of Copn,
Piedras Negras, Palenque...
back in 60 A.D. Deserted overnight.
Hundreds of thousands
of Mayans missing.
Theories of disease
or war don't explain...
why there were no mass graves.
There's evidence...
that Mayan families vanished
after preparing dinners,
but before eating them.
There is the disappearance
of the English colony...
on Roanoke Island, in 1590.
Many others. Many.
Just what is this thing?
Chaos.
Chaos in the flesh.
You're looking at our field lab.
It's bacteriologically secure.
It's armored to withstand
point-blank mortar fire.
No terrorist can take it out.
We operate on the basis of...
very broken communication,
and an aerial recon.
Both inconclusive.
Our scientific team, grouped
for every contingency.
Let me remind you that Dr. Flyte's
name was found in Snowfield.
A victim scrawled it on a mirror.
A desperate, dying act.
The victim must've seen something
to lend credence to Dr. Flyte's theory.
Got a little...
breakfast and dinner here.
We're never going to get
out of here. None of us.
Hey, listen.
I don't know what it is...
but it's playing with us.
The lights, noises on the phone...
the moth with Wargle.
I don't know, but if we keep
our heads straight, we'll get out.
- I promise you.
- How can you be so sure?
Maybe we are going to make it.
Sheriff Hammond?
Deputies Wargle and
Shannon were here?
They were. They were killed
during the night.
Then it is ongoing.
The name on the mirror.
How do you fit into this?
Reluctantly.
We need to know
what we're dealing with.
What kind of threat it is.
Biological, chemical or other.
I'm leaning toward "other."
Bernstein house, 214 Vail Street.
They were evidently
about to have dinner...
when something happened.
Recording. Residence
of Dr. Jennifer Pailey.
Kitchen. Evidence of
severe trauma, perhaps...
toxicological injury.
In the 48 hours...
prior to these events, did you
get reports of power failures...
phone interruptions, strange lights?
We haven't seen flying saucers,
if that's what you mean.
Should be a junction box here.
We'll tap into it, power up the lab.
Doctor!
Look at this.
Recording. At the base of
the statue of Mary...
almost like an offering...
there's a large accumulation
of metal buttons...
wristwatches, jewelry...
Everything metal.
Not an offering.
Undigested remains.
And a little something preserved...
and put aside for later...
like a spider might do it.
Got something.
Looks like a breach in the trunk lines.
That's the interrupted phone service.
Little ones to Him are drawn.
They are weak.
But he is strong.
Where's it coming from?
Yes, Jesus loves me.
It's nothing.
Oh, God! Oh, God!
Hold it, goddamn it!
It's sludge, man.
It's just...
plain, old stinking sewage.
Oh, my God.
You make that connection?
- Something here.
- What do you got?
In the next tunnel.
What the hell is that?
Move your ass out of there now!
Get out of there!
Move it! Now!
Reach, man!
Jesus Christ!
Sergeant Harker, meet me
outside CWB, right now.
I'm registering
no toxic fumes of any kind.
Here fella.
Here, boy!
He lived through it.
Come on!
But how did he live through it?
That's a good dog.
It's okay. That's a good dog.
That's a good boy. It's okay, yeah.
Better...
Better get away from him.
You like that, don't you?
Jesus, what the hell?
What is it?
Lockland, get out!
- Get away!
- Soldier, get up here!
Now!
Flyte.
You were brought here, Dr. Flyte.
Do your research.
Write the gospel.
Go.
It's here.
It's everywhere! All around us!
Holy Jesus!
Dr. Flyte, what is this?
My flesh.
Study it.
Write the gospel.
But do not try to leave.
Witnesses to the miracle.
I have to run an analysis.
And that's what I was born to do.
The lab is a tank. We are
getting out of here.
Against this thing,
the lab's vulnerable.
There are a hundred ways...
it could stop us.
Why aren't we dead,
like the rest of them?
It needed us...
to get to Flyte.
It's like he's some kind of...
disciple or something.
"Write the gospel".
And now Flyte's here.
If it can think, really think,
then we're finished.
Maybe it's like...
flatworm learning.
Like what?
Flatworms can learn
to negotiate a maze.
If you grind them up...
and feed them to another
batch of flatworms, batch two
can run the same maze
on the first try.
They absorb the knowledge
with the flesh.
They gave me a tour.
The oldest living thing
on the planet.
We would have heard of
it by now. It wasn't shy.
It lives out of sight, in the earth...
in deep geological structures.
- But if it comes up to feed...
- Rarely.
Mostly it sifts life
forms from the soil...
like a whale sifts
tiny krill and plankton...
from the ocean. No doubt
it feeds on marine life too.
It may lie dormant between
feeding for years or decades.
Over centuries, only
a tiny percentage
of its prey has been human beings.
It has absorbed knowledge...
acquired intelligence.
This thing can assume the form
of anything it's absorbed?
Maybe even imaginary creatures.
Anything the victim may have seen
or even dreamed about.
It knows everything people knew
about you, Dr. Flyte...
and about me.
What's happening?
Vocal mode initiated.
Tell the world the end begins here.
Who are you.
I am Baal.
I am Belial.
Demons. Devils.
Some victims must have thought
it was the devil.
It absorbed that
concept from them...
and believes that's what it is.
Why kill those people?
They are cattle.
Nut you let us live.
One of you has
theorized my existence.
It's like a pet monkey
learning a difficult trick.
He is my Matthew...
Mark, Luke and John.
Only in me can you
achieve immortality.
Not in God...
not in Christ...
only in me.
If we do what you say...
will we live?
- Hold on!
- What's happening?
It's playing with us.
Warning. Lab stability threatened.
All right, enough!
It's not a god, it's not a devil.
It's just a fucking animal!
Any living thing can be killed!
It is what wiped out the dinosaurs...
which were pretty tough customers!
I'm just saying I know
it's got a weakness!
- What weakness!
- Ego!
It thinks its Satan.
Satan had the biggest ego of all.
And he took a fall.
Right!
And turned the town into a fun house.
It manipulates us into
bringing you here, Dr. Flyte.
It wanted you to see it.
It wanted you to!
Show me how to kill
this fucking thing.
If there were a way, we wouldn't
have been given the tissue sample!
You're not listening.
It thinks it's all-powerful!
It's lived too long without fear.
For years nothing could kill it!
That makes it vulnerable.
What are these other
things we've seen?
Drones, phantoms...
detached, sent on a task.
They return to the mother mass...
underground.
Warning. Lab stability threatened.
Guess so.
How big is this thing?
Big.
How do you know for sure?
Logical deduction.
Logical deduction, yeah.
From a guy who writes
about Bigfoot for a living.
What about chemicals or acid?
You'd need a truckload.
And how would you
deliver it to the target?
Maybe nukes?
Same problem.
How do you find the target,
deliver a bomb to it...
and be sure you got it all?
Warning. Microbe
sample vault is open.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
You okay?
I was just wondering...
What?
Do you think all those
people it's taken...
they're still trapped and aware?
No.
No. They're gone.
Dead and gone.
Being trapped inside of it
would be like being in hell.
It's not that way.
I don't want to go to hell.
What?
Got something?
Petrolatum.
It's a lot more complex
than the composition...
of petroleum jelly, of course.
But there are similarities in the
ratio of hydrocarbons.
And a longer list of minerals
and chemicals than in the human body.
Hydrocarbons.
I wonder...
- What is it?
- Samples of bacteria, virus...
Plus a selection of
man-made microbes.
Oh, glorious day!
CBW 123, this is command post.
Do you copy?
What do you got?
CBW hasn't reported in.
I can't raise them.
Major, you'd better check this out.
It could hear us through
the electronics, not now.
What's in the vial?
Biosan-14. A genetically
engineered bacteria.
- A man-made disease?
- No.
Harmless to us,
it's a working bacterium.
Eats crude oil and excretes
harmless byproducts.
They use it to break
up oil spills.
Biosan-14 is new,
the most aggressive strain yet.
It can survive only in an
oil-rich environment. But then...
each microorganism reproduces
itself every 11 seconds.
That would swarm through oil.
Since the Gulf War,
they've carried a sample in case...
terrorists contaminate
an oil field with it.
You're saying that we
can use this stuff...
to attack The Ancient Enemy...
like it was an oil spill,
and infect it?
If its hydrocarbon structures
are similar to petroleum...
It's a big stretch, but...
It'll wonder why the power's off.
- It'll know we're up to something.
- It doesn't fear us.
It believes it's immortal.
Maybe it is.
Is one vial enough?
If it reproduces every 11 seconds,
we can have a lot in 1 hour.
True.
We need to find a way
to get at the mother mass...
and we need some kind of a...
delivery system for this stuff.
But if we do that...
will it kill it at all?
Unless there's a small inner core...
that can tear loose from the
mass and survive on its own.
I really just wanted you to say yes.
Jesus Christ.
I only want to tell the world.
So how do you propose to draw...
the whole mass to us?
What?
No.
Oh, no.
I'm here.
Your witness.
If I'm to tell the world,
I need to see...
all of you...
not just a drone.
You wonder what's going on in there?
They're preparing a weapon...
possibly a means to destroy you.
I don't believe him.
He's selling us out.
He's trying to save his own ass.
Wait for him to play his hand.
Specifically, it's a genetically
engineered bacterium...
capable of devouring your flesh.
Capable, they think,
of killing you.
They don't understand
that death is for mortals...
not for gods.
Even after all they've
witnessed tonight...
they still don't believe.
They still think you are an animal...
only a thing.
Show yourself.
Gods have nothing to fear.
Or do they?
Now.
Now would be a good time.
It's pissed off.
Infected.
Get in the lab.
Run!
I think we got it.
We got to get off the street.
I think it's infected.
Maybe.
Come on. It's crawling away to die.
Makes it even more dangerous.
Fuck you!
Dead yet?
Let's go.
Come on, you bastard.
You got some guns.
Ladies...
you wouldn't shoot an unarmed man.
A dumb question.
I fall...
...to pieces...
each time I see you again.
You want to see something?
It's limbo time!
How low can you go?
Get down!
Go! Go!
You girls slip me a Mickey?
Why are you killing me?
Help!
I'm going to let you live.
Let you live in me.
Forever.
Fuck you.
Always that urge
to shoot little boys.
No. This time I'm going to miss.
It's all right.
It's gone.
All those souls, maybe...
they're at peace.
Yes.
One wonders.
Still... it won.
What do you mean?
It wanted me to tell the world...
and that's what I'm going to do.
The Earth endures.
Over the eons, countless
species have flourished...
then perished.
In the town of Snowfield,
the four of us...
met and bested
an inhuman intelligence...
not from the stars...
but from the deep and secret realms...
of our own infinitely
misterious world.
This supremely powerful life force...
so adaptable, seemingly immortal...
is it gone?
If not...
it may one day be the cause
of humanity's extinction.
You believe that crap?
I don't know.
Stranger things have happened.
Patti said Glen was
abducted by aliens.
Glen wasn't abducted. He run off to L.A.
And you would too if
you was married to Patti.
Does that sound funny...
officer?
No, ma'am.
You want to see something?