The Lost World (1999) s02e18 Episode Script

Survivors

Here's another one! Good work Marguerite.
You know, given the depth of these paving stones, someone built this road at least five hundred years ago.
Leading all the way from the Summerlee river right up to that cave.
Why? Economics George, roads are expensive.
The only reason they're built is to transport something of even greater value.
Some kind of treasure? Why else would anybody be out here playing hide and seek with raptors? The betterment of humanity through the pursuit of knowledge perhaps? Well you follow your dreams professor I will follow mine.
Shall we? Careful Marguerite similar structures in Egypt were known to be cleverly booby trapped.
A few booby traps are the least of our worries.
Hello what have we here? Guardians of some sort by the looks of them.
Not very friendly ones.
At the dawn of the last century A band of explorers searched for a prehistoric world Driven by ambition Secret desires A thirst for adventure And seeking the ultimate story They are befriended by an untamed beauty Stranded in a strange and savage land Each day is a desperate search for a way out of the Lost World Look at all of this silver.
Oh Marguerite, has anybody ever told you you've got a one track mind.
And you don't? You know, I really don't know exactly what you are.
What are you looking for a label? Adventuress, grieving widow, international jewel thief wanted on five continents, that sort of thing? What I meant is what passions drove you to learn? I mean you have exceptional skills in geology, archeology, linguistics.
Surely they're not just a means to some gemological wealth.
Why George, I think I'm flattered.
It's not often someone thinks there's something more to me than just a healthy sense of self preservation.
Now I'm not saying that there is something more.
Marguerite! Marguerite! Marguerite! Marguerite! Marguerite up here.
- What happened? - Booby trap.
Can you move? Carefully.
No! Damn it! Change of plan.
Don't move.
Can you feel your toes? I can feel everything George I just can't do anything about it.
I'm not going to be able to get you out of there by myself.
What? Well you just stay still.
I'm going to go back and get the others.
- I'll be as quick as I can.
- Don't rush on my account.
I'm not going anywhere.
I suppose I should thank you for clearing away some of these spikes before I dropped in.
Oh, you've really done it this time.
Who would build a road in the middle of the jungle? Good question from the river to that ancient temple in the cave.
It must be a place of some importance.
A thousand years ago.
Nice of them to leave them a booby trap.
The sooner we get Marguerite out of there the better.
You're telling me.
Knowing Marguerite those poor raptors don't stand a chance.
Could this day get any better? Really Madge you've had worse.
Right now! Show yourself! Adrienne? It's been a long time, hasn't it? I'll say you've been dead 12 years.
If that were true shouldn't you be afraid? Of my best friend? Oh, no! I can explain you very easily.
I'm hallucinating maybe even dying.
I wouldn't let that happen to you.
Why? I let it happen to you.
Whoever you are, stand aside.
We have no quarrel with you.
Apparently we do.
Malone? Malone.
Are you all right? I think so.
Who were they? - And why'd they give up? - Get the first aid.
I have no idea why they retreated, but I believe they are guardians of the temple.
Are you saying you've seen them before? Inside the cave, there's a frieze with three warriors identical to our attackers.
Then that ancient temple still is important to someone.
I entered the cave and then came out.
Can that be an act of sacrilege? Well if you committed sacrilege, what about Marguerite? I'll get Malone back to the treehouse, you two better get to Marguerite.
- Good.
- Will you be all right? - Go.
- Don't worry about us.
Come on.
Remember Paris? We called the fat man's bar 'The Pit'.
We did.
- Ah but when you sung.
- Oh please birds fell from the trees.
You had the voice of an angel.
But that wasn't enough was it? Our dreams would have come true Madge.
All we needed was a few more months, weeks who's to say.
Madge! Marguerite! You can't sleep silly, not with a concussion.
I didn't sleep for weeks because of you.
- I still have nightmares.
- Shhh! that's behind us.
knew why they came for you.
I knew where you'd hidden the jewelry.
I could have given it back, I could have saved you.
No, I told you not to.
Those jewels, they belonged to us.
I did wait for you, you know for months.
And then when I thought they were coming back for me I took the jewelry and I went to Monte Carlo.
Did you marry? Yeah, a dream come true a millionaire two mistresses and an overdraft.
And then what happened.
This road hasn't been used for centuries.
Those guardians must have some kind of vantage point nearby.
Not too near I trust.
How did you come to this God forsaken plateau? Boy you are one nosy hallucination.
Now that is a story worth sharing.
Twelve years ago in Shanghai this is long before I heard of Professor George Edward Challenger.
There's the Frieze.
You see just like the guardians same weapons, same masks.
- Very pretty, now where's Marguerite? - Just up ahead.
So I walked out of that alleyway into Challenger's lecture and just told them I'd fund the entire expedition.
And do the others know why you're really here? No, no, no they'd feel betrayed and, after everything we have been through, I owe them more than that.
It is so nice to finally tell someone the truth.
Thank you.
- Marguerite! - Marguerite! It's about bloody time boys.
Good to see you too, Marguerite.
Stay right where you are.
It's all right Marguerite, you're going home.
You're safe now.
- I know.
- Up you come.
Here, slip into this.
What about me? Who's there? - You heard that? - Of course I did.
Who's down here with you? I'm Adrienne Montclair.
She's my hallucination.
You don't understand, she isn't really there.
I'm worried about her, internal injuries I think.
She's dead.
How'd you manage not to hurt yourself when you fell into the hole? I didn't fall.
There are tunnels all through this rock.
I came into it from below.
I have to say, I was as shocked as Madge to find myself face to face with her.
After so many years.
It's a remarkable coincidence.
Not really.
Madge and I always dreamed of coming to South America - to search for gems.
- She looks the same.
Let's go.
I'll be waiting my love.
Fortunately that scrape wasn't as bad as it looked.
Then why is she still unconscious? Exhaustion I'm sure.
Those spikes could have been covered with poison.
I'm sorry, it's been a long time since I've tasted anything this fresh.
You haven't told us where your camp is.
It's at the base of this enormous plateau.
You know a way down? Of course, it's through those tunnels we were in.
Well that's fantastic, we've spent almost two years trying to find a way off.
And you still believe everything you hear.
Marguerite told me about you.
Odd, that she never told us about you.
However improbable our meeting may have been it could turn out to be fortunate.
Once Marguerite and Malone have recovered we.
Why wait? Roxton and I can look after Malone and Madge.
While you and Veronica go and scout the tunnels.
It could be helpful to get one of those wooden spikes.
Check for poison.
There has to be some reason that Marguerite's in such a deep sleep.
Then it's settled, I'll make a sketch of the temple layout for you.
Paper and pencil.
And while she's doing that Veronica we can get ready.
Maybe they'll find a way back home.
Now there's a good reason to get better don't you agree? Going home back to London.
Because if you're not with us, with me, well I'm not sure I could leave this place without you.
Rest is what she needs most of all Lord Roxton.
And so do you.
I wonder if Marguerite knows how lucky she is to have missed those spikes.
- Challenger? - You collect the spike.
I'm just going on into the central chamber.
You know as well as I do that we should stick together.
How's Malone? Still sound asleep, but much better.
Ned and Madge are very lucky to have a friend like you so concerned for them both.
We've all been through a lot together.
I know Madge told me.
She even told me how you like your tea.
Double brewed, splash of milk in a china cup not a earthen mug.
Thank you.
Most men wouldn't be.
I'm sorry? So concerned about Madge.
Considering the way she feels about you.
Most men would lose interest.
She told you? How she feels about me? She has told me everything Lord Roxton.
Oh she does find you attractive, in a rugged sort of way.
But she knows you and she will never have a future.
I don't believe you.
She said you wouldn't.
Because of those time's when she gave in to well, danger can be an aphrodisiac.
Physical needs can overpower reason quite easily.
Yes, well thank you for the tea.
But Madge and I are different though.
Unlike her I believe physical needs are as important as reason.
And she has told me everything about you Lord Roxton.
John no.
Help me.
Marguerite.
That's why I'm here Madge.
According to this, second exit passages under the altar.
There must be some way of moving it.
Pressure switch perhaps? Or a release for a counter balance.
Oh Marguerite when it comes to booby traps we're even.
I'm still in one piece Veronica.
You know I I saw you die.
Looks clean to me.
Challenger? - Get away from him.
- Easy now miss no one's looking for trouble.
Ask your friend here, he knows me.
Do you? To be precise, I recognize who he's supposed to be the noted explorer William Maple White.
He's the reason you came to the plateau.
You found his journals.
Let's get the story straight miss.
I showed my journal to Professor Challenger and my photographic plates of a Pterodactyl.
And minutes later you died.
I fell into a coma.
The natives looked after me.
I woke three weeks later to find you gone and my work, my life's work, was gone with you.
- Is that possible? - No, maybe.
I didn't see him buried.
I left the village that night.
So you could claim my discoveries as your own.
No, never.
I have always paid tribute to the path you blazed for the world to follow, always.
It's so hot in here.
I can't breathe.
All right that's enough, we're going home.
Ah, splendid idea.
You're not invited.
I've got to rest.
I don't know why I'm so tired.
- What did you do to your hand? - I cut it on the altar.
It might be blood poisoning or some kind of infection.
This can be a dangerous place Challenger.
As I wrote in my journal remember.
That's enough out of you.
You're a feisty little miss.
I'm especially feisty Get down! They're not human.
Challenger! It's the blood.
When Malone was bloodied they stopped their attack just as they did now.
Welcome back.
It must be safe now.
They were after the two of you not me.
We have to get back to the others.
And Adrienne Montclair she is no more who or what she says she is than you are.
Marguerite? Marguerite, are you all right? How could you kiss that thing? - Sorry it wasn't my idea.
- Yeah, spoken like a man.
- You need to rest.
- You don't understand.
Adrienne and I were friends 12 years ago.
In the club where we worked she met a man made a deal and didn't follow through with her end of the bargain.
He sent people for her.
She never came back.
- Then she must have escaped.
- Not from those people, John.
Well she's here now and I don't know, she got away.
Why does she look exactly like I remember her? Not a day older, not a minute.
That is not Adrienne.
That is my memory of her taken from my mind.
You don't need her Lord Roxton not when you have me.
I don't want you.
You act as if you have a choice.
Take my jewelry off.
Fair is fair Madge.
You stole mine when you betrayed me.
That's not true.
True or not it's what you feel.
It's what's in your mind.
Fearand guilt and self loathing.
Oh, so pure so clean so powerful.
You brought everything on yourself.
And what's mine is mi No! You don't want to fight me, Lord Roxton not when there are so many more pleasant things we could do, you and I.
- What are you? - Lonely.
After a thousand years you would be too don't you think? You go to hell.
I've been there Lord Roxton and I'm not going back.
Veronica I appeal to your sense of reason.
Challenger's confused.
If I'm not who I say I am then who else could I be? I don't care if you're Maple-White or Rumplestiltskin stop following us.
I know the way off the plateau.
Then there's no reason for you to stay, is there? You're making a mistake miss.
Would you like to do something about it? Not at the moment.
You mean not ever.
Come on Challenger we're almost home.
Roxton! Malone! Marguerite! - They've gone for a stroll.
- They what? I know what you are.
You couldn't even begin to imagine what I am.
I don't need to imagine.
Blood called you forth.
Lucky guess.
What was that Challenger? You'll have to speak up.
Time to join your friends.
At last.
We've waited so long.
We're flesh again.
We're free.
And when we've withdrawn all the life force from our benefactors We'll live again.
Come here beloved.
Let me show you what I could only dream of for a thousand years.
There are two of them? Adrienne Montclair and William Maple-White.
Maple-White? At least that's who they claimed to be.
But I fear they're ectoplasmic manifestations.
Ghosts? In the vernacular yes.
At least some form of ghost.
How is it that a scientist believes in ghosts? After all we've seen on this plateau? But science tells us energy and matter cannot arise out of nothing.
If these two ghosts have taken on physicality they must have a source of energy.
Well it's us, you and me.
That's why we feel this way.
They're taking our life from us.
How is that possible? What if, after a thousand years, two disembodied spirits, who were once lovers, forgot who they were in life.
And they reached into your minds and assumed the forms of two people never far from your thoughts.
Two people whom we both feel we may have wronged.
Adrienne and Maple-White are reflections of a guilty conscience? Yes, and once they have drawn out of us our life force - then they will be fully alive.
- And we'll be dead.
No, I won't let that happen.
We have something they want, so In sufficient quantities this is an exceedingly fast acting poison.
I can almost see your face the way it was.
Soon you will remember everything.
Let's see if I can jog your memory one more time.
- Ah - What? What's he done? - Time to barter.
- He drank this.
You don't belong here.
And we are both prepared to do whatever it takes - to make sure you leave.
- You're bluffing.
They die, you die.
Unless we give them the antidote.
- What do you want from us? - Let us leave the treehouse.
You can have it Eat your heads off.
Leave us alone and let us find a way off the plateau.
Agreed.
But before you leave you have to give them the antidote.
Deal.
Challenger told us what to take, let's pack it up.
I'll get some clothes for Marguerite.
Marguerite, come on, come on drink it.
Challenger, Challenger drink, drink it.
- We're ready to go.
- So, so are we.
Go, go.
Now, just so you know, if you decide to break your agreement there's lots more poison but this is the last of the antidote.
Such arrogance.
No wonder Madge hates you.
If we stay near them we'll soon grow enough life to make our own lives eternal.
And Challenger and Marguerite will die.
Oh no we'll do better than that.
We'll hunt them down.
We'll kill them all.
Kill them all, yes.
- Marguerite and I can make it from here.
- What? That wasn't part of the plan.
It has to be.
What I am planning may not work out.
We've all faced death together before.
Not like this.
There is a metal running through the walls of this cave that I have never seen before.
I believe it acts like a Faraday Cage.
That's a wire cage that keeps electrical emanations in.
Or out.
Which is why, I believe the spirits of the dead persist in the cave and why if any of us die in there Our spirits will be trapped forever.
Marguerite and I have no choice in the matter.
But I can't ask the rest of you to risk eternity for me.
Neither can I.
No, nonsense.
I can't let you Listen John, even I have to admit there are questions of faith beyond science.
It's a wise man who understands the difference.
I wasn't asleep the whole time.
Let's go Marguerite, before the apparitions return.
For come back they will, and they will fight for their existence - as shall we.
- No, we'll stop them.
No! You must let them into the cave otherwise we'll never be rid of them.
Challenger I can only hope this crazy idea works.
If it doesn't never ever return to this place.
Have I ever told you how much I hate this plateau? Not today you haven't.
It doesn't matter where they die, as long as we're beside them.
Your plan was to bring us back here all along, wasn't it? That's right, Challenger's waiting.
Whatever clever little plan he's got worked out it's far too late to stop us now.
Then go! - Let me go! - Roxton it's the only way.
Just let me go.
I'm fine.
No Roxton! Come back here, you gutless bastards! Come on take me! - Roxton, no! - Take my life instead! No, no, let Challenger take care of it! No! Damn you! Damn you both to hell.
I can feel pain, we're almost there.
Our guilty friends must be on their way.
What about the guardians? They're the spiritual equivalent of watch dogs I think trained to recapture any spirits let loose from this cave.
Remember what Challenger said it's a fight between science and the supernatural.
There's nothing you can do.
We need you here Roxton.
They'll be back.
What happens if this doesn't work? Then we will have all the time in the world to figure out what went wrong.
There.
That really hurts.
I've seen drainage groves like these before.
So have I.
Why sacrifice people in a place where their spirits will be trapped forever? Maybe it's not a sacrifice.
What an execution? If those buried here were brutal criminals beyond normal justice what harsher sentence than that they should spend eternity contemplating their own crimes.
With three relentless guards to make sure they never escape.
They contacted us because we spilt our blood here.
And this is how we kill to live again through your blood.
I need a few seconds to build up the static charge.
Your time is up.
See almost there.
Nice toy, but it can't harm us.
Oh it's not my intention to harm you.
It's my intention that you face whatever final judgment awaits us all.
Now Marguerite now! We don't want to be set free.
We want to live.
Challenger? They're all being released, all of them.
- Don't make us die again.
- Challenger! He did it.
By god he did it Challenger! Challenger! Do you want to know where they went? Who couldn't? It's another of life's science of mysteries.
Now that sounds like the scientist talking.
No not at all just another human being wondering at the immensity of it all.
After all that's all any of us are.
Whether we're a scientist, a explorer, a journalist or an international jewel thief wanted on five continents.
Still, at the end of the day, even a king must sometimes stand naked.
I never pictured you as an everyman George.
You always seemed to have this little air of elitism around you.
Well it's not the end of the day yet is it? Remember when I told you how much I hated this plateau? Which time? Can I let you in on a guilty little secret? I have been known to have a secret or two, myself.
Are you going to share that with our friends? - And ruin my reputation? - oh, Marguerite, you know I have heard a little confession is good for the soul.
Yeah.
So have I a very little.
*
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