                       MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 2


                               By

                           Robert Towne





                                                  Revised. 12/4/99







     NOTE: THE HARD COPY OF THIS SCRIPT CONTAINED SCENE NUMBERS
     AND SOME "SCENE OMITTED" SLUGS. THEY HAVE BEEN REMOVED FOR
     THIS SOFT COPY.




     FADE IN:

     A WORN SATCHEL (MOVING - DAY)
    
     is being carried by a world weary middle European wearing a black 
     armband.  VLADIMIR NEKHORVICH exits a gleaming building, pausing 
     for a moment, under a motto clearly visible above his head, 
     'Where the future is now'.  He checks the time.

     INSERT - WATCH

     set in Countdown Mode.  It's at 19 hours forty-seven minutes and 
     sixteen seconds and dropping, 19:37.15,  :14,  :13,  :12 etc.

     O.S. children are singing:

                Ring a ring a rosy/a pocketful of posy/
                a tissue a tissue/we all fall down.

     Nekhorvich looks to see children at play outside the adjacent 
     Natural History Museum.  They are moving in and around an odd
     freeform sculpture.

     POV - SCULPTURE AND CHILDREN

     a blur where the sculpture seems to be distorting the children, 
     almost like mirrors in a fun house.

     NEKHORVICH 

     wipes his eyes, a horn honks.  He looks toward the sound.

     MOVING SHOT - SATCHEL (INT. AIRPORT SECURITY - DAY)

     on the belt that takes it thru X-Ray.  On the other side a guard 
     opens the satchel and pokes thru a few toilet articles, personal 
     items, books, a battleship gray digital camera and - in a small 
     plastic container marked 'S.G.' - a small, square shiny object, 
     hi-tech and at odds with the other items.  She pulls out an urn-
     shaped vessel.

                                GUARD
                What's this, then?

                                NEKHORVICH 
                        (handing her documents)
                The ashes of a colleague, I'm taking them
                to his family.  If you wish to open it,
                please be careful.

     COMPUTERIZED SCREEN DISPLAY (INT. PLANE - MOVING - DAY)

     on the cabin wall displays a colorful map showing the flight 
     point of departure in Sydney, continuously updating distance, 
     direction and time to its ultimate destination, Atlanta, Georgia.

                                CAPTAIN'S VOICE
                - folks, we're a little over two and a 
                half hours from touchdown in Atlanta, but 
                if you look out your windows on either 
                side of the aircraft, we'll soon be 
                crossing the southern section of the Rocky 
                Mountains, a range which includes more 
                than 50 peaks rising above 14,000 feet.  
                The chain's loftiest point, Mount Elbert, 
                at 14, 433 feet should be coming into view 
                as we pass over central Colorado shortly..

     NEKHORVICH (INT. CABIN - DAY)

     seems intent on the map, its changing times and distance.  He  
     checks his watch - the countdown has gone from 20 to three hours 
     and 32 minutes as Nekhorvich is mesmerized by the descending 
     seconds whipping by.

     ETHAN HUNT sits into shot on the vacant first class aisle seat 
     beside Nekhorvich.

                                ETHAN
                You keep staring at that watch as if your
                life depended on it, Doctor..

                                NEKHORVICH 
                Well, yes.  I suppose I am a bit anxious.

                                ETHAN
                They're ready and waiting.  You'll soon be 
                with old friends.

                                NEKHORVICH 
                        (meaning Ethan)
                I'm with an old friend now, Dmitri.

                                ETHAN
                Sorry it couldn't be under happier 
                circumstances.

                                NEKHORVICH 
                Yes, I'm sorry too.. 'You're sorry and I'm
                sorry..'
                        (bemused laughter, then looks at Ethan)
                - you do know Gradski thought the world of you.

     Nekhorvich is overcome.  Ethan puts a comforting hand on his  
     shoulder:

                                ETHAN
                He was quite a man.  Did he know before 
                the end you two had succeeded?

                                NEKHORVICH 
                Yes, he knew.  Just..

                                ETHAN
                ..not in time to save him.

                                NEKHORVICH 
                No.  After you've lived with Chimera for 
                twenty hours, nothing can save you.  Not 
                even...Bellerophon.

     Nekhorvich pats the satchel.

                                ETHAN
                You carry them together?  Safely?

     With an almost impish grin and a wink:

                                NEKHORVICH 
                Yes, and you'll get us to a safe place 
                with them, thank god!..left to my own 
                devices, I'm an old fart too inept to read 
                a railroad timetable!..

     Good-natured laughter.  Cut off by a flight steward who passes 
     by, giving a sidelong silence in Ethan and Nekhorvich's direction. 
     Oxygen masks suddenly deploy from the ceiling.  Passengers are 
     puzzled and alarmed.

                                CAPTAIN'S VOICE
                You Captain again.  We've experienced a 
                slight but abrupt drop in cabin pressure..
                
     A passenger struggling with his mask.  As Nekhorvich fumbles with 
     the strap on his mask he notes that the display screen shows 
     their altitude is below 30,000 feet and dropping.  He checks the 
     countdown time on his watch again.  Nekhorvich looks around him.  
     The flight attendants are conspicuously absent and all the 
     passengers who have on oxygen masks are passed out.

     INT - COCKPIT

     The flight crew now wearing their oxygen masks.

                                CAPTAIN
                        (into radio)
                Pan, pan, pan, Denver Center.  This is 
                Trans Pac Flight two-two-zero-seven, 747 
                heavy.  We are not reading you.  We're 
                unable to maintain cabin pressurization.  
                We have initiated a descent to one six
                thousand.

     The Co-pilot is working on the plane's altitude when his hands 
     slip off the controls.  His eyes flutter, then:

                                CO-PILOT
                Captain, I don't..can't..

     He passes out.  The Captain, HUGH STAMP, turns to verify that the
     relief pilot is also unconscious at the controls.

     He then removes his oxygen mask, sets the auto pilot, inputting 
     numbers to slow the plane and descend.  As the craft titles 
     downward...

     INT - GALLERY

     The flight attendants are pulling on jump suits.  Stamp emerges
     from the cockpit.

     INT - CABIN

     Ethan returns.  Nekhorvich beckons to him.  Ethan sits.  Grinning 
     around, Nekhorvich conspiratorially:

                                NEKHORVICH
                ..it seems we have a problem, Dmitri.

                                ETHAN
                        (in the same tone)
                You keep calling me Dmitri.  You really 
                shouldn't.

     Nekhorvich's eyes narrow.

                                NEKHORVICH
                You're not Dmitri?

     With a lightning swift move Ethan breaks Nekhorvich's neck.

                                ETHAN
                - no.

     He grabs the satchel.

                                ETHAN (cont'd)
                        (to Wallis)
                Wallis, hold onto it.

     Wallis slashes the satchel handle open, takes the satchel for 
     Ambrose.  He peels off the latex mask, revealing SEAN AMBROSE.

                                ETHAN (cont'd)
                Ulrich, pull the -

     He tears off the vocal oscillator at his adam's apple, clears his 
     throat, now as Ambrose:

                                AMBROSE
                - pull the NO2 tank and dump it, it's potential evidence..

                                STAMP
                        (the 'captain' into shot)
                All done, chief..

                                AMBROSE
                        (what else)
                - right -
                        (kidding)
                - don't go too far ahead of me now -

                                STAMP
                Not possible..

     Ulrich has rolled back the carpet over an access panel just 
     beneath them that leads to the belly of the plane.  Stamp pulls 
     back the panel, hops into the compartment below which is four 
     walls of electronic equipment.  Stamp kneels and slides back the 
     floor hatch.  The wind howls, puffs of cloud zip by beneath them.  
     As they descend into the belly:

                                WALLIS
                Checkpoint Charlie plus 30, altitude minus 
                two-zero-thousand.  Airspeed one-seven-
                niner knots..

                                AMBROSE
                It's that time.  Go.

     They don goggles and, with Ambrose in the lead, 
     the team leaps, one after another from the hatch, sailing off
     into the sky.

     INT - COCKPIT (DAY)						

     An automated voice repeats in an ominous monotone:

                                VOICE
                Terrain, terrain.  Pull up, pull up.

     The co-pilot stirs.  He blearily rouses himself just in time to 
     see:

     A mountain rushing toward him.  As mountain meets airplane, the 
     frame is filled with fire, but when camera pulls back from the 
     fireball, it is in fact no more than a match head filling frame, 
     which ignited, lights a fuse..

     The MI theme music kicks in, the main credits roll to:

     EXT - FACE OF MOUNTAIN (DAY)

     For a moment it might be thought part of the same range when the 
     plane crashed but when Ethan Hunt climbs into frame the angle 
     widen and titles down, revealing more of where he's come from 
     than where he's going.  Aside from the fact that he's in the 
     midst of free-climbing what is easily a sheer rock face of at 
     least a thousand feet, there's the sunny picture-postcard view of 
     a lovely valley and pellucid lake thousands of feet below.  Ethan 
     climbs out of shot.

     WIDE UP ANGLE (DAY)

     revealing the summit, a light breeze hitting the lichen and 
     whatever growth has a slender purchase on the rocky mountainside, 
     fluffy clouds overhead.

     Ethan into shot.  Despite the spectacularly precarious handholds 
     he's using to hang onto the mountain and his life, he appears 
     relaxed, engaged - for him - in the equivalent of busman's 
     holiday.  It's leisurely danger for Ethan; one might almost 
     expect to hear Julie Andrews trilling 'Climb Every Mountain' on 
     the soundtrack.

     Then a rock he's been grasping crumbles and Ethan drops about six 
     inches before he grabs onto the mountain again.  As he hangs by 
     five fingers thousands of feet above the earth he doesn't seem 
     terribly concerned until he spots a helicopter.

     It's materialized behind the summit and passes surprisingly close 
     just overhead, casting its shadow downward over Ethan.  
     Instinctively, Ethan flattens himself against the rock surface, 
     as if the copter poses some sort of threat to him.  But when 
     its rotors whir it into the distance Ethan relaxes and resumes his 
     climb.

     A HAIRY OVERHANG (EXT. MOUNTAIN - DAY)

     near the summit Ethan departing from the vertical and is now 
     traversing the mountain with more of his back than his feet 
     exposed to the earth far below.  He's clinging to the mountain 
     almost like a fly walking on the ceiling.  When he reaches for a 
     handhold that will restore him to the vertical, he dislodges a 
     lizard - and manages to catch it before it plunges thousand of 
     feet to oblivion.
                                
                                ETHAN
                Whoaa..

     He pockets the lizard, climbs the overhang.

     REVERSE ANGLE - SUMMIT

     with Ethan's hand, then Ethan coming into view and making the 
     summit.  He reaches into his pocket and releases the lizard who 
     favors Ethan with a stern reptilian stare by way of gratitude.  To 
     lizard:

                                ETHAN
                You're welcome.

     The lizard scampers off, then a low beeping sound at his back 
     attracts his attention.  He turns to see the source of the 
     beeping, a small package in day-glo colors with a day-glo 
     streamer.  Ethan looks to the sky where the helicopter is now 
     ominously circling back.

     Ethan lifts the day-glo package and waves it in the direction of 
     the copter.  With a distinct lack of enthusiasm.

     The helicopter once again turns, banks and disappears.  Ethan has 
     opened the beeping package and finds a pair of sunglasses.

     ETHAN'S POV SUNGLASSES

     First, a retinal scan.

                                ELECTRONIC VOICE
                Identity confirmed.

                                SWANBECK
                Good morning, Mr. Hunt.

     Swanbeck's face flashes onscreen.  Over his introduction of Nyah 
     is a series of satellite photographs whose subject is so elusive 
     she never seems to give the camera a clean shot.

                                SWANBECK'S VOICE
                Your mission, should you choose to accept 
                it, requires you to recover a stolen item, 
                designated Chimera.  Essential to the 
                mission is the recruitment of a civilian -- 
                a Miss Nyah Nordoff-Hall.  She is a highly 
                capable professional thief currently 
                active in Spain.

     A series of Nyah's 'accomplishments', i.e., warrants, complaints, 
     Interpol summaries of her various criminal activities, as well as 
     glimpses of the elusive Nyah circulating about Seville.

                                SWANBECK'S VOICE (cont'd)
                Her dossier's available on I-COM 3.  You 
                have 48 hours to recruit Ms. Nordoff-Hall 
                and meet me in Seville to receive further 
                details.  Should you or any member of your 
                IM force be caught or killed, the 
                Secretary will disavow all knowledge of 
                your actions.

     Swanbeck's face reappears on screen:

                                SWANBECK'S VOICE (cont'd)
                And Mr. Hunt - the next time you go on 
                vacation, please be good enough to let us 
                know where you're going.  This message will 
                self-destruct in five seconds.

     Ethan removes the glasses, then tosses them into space.

                                ETHAN
                If I let you know where I'm going -

     The glasses explode in a puff of smoke.

                                ETHAN (cont'd)
                - won't be on holiday.

     Ethan, with a fair amount of disgust, gets to his feet and jumps 
     off the mountain, in, what for a moment looks like a suicidal 
     snit.  Then, somewhere hundreds of feet below camera, there's a 
     little puff of color as the tulip-shaped chute pops out of his 
     back-pack.  Begin the sound of a castanets and the animal-like cries 
     of flamenco dancers.

                                                        DISSOLVE TO:

     EXT - ANDALUSIAN VILLA (EVE)

     Bustling in the activity of a large private party, with arriving 
     guests and attentive valets, as a young woman, her face unseen, 
     exits her car and enters the villa.

     A FLASH OF SKIRT AND LACE (INT-EXT. VILLA - FLAMENCO DANCERS - EVE)

     where to the cries of dancers add graceful feminine hands 
     wielding the castanets.  The dancers perform on a raised platform 
     and NYAH NORDOFF-HALL'S face can be glimpsed thru the swirling 
     skirts and pounding heels, looking thru, not at them.

     REVERSE ANGLE - ETHAN

     looking back in a similar way to Nyah; surreal lighting and the 
     relentless chorus of pounding heels seem to isolate them in the 
     crowed party.  Nyah continues to look at Ethan over the shoulder 
     over her wanna-be escort, a very attentive gentleman.  Nyah 
     offers up her empty glass, and the gentleman eagerly takes it to 
     the bar for a refill, leaving Nyah and Ethan looking at one 
     another.  Ethan approaches her.

                                ETHAN
                Do you know me?

                                NYAH
                No.  Should I?

                                ETHAN
                No.  You just looked as if you did.

                                NYAH
                No.  Just as if I'd like to.

                                ETHAN
                Oh.  Well.  I think that can be arranged.

                                NYAH
                Not tonight.  Bad timing.  Sorry -

                                ETHAN
                There's not enough time in the world for 
                any of it to be bad.

     This stops her.  Nyah moves closer to him, until they're nose 
     to nose.  Whispered but breezy:

                                NYAH
                Look, it's either you or the rent and I 
                don't mind telling you it's not an easy 
                choice.

                                ETHAN
                What if I pay the rent?

                                NYAH
                Uh-huh.

                                ETHAN
                Uh-huh?

     Glancing at the gentleman making his way back with her drink 
     then:

                                NYAH
                Go find the wealthy lady you came with and 
                next time we meet - I'll pay your rent. 
                        (kissing him, sweetly)
                Now bugger off.

     And purposeful creature that she is, she takes her frustrated 
     desire upstairs, timing her footsteps so as to use the sound of 
     the dancer's steps to cover her own.  Once upstairs, a security 
     guard near the master bedroom can be seen eagerly following her
     down the hall, both moving past a pair of windows, visible to 
     Ethan.  In a few moments, Nyah can be seen past the 
     windows in the opposite direction, without the guard following.  
     In another moment or two, a very puzzled looking security guard 
     can be glimpsed in the first window, looking up and down the 
     hall, clearly having lost sight of Nyah.  Ethan smiles, moves out 
     of shot.

     INT - MASTER BEDROOM (EVE)

     Nyah has opened the door and moves swiftly thru the bedroom.

     INT - BATH (EVE)

     A decadent looking affair with suggestive lighting, mirrored 
     walls.  The tub has a tray across it which includes a wine cooler         
     chilling a bottle of Crystal and a mound of caviar on a bed of 
     ice.  Nyah can't resist.  She spoons a dollop of the caviar and 
     downs it before she moves along the frescoed walls of the tub to 
     its back.  There, she pulls out her compact and removes the puff, 
     revealing an electronic density meter.  She turns it on and holds 
     it at the rear of the tub.  Its sweep gauge jumps sharply from 
     green thru yellow and into red.

                                NYAH
                        (her fondest hopes confirmed)
                Mmmm.

     She now steps into the tub and focuses on the grout between the 
     tiles just above the sop dish.  Her knee eyes search for any 
     cracks in the grout and she spots one.  Using a tweezers she 
     pulls the silver of the grout out from between the tiles, revealing 
     something that looks like a credit card wedged between the tiles.  
     She slips the card into a narrow opening under the sop dish.

     There's the sound of hydraulics and two arms move the marble 
     casing out from the rear of the tub.  Nyah breathes a sigh of 
     relief and anticipation: kneeling in the tub she finds herself 
     looking down at an open safe, revealing some half-dozen locked 
     compartments.  As she studies them:

                                ETHAN
                Decisions, decisions.

     Nyah looks up to see Ethan's reflection in the bathroom 
     mirrors, looking down at her kneeling in the tub.

                                NYAH
                What are you doing here?

                                ETHAN
                Think you're the only one who can pick a 
                lock?

                                NYAH
                        (not altogether pleased)
                I see.  You're not just another pretty face..

     Before Ethan can answer, a voice can be heard coming from the 
     bedroom warbling Granada in Spanish, and with considerable gusto.

                                NYAH (cont'd)
                Oh god.  A bloody baritone.

     Nyah catches a reflection behind Ethan's in the bathroom mirror.  
     She reaches up and grabs Ethan by the lapel, yanking him into the 
     tub, pulling him down on top of her.  Once again they're nose to 
     nose.
                                
                                ETHAN
                I take it you prefer tenors.

     She glances up at the mirror.  In it is the reflection of SENOR 
     AUGUSTO DE L'ARENA, a big amiable Castilian in his fifties who's 
     changing a white dinner jacket that's had wine split on it.  He 
     breaks into a heavily accented version of 'Now or Never', and 
     disappears from the dressing room mirror.

                                NYAH
                Would you mind if I'm on top?

                                ETHAN
                Oh, either way works for me.

     With a jaundiced look she rolls over on top of Ethan and begins 
     working on one of the safe compartments, using a tiny torque 
     wrench from a tube of lipstick and a carbide pick from a mascara 
     brush.  She glances down and is rather disconcerted.  Continues 
     working with the pick and wrench.

                                ETHAN'S VOICE
                You're never gonna find it there.

                                NYAH
                        (she jumps, dropping the torque wrench)
                Damn it!  Find what?

                                ETHAN
                His ex-wife's Bulgari necklace that goes 
                up for auction Tuesday.

     Looking down to Ethan, a touch of indignation:

     LOOKING UP

     more or less, hands locked behind his neck as he rests against 
     the raked back of the tub, his eyes and nose inches from Nyah's 
     lower pelvic region as she straddles him.  Not exactly in the mood 
     to move:

     She stiffens - he knows too damn much.

                                NYAH
                - right..where is it?

                                ETHAN
                Far right. 

     She immediately switches her efforts from top left to the
     bottom right compartment.  She's utterly nonplussed:

                                NYAH
                Where's the bloody -

                                ETHAN
                        (plucking it off his chest,
                        offering it up like a mechanic
                        under the chassis)
                - torque wrench.

                                NYAH
                - this is very disconerting..

                                ETHAN
                Hey, you put me here.  I just do what I'm
                told.

                                NYAH
                - right..

     She unstraddles him and, with a few deft moves with the torque
     wrench and carbide pick - and it's open.  She withdraws a velvet
     pouch and opens the pouch.  Out spills the spectacular necklace.

                                NYAH (cont'd)
                Lovely.
                        (starting to close the safe)
                Who are you and what's it going to cost me?

                                ETHAN
                        (having sat up)
                I wouldn't do that.

                                NYAH
                Do what?

     The alarm goes off.

                                ETHAN
                That.

     The bathroom is suddenly filled with security guards, gun drawn
     Senor de l'Arena, looking highly upset, pops in.

                                SENOR DE L'ARENA
                Oh, Senor Keyes, thank God it is you!
                        (in Spanish to security guards,
                        annoyed)
                It's Senor Keyes, the security engineer.

                                ETHAN
                Well, Senor de l'Arena the goods news is
                that the heat sensors were activated.   But
                Miss Nordoff-Hall, my associate -

     Senor de l'Arena kisses Nyah's hand.

                                SENOR DE L'ARENA
                Mucho gusto, senorita.

                                ETHAN
                - did feel that she had rather too long to
                work on the safe before they triggered the
                alarm, isn't that right Miss Hall?

                                NYAH
                Oh yes.  Absolutely.  Much too long I
                should yes.

     Nyah's initial shock and panic slowly gives way to a wary,
     intensified curiosity - about Ethan.

                                ETHAN
                Under the circumstances I think we would
                recommend re-setting the senors to
                respond to a lighter load.  How do you
                feel about forty kilos, Miss Hall?

                                NYAH
                Indeed.

                                ETHAN
                Well, Senor de l'Arena, there's no reason 
                to disrupt your party any longer.  we have
                some further concerns about the disposition
                of your security guards, which you'll
                receive in our written report by fax in the
                morning, hard copy to follow.  Shall we?

     He offers Nyah his arm.  They start out.  Ethan immediately stops.

                                ETHAN (cont'd)
                Miss Hall. Haven't you forgotten
                something?

     Nyah looking genuinely puzzled.

                                NYAH
                The necklace?

     Nyah slowly reaches into her dress and withdraws the glittering
     string of diamonds and rubies from her bust.

                                SENOR DE L'ARENA
                        (a great kidder)
                What are you trying to do, senorita?  Rob
                me.

     They all laugh, and Ethan's got her out the door.

     EXT - ANDALUSIAN VILLA (LATE NIGHT - PRE DAWN)

     The stars dimming, the sky a gun metal blue.  Ethan and Nyah
     emerge from the villa, walking slowly.  Nyah's clearly
     preoccupied.

                                NYAH
                I'm missing something here, aside from a
                500,000 pound necklace.  Even after I
                botched the job, I could've walked out of 
                there with the bloody thing.

                                ETHAN
                At least you walked.

                                NYAH
                If you weren't going to let me get away
                with it, why did you let me go thru with
                it?

                                ETHAN
                Wanted to see how good you were.
                I'm hoping we might work together.

                                NYAH
                May I say something, no offence?  You
                look like a gigolo, you sound like a 
                thief, you act like a cop - what the
                bloody hell do you have in mind?

                                ETHAN
                Working under adverse conditions.  Highly
                adverse conditions.

                                NYAH
                Sounds smashing.  I'm in.  Muchacho, mi
                carro, por favor!  Now be serious.  You
                couldn't possibly want me off tonight's
                performance..

                                ETHAN
                You didn't do that badly.

     Her car arrives.

                                NYAH
                        (as she moves to her car)
                You're apologizing for me?  Quite the
                gentleman..

                                ETHAN
                        (opening the car door)
                Not really.  I triggered the alarm..

     One foot on the floorboard she freezes, back to Ethan.

                                ETHAN
                Hey, the Bulgari job last week was
                flawless.  And I've always been partial to
                pale yellows.

     She slides behind the wheel.

                                NYAH
                        (as he leads on the car)
                I don't do laundry, or put up with
                cheeky bastards who set me up on their
                territory so they can poach on mine.

     She takes off, spewing bits of gravel and dust in her wake.
     Ethan smiles and shakes his head.

     ON THE ROAD - NYAH (MOVING)

     around curves, hair flying, she's free.  Her car phone rings.
     Perplexed, she lets it ring once or twice picks it up:

                                NYAH
                        (tentatively)
                Hola..

                                ETHAN
                Hi.  Would you mind slowing down?

                                NYAH
                Where did you get this number?  I don't
                even have it!

                                ETHAN' VOICE
                Would you like it?

     She hits the End button and disconnects.  The phone immediately
     rings again.  She refuses to pick up.  Ethan pulls alongside hers.
     She looks at him.  They speak through the open cars.

                                ETHAN
                Pull over and listen to me, will you?
                Just listen..

                                NYAH
                Listen to what?

                                ETHAN
                I need your help and I thin you can use
                mine.

                                NYAH
                Your help?  What are you talking about?

                                ETHAN
                Scotland Yard, Interpol, every Dutch
                authority.  I can make them go away.

                                NYAH
                Oh bloody hell.  You're a spy.

     She floors it and shoots ahead of Ethan, nicking his car as she takes off.

                                ETHAN
                        (to himself)
                I deserved that.

     SERIES OF DRIVING SHOTS - NYAH AND ETHAN

     Ethan rings her again.  And keeps ringing.  Her face becomes
     grim, her flight progressively more desperate and with Ethan's
     pursuit progressively more determined.  They are reaching the
     limits of adhesion around blind curves.

     MORE SHOTS DRIVING (DAWN)

     The sky's battleship gray; Ethan pursues Nyah around hairpin
     turns high above the Costa del Sol; they rip thru patches of
     marine fog drifting on the road, obscuring it.

     Both are appalled by the other's willingness to escalate risk in
     this game of flight and pursuit until Ethan tears thru a fogbank
     and sees on his GPS what Nyah can't see thru the fog - 
     less than four hundred meters ahead is a turn she can't possibly
     negotiate and if she can't she'll plunge off the road hundreds of
     feet to rock and sea below.  Ringing her number again:

                                ETHAN
                        (half to himself)
                Slow down, slow down.

     She turns up a mound and loses control.  She spins out and heads
     toward the edge of the cliff.

                                NYAH
                        (realizing she's in trouble)
                Uh-oh.

     Ethan cuts her off and sends them both into a 540 degree spin.
     Her car stops just at the cliff's edge.

     Furious she wrenches open the car door and gets out.

                                ETHAN
                No!

     Suddenly there's no Nyah.  Ethan leaps over to Nyah's car and
     sees Nyah dangling over the ocean and rocks hundreds of feet
     below, holding the door handle.

                                NYAH
                Oh..oh..

     Taking a firm grip on her wrist.

                                ETHAN
                Don't look down.  Just..look at me.
                That's it..that's it..

     He pulls Nyah up to the car, across the seat and half into
     his arms.  For a long moment it looks like she's in shock.  Then:
        
                                NYAH
                What's you name?

                                ETHAN
                Ethan Hunt.

                                NYAH
                Well, Ethan Hunt, what is it you want to
                talk to me about?

     Thru the veil of morning fog, Nyah looks at Ethan.  Her dark eyes
     suggest wit, and willingness, and longing.

                                ETHAN
                ...more than I thought..
                
     They scarcely to move to bring their lips together:

                                NYAH
                Awfully short notice..

                                ETHAN
                Care to wait a decent interval?

                                NYAH
                Who wants to be decent?..

     DISSOLVE:

     CLOSE - ETHAN (INT-EXT. SAFEHOUSE - SEVILLE - DAY-EVE)

     sleeping.  His eyes open slowly.  He comes to full consciousness,
     his head still on the pillow.  Something approaching serious
     anxiety informs his features.  He lifts his head and looks at his
     left, angle widening.  Nyah lies on her side facing him,        
     sleeping serenely.  Anxiety on the order of oh-God-this-isn't-
     approved-recruiting-technique, confirmed.  He lets his head flop
     back on the pillow.  Then he turns so he and Nyah are profile to-
     profile.  As he looks at her sleeping his anxiety fades, replaced
     by curiosity and even wonder.  He lifts his hand and just
     brushes her cheek.  Her eyes open.  She knows where she is.

                                ETHAN
                So what've you got against spooks?

     Nyah smiles.

                                NYAH
                When they've got your recruiting
                technique?  Not a thing.

                                ETHAN
                Oh.  Well..this isn't exactly by the book.

                                NYAH
                They've got a book for this?

                                ETHAN
                They've got a book for everything.

                                NYAH
                The only other spook I knew was a liar.
                Charming but absolutely incapable of
                telling the truth.  He'd lie about his
                favorite color.  But then I reckon it's an
                occupational hazard.  All spies really do
                is conceal the truth and tell lies.

                                ETHAN
                Not revealing information doesn't
                necessarily make someone a liar.

                                NYAH
                That's not the point.  In the end what
                spies rely on is the one thing they think
                they know that you don't.

                                ETHAN
                Which is?

                                NYAH
                That they're lying.

     Ethan laughs.

                                NYAH (cont'd)
                ..once they know that they can
                get very very..crosee..

     Nyah shoulder and moves into Ethan.

                                ETHAN
                So where did I got right?

                                NYAH
                You're not a liar.  Or you're an awfully
                good one..
                        (then)
                ..this thing these blokes pinched..

                                ETHAN
                I don't know that they 'pinched' it.
                Don't even know that they're blokes.

     Nyah stops to think about this.

                                NYAH
                Well, then, what I am I doing here?  I assume
                I'm meant to be some sort of thief-to
                catch-a-thief..

                                ETHAN
                So do I.  Sort of.

     Nyah looks at Ethan, a little worried.

                                NYAH
                Spoken like a spook..you ever afraid?

                                ETHAN
                Of what?

     Nyah laughs.

                                NYAH
                Ask a question, you get an answer!..

                                ETHAN
                Damn, you're beautiful.

                                NYAH
                That's because I'm on my back.

     Quick as a cat Ethan flips Nyah over so she's looking down
     at him.

                                ETHAN
                I don't think so.

     She sinks into his arms.

     EXT-INT - STREET - SEVILLE (VALENCIA FESTIVAL) (EVE)

     Ethan's step is unusually jaunty as he bounces along, making his
     way thru the festive and jostling crowds preparing for the Crema
     portion of the Fallas de Valencia.  On this night great papier
     mache effigies, some serious, some comic, are placed all thru the
     city and torched in great bonfires.  Outside the bar Ethan's
     looking for there's a street vendor, hawking Fallas mementos and
     flowers.  He starts past the vendor, and it hits him - he's going 
     to buy some flowers.

     He chooses a colorful spring bouquet so fresh the dew can be
     seen on the petals.  Ethan pays the vendor, starts into the bar,
     and thinks better of walking into Swanbeck with the bouquet.
     Turns back to the vendor.

                                ETHAN
                Are you gonna be here a while?

                                VENDOR
                Si, senor.

                                ETHAN
                I'll pick'em up on my way out, okay?

     Ethan enter the bar and goes upstairs to the second floor where
     he passes security at a pair of double doors.

     INT - IMF BRIEFING ROOM

     Swanbeck stands looking out the window.  Noisy crowds from the
     festival provides a constant walla, and during the sequence, the
     first effigies are lit, and smoke and flame provide a vivid
     background thru briefing room's window.

                                SWANBECK
                Fetival's a pain in the ass.  Honoring
                saint by setting'em on fire.
                        (turning to Ethan)
                Sit down, sit down.

     Ethan sits.

                                SWANBECK (cont'd)
                Let's you know what they think of saints,
                doesn't it?  Damn near set me on fire on
                my way over here.  As if I haven't been
                burned enough today.

     A moment where it's impossible to tell which way the wind is
     going to blow between these two.  Then civilly:

                                SWANBECK (cont'd)
                Sorry I barged in on your vacation.

                                ETHAN
                Sorry I didn't let you know where I was.

                                SWANBECK
                Don't be.  Wouldn't be on vacation if you did.

                                ETHAN
                Well.  You're sorry and I'm sorry.

                                SWANBECK
                Why did you phrase it like that?

                                ETHAN
                Like what?

                                SWANBECK
                'You're sorry and I'm sorry.'

                                ETHAN
                You gotta be kidding.

     Swanbeck turns to his computer and begins play on a DVD, and
     projected onto a computer screen staring back at Ethan is:

     VLADIMIR NEKHORVICH

                                NEKHORVICH
                        (with exaggerate brio)
                Well, Dmitri!  How are you?..

     Nekhorvich pauses as if waiting for reply.  Ethan smiles.

                                ETHAN
                ..I'm fine..and you?

                                NEKHORVICH
                I'm fine..

     Ethan laughs.

                                ETHAN
                I'm fine and you're fine..

     With Ethan simultaneously whispering:

                                NEKHORVICH
                I'm fine too.. I'm fine and you're fine - do
                you remember, dear fried, how you got
                Sergei and I to repeat those lines from Dr.
                Strangelove and we gave you the name of that 
                silly Soviet Premier because we didn't know
                your name?..In those days, you not only
                saved our lives, you saved our sanity.  'Now,
                then Dmitri - we have this little problem':
                Every search for a hero must begin with
                something that every hero requires; a 
                villain.  Therefore, in a search for our
                hero, Bellerophon, we created a monster
                Chimera.  I beg you, Dmitri, come to Sydney
                and accompany me to Atlanta immediately.
                However we travel, I must arrive at me
                destination, within 20 hours of departure.
                Forgive this fanciful explanation, but for
                now prudence dictates that I communicate
                nothing but the gravest urgency.
                I fear I can entrust this to no one but
                you, Dmitri.  as we say, 'I'm sorry and
                you're sorry'..

     Swanbeck stops the DVD.

                                SWANBECK
                Let me ask you something.  You have any
                idea what the hell he's talking about?

     Ethan smiles.

                                ETHAN
                An idea, yeah.

                                SWANBECK
                Like?

                                ETHAN
                Like it's a good idea to pick him up in a
                hurry.  And a bad idea to fly him on a
                commercial carrier.  So let's get on with
                it.  He's still in Sydney?

                                SWANBECK
                Dr. Vladimir Nekhorvich is dead.  So is his
                colleague, Gradski, but that happened
                earlier.  We had Nekhorvich on a flight
                from Sydney that crashed in the Rockies..

     Ethan sits back, heavily.

                                SWANBECK (cont'd)
                - Hunt, are you listening?..

     Slowly looking up:

                                ETHAN
                If he didn't want to go anywhere without
                me, how did you get him on the flight?

                                SWANBECK
                You were there.

     Swanbeck clears his throat.  He turns back to the computer and 
     punches in: MISSION DOUBLE IMAGE.  File open to computer scans
     of AMBROSE, SEAN, and HUNT, ETHAN, the computer scanning and
     comparing their features, millimeter by millimeter, stat by stat,
     as the computer then imposes, with the help of the physiognomy
     scan, Ethan's face on Ambrose: hence, mission double image.

     ETHAN

     slowly looks up at Swanbeck.

                                SWANBECK
                When I couldn't find you, I had to replace
                you.  Sean Ambrose was the obvious choice.
                He double you, what?  Two, three times?

                                ETHAN
                Twice.

                                SWANBECK
                What did you think of him?

                                ETHAN 
                You know we had reservations about each
                other.  Isn't it a little late in the day
                to be asking me that?

                                SWANBECK
                Not necessarily.

     Swanbeck shows Ethan a photo of airline Captain.

                                SWANBECK
                Airline record list Captain Harold
                Macintosh as the pilot for Flt 2207.  as
                far as the media and all governmental
                agencies are concerned, Captain Macintosh
                died on the flight, but in fact he missed
                it.  He did, however make the next flight -
                in cargo, stuffed into a rather small 
                suitcase considering his size.

     Another photo of an open suitcase, the body in it partially
     obscured by a ring of police and customs officers.

                                SWANBECK (cont'd)
                Someone on that flight planned an
                operation designed to down the plane and
                make it look like an accident.  Someone
                skillful enough to bring the whole thing
                off without a hitch but - they don't
                always get your luggage on the plane, even
                when you fly first class.

                                ETHAN
                So there's one thing we know Ambrose
                doesn't.

                                SWANBECK
                Then you do think it was Ambrose.

     Ethan barely nods.

                                SWANBECK (cont'd)
                And you're not surprised.

     Ethan gives Swanbeck a look.

                                ETHAN
                Whatever Nekhorvich was carrying Sean
                wanted and he wanted to conceal the fact
                that he took it.

                                SWANBECK
                Enough to kill Nekhorvich and two hundred
                innocent passengers?

     Ethan smiles.

                                ETHAN
                Sean feels he hasn't done the job unless
                he leaves a lot of hats on the ground.

                                SWANBECK
                The question is why?  What was this
                Chimera Nekhorvich was carrying?

     Ethan rises and moves to the window.

                                ETHAN
                Right now only Ambrose knows that.

                                SWANBECK
                In any case, you've got to recover Chimera
                and bring it to us.

                                ETHAN
                In order to do that, I've got to figure
                out how he plans to make money with it.

                                SWANBECK
                - right.  In fact since the plane went
                down our banking sources have confirmed a
                marked increase in the stock pilling of
                cash in terrorists accounts.

                                ETHAN
                'Terrorists?'

                                SWANBECK
                Well you know Nekhorvich's history.
                You're the one who got him out of the
                Soviet Union was it still in bio-
                weapon business.

                                ETHAN
                If that's what you're thinking Ambrose
                would have set up a bidding situation with
                any number of buyers before he got on the
                plane.  Locating him in time to stop
                something like that - 

                                SWANBECK
                - is where Miss Hall comes in.

                                ETHAN
                        (blindsided)
                Excuse me?

                                SWANBECK
                Miss Hall and Ambrose had a relationship
                which he took very seriously.  She walked
                away and he's wanting her back ever
                since.  We believe she's our surest and 
                quickest way of location him.

                                ETHAN
                        (acidly)
                And then what?

                                SWANBECK
                Then makes sure she continues to see him.
                Gets him confide in her and report to
                you.

                                ETHAN
                You made it sound as if I was recruiting
                her for her skills as a thief.

                                SWANBECK
                Well, then I mislead you.  Or you made the 
                wrong assumption.  Either way we're asking
                her to resume a prior relationship, not do 
                anything she hasn't already done.

                                ETHAN
                She's got no training for this kind of
                thing.

                                SWANBECK
                Go to bed with a man and lie to him?
                She's a woman.  She's got all the training
                she needs.

     Ethan's anger flashes but does his best to contain it.

                                ETHAN
                I don't think I can get her to do it.

                                SWANBECK
                You mean it'll be difficult.

                                ETHAN
                Very.

                                SWANBECK
                Well it's not mission difficult, Hunt.
                It's mission impossible.  Difficult should
                be a walk in the park for you.  If you can
                think of a quicker way to get to Ambrose,
                you're welcome to try.  Oh, by the way, you
                might want to take a look at these..if you
                have any further qualms about getting her
                to do the job.

     He pulls out a little Minolta digital camera (identical to the
     one in Nekhorvich's bag at airport security).  Swanbeck sets it on
     the table.  Ethan picks it up the tiny camera and puts it to his eye.

     EXT - BAR (NIGHT)

     A grim Ethan, starring fixedly ahead of him emerges to an ever
     more lively crowd.  as he does:

                                STREET VENDOR
                Senor, senor!  Your flowers.

     The vendor holds up the spring bouquet.  Ethan seems genuinely
     surprised by them.

                                ETHAN
                Yes.  They're very nice..

     And he's lost in the crowd, leaving a very puzzled vendor holding
     the bouquet.

     STILL OF CRASH SITE IN ROCKIES (THRU MINOLTA STILL CAMERA)

     One after the other flashing by.  They are more evocative than
     specific in their suggestion of an abrupt, fiery, ending, where
     the lives of hundred are literally and figuratively torn apart
     and strewn over a desolate landscape.

     NYAH

     carefully places the little Minolta on a glass-topped coffee
     table.  She's beautifully pulled together, the safehouse has the
     lights low, flamenco music playing, and when she walks out onto
     the balcony Ethan sees the candlelit table and a bottle of
     champagne chilling.  There's a light breeze the fire from the
     burning effigies throwing smoke and flame all over the city.

                                NYAH
                What's the population of Seville any
                idea?

                                ETHAN
                Five, six-hundred thousand.

                                NYAH
                There's nearly 2 million in London.

                                ETHAN
                And six billion in the world.

                                NYAH
                That's lot of people out there..how many
                of them, I wonder, are capable of
                something like that?

                                ETHAN
                Sean Ambrose, for one.

     A long shocked moment.  Nyah laughs.

                                NYAH
                Right...

     INT - SAFEHOUSE (EVE - LATER)

     The pounding beat of the flamenco music seems to fill the room
     Nyah's back to Ethan:

                                NYAH
                        (grimly amused)
                Not that it matter much but..I seem to
                recall you staying something like, 'I was
                hoping we could work together.'

                                ETHAN
                This wasn't what I had in mind, Nyah.

                                NYAH
                But it is what you'd like me to do.
                so tell me to do it..

     She approaches Ethan.  They're inches apart.

                                NYAH (cont'd)
                Come on, out with it.  Tell me to go and
                insinuate myself back into Sean's life.

                                ETHAN
                Go and insinuate yourself back into Sean's
                life.

                                NYAH
                I'd like a little more conviction..

                                ETHAN
                So would I.  But it's not mine to give.

                                NYAH
                        (archness there)
                You've either got it or you don't.  Let
                your conscience be your guide?

                                ETHAN
                Something like that.

     With a smile and a wink.

                                NYAH
                But I don't have a conscience.  I'm a
                bloody thief.

                                ETHAN
                You can be a thief and have a conscience.

                                NYAH
                No.  You can be a thief and have a
                conscience:  Not me.  Why did you have to
                tell me about this!
                        (pouring herself a drink)
                What do I have to do to get away from this
                guy?  When you're with him, he messes
                about with your head every waking
                moment..even now I'll be at some out-of-
                the-way-place, a tin of caviar and a 
                bottle of Crystal shows up at the table,
                with two glass, God knows how he finds 
                out at any given moment where I am in the
                world but he does.  And it looks like he's
                done it again.  You know his definition of
                a  true paranoid?

                                ETHAN
                I don't.

                                NYAH
                Someone in possession of all the facts.
                        (she turns away, pauses)
                Are you telling me I have to do this?

                                ETHAN
                Generally, I don't favor coercing someone.
                Not when there's a chance my life could
                end up in their hands.

                                NYAH
                And that's the only reason?

                                ETHAN
                Can you think of a better one?

                                NYAH
                Not me.  I was just hoping you might..or
                that..somehow in the course of business
                this got personal as well as physical.

                                ETHAN
                Look, would it make you feel better if I
                didn't want you to do this?

                                NYAH
                Much.

                                ETHAN
                Then feel better!..

     Long moment while she looks at him.

                                ETHAN (cont'd)
                Well.  That made all the difference in the 
                world, didn't it?

     Ethan walks out onto the balcony.  She looks at his back.

                                NYAH
                Sean will never be anything but suspicious
                if he picks up some sort of 'yoo-hoo-I'm-
                not-nad' message.  Not after the way we
                broke up.

                                ETHAN
                What wouldn't make him suspicious?

                                NYAH
                Probably that I needed him in some urgent
                way..destitute - in serious trouble..the
                kind I couldn't possible sort out myself..

     Ethan's been smiling slightly.

                                ETHAN
                Serious trouble, Nyah, is something I can
                always arrange..

     NYAH IN A SPANISH JAIL

     standing for front and side mug shot.  O.S. sound of teletype
     continues.  SUPERIMPOSE:  Ethan holding up something the size of
     a dime:
                                
                                ETHAN
                This little chip sends a coded signal that
                can be picked up only by our computer.

     On the screen of the GPS computer, a little yellow blip appears
     pulsating on the screen.

                                ETHAN'S VOICE
                When it's in your ankle we can track you
                within three feet of anywhere in the 
                world.

     OVER ETHAN AND ONTO COMPUTER SCREEN

     He types a small Interpol bulletin stating that Nyah Nordoff
     Hall, apprehended March 13 in Seville, is awaiting extradition
     while the authorities in London, Paris, and Amsterdam squabble
     over where she's going to be tried first, for the various thefts
     and burglaries she's committed in the three cities.

     COMPUTER SCREEN (AMBROSE TENT ANNEX - DAY)

     Ambrose picking up on a version of the Interpol bulletin Ethan's
     put out.  He leans over the screen for a moment, then moves to
     the window, and stares out thoughtful at the bay, almost as if
     he were watching...

     EXT - NYAH IN JAIL COURTYARD

     From a beautiful blue sky,  pan down to the courtyard of the jail
     where Nyah is allowed out for an airing, seemingly alone but 
     being watched by:

     ETHAN AND COMPUTER SCREEN
        
     His attention fixed on the screen, Ethan stares at satellite
     shot of Nyah in the jail courtyard.

     INT - PRISON - NYAH

     being allowed a phone call, a prison guard visible b.g.  Cross
     cut with Ethan.

                                ETHAN
                Look, I can't run your arrest in CNN, but
                I guarantee he's monitoring every law 
                enforcement agency in the world, for what
                they might be saying about him, if nothing
                else - he's got the ability and, we
                assume, the desire to get you out of
                there.

                                NYAH
                This doesn't seem to be accomplishing
                much.

                                ETHAN
                Well, I mean it's not a total loss.  It is
                keeping a very capable thief off the
                street..

                                NYAH
                Very funny..maybe he has heard and
                doesn't want to know.  Maybe he's lost
                interest.

     Her guard, b.g. is handed a note.

                                GUARD
                        (to Nyah)
                Your lawyer to see you.

                                NYAH
                What lawyer?

     ETHAN AND COMPUTER SCREEN

                                ETHAN
                Well, here we go.

     SECTOR: AUSTRALIA, moving into NEW SOUTH WALES, and then to:
     Sydney.  Here Ethan pulls up names, photos and profiles of 
     potential candidates.  They scroll past, one face morphing into
     another.  Ethan punches in on WILLIAM A. BAIRD.  EXPERTISE:
     Qualified in virtually every mode of transport, land, sea, air.
     ORDINANCES: Small arms and automatic weapons authority, edged and
     impact weapons.  PROCUREMENT: Resourceful.  EXPLOSIVES: Precision
     detonation, diffusion.

     Ethan punches: Request immediate availability.

     EXT - GOVERNMENT BUILDING - SEVILLE (DAY)

     Nyah emerges from the entrance to the jail.

                                ETHAN
                Stop and look for something in you
                purse..kneel down..

     She does.  They're effectively blocked from the street.

                                NYAH
                Limo's waiting.

     Ethan hands her a key chain with what appear to be a car-key.

                                ETHAN
                - Ambrose will have counter-surveillance
                second to no one's.  When and if he
                contacts you, push this button
                before you actually end up under his roof 
                it'll scramble your transmission to us.

     She takes the key chain.  Her hands are shaking.

                                NYAH
                When will you be there?

        
                                ETHAN
                Before you are.

                                NYAH
                How can you possibly?  I've got to get
                right on the plane.  I'm leaving now.

                                ETHAN
                You don't trust me.

                                NYAH
                Oh, I do.  But as we know I'm a very poor
                judge of character.

                                ETHAN
                He's got you on Qantas flight 2735.  It's
                going to be delayed.

                                NYAH
                Yes?

                                ETHAN
                You'll be fine.  I'm going to lose
                you.

                                NYAH
                Ethan, you take care of yourself, I'll
                take care of myself because if push comes
                to shove, I'm gonna bail - and without
                giving two week notice.

                                ETHAN
                Well, forewarned is forearmed.  And while
                we're at it, be especially sensitive to
                any sudden change in Ambrose's plans,
                especially any involving you..

     They rise.  A quick squeeze of her hand and he's gone.  A look of
     something like longing replaces the toughness as she gazes after
     him, then starts across the street toward the limo and driver.  MI
     music theme kicks in and continues over:

     POV HELICOPTER (MOVING - SYDNEY - DAY)

     over the Harbor Bridge, sails dotting the bay like confetti.

     EXT - FARM (DAY)

     pans of sheep are bleating and looking for sort of cover in
     response to the sound of a helicopter touching down.

     EXT - COPTER (DAY)

     Billy and Luther emerge, Luther with computer looking acutely
     uncomfortable in a wrinkled suit.

                                ETHAN'S VOICE
                Welcome to Australia, mate.

     They look up to a smiling Ethan who points to the ground beneath
     Luther's feet.  Luther looks down to see that he is standing in a
     pile of sheep-shit.

                                LUTHER
                Thanks - mate.

     Both men laugh and all three move to:

     INT - FARMHOUSE (DAY)

     Luther and Billy with Ethan setting up their operation.  There's
     a blip on one of the screens.

                                LUTHER
                It's the transponder.

                                ETHAN
                Put in the coordinates and let's get a 
                visual.  The visuals aren't coming up.

                                LUTHER
                The satellite doesn't work as fast as I
                do.

                                BILLY
                Yeah, I've heard about you, Luther, and I
                just want to tell you it's an honor and a
                pleasure to be working with you blokes,
                whoaa!  That's some transponder!

     As Billy speaks, the visual come on line and Nyah has become
     visible.

                                LUTHER
                        (a jaundiced eye, to Ethan)
                It certainly is.  How did we get so lucky?

     Ethan pointedly ignore the question.

     POV - MOVING (PALM BEACH - DAY)

     rounding the tip of the bay's crescent, revealing the beach and
     dock at Ambrose's palm-lined residence.

     NYAH

     The speedboat's engine's are cut.  Nyah looks momentarily
     stricken.

     POV NYAH (MOVING)

     a lone slender figure silhouetted at the end of the dock, still
     as the piling besides which it stands.  But the features remain
     obscured by the sun at his back.

     ETHAN

     leans forward as the slender figure grows larger,

                                BILLY 
                        (to Ethan)
                Is it him, then?

     POV - MOVING

     The tide is too low for the boat to dock, making it necessary for
     he boat to approach the shore.  The slender figure moves off the
     end of the dock and onto the beach.

     THE CIGARETTE

     idles into shadow water but the props start chewing into the
     sand - the boatman grumbles he can't get any closer.  The slender
     figure has moved to the shoreline and the angle of the light
     changes - Ambrose is waiting.

     Nyah hesitates only a flicker of an instant, slips over the side
     into thigh-high water without taking her eyes off Ambrose.
     Ambrose strides right on into the bay.  as they are just an arm's
     length apart:

     NYAH

     takes a deep breath, presses the button to scramble the
     transponder.

     WITH ETHAN (INT. SHEEPFARM SAFEHOUSE)

     The picture abruptly goes dead.

                                BILLY
                Damn.  Just when it was about to get
                interesting.

                                ETHAN
                It's okay.  She scrambled the
                transmission.  Luther, continue feeding
                the GPS her position.

     Luther punches in.  The signal - and the global coordinates are
     given.  They wait.

     INT - SPACE

     The satellite positions itself.

     WITH THE THREE
        
                                ETHAN
                Can't we speed this up.

     Luther shoots him a disgusted look.

                                LUTHER
                With what?  This is the only computer
                that'll do this.
       
     THE SIGNALS AND PHOTOS

     start to bounce back, growing larger and larger on the screen,
     until:  Nyah can be seen, water up to her thighs, lingering in
     Ambrose's arms with each blow-up, and linger.  And lingering.

                                BILLY
                - right.  Now there's a bloke who knows
                how to deliver a proper welcome.  Don't
                get me wrong, mate.  You were quite
                hospitable.  Is it him, then?

     Ethan's look suggests he's worried about lapse in recruiting
     judgment.

                                LUTHER
                It is, Billy.

                                BILLY
                Then we got'em!

                                ETHAN
                We don't know what we've got because we
                don't know what he's got, where he's got
                it or what he's doing in Sydney with it.

     Ethan strides away from the screen, the edge in his voice and the 
     move not altogether lost on either Luther or Billy.

     INT - THE BAY (EXT. PALM BEACH - DAY)

     Perfectly poised, still loosely in his arms, Nyah returns
     Ambrose's penetrating gaze with a pleasant, clear eyed one.

                                AMBROSE
                Not much luggage.

                                NYAH
                I left in a bit of a hurry.  I'm terribly
                grateful, Sean.

                                AMBROSE
                How grateful?

                                NYAH
                Well that depends.

                                AMBROSE
                On what.

                                NYAH
                How hard you had to work to get me out of
                there..how in the world did you ever find me?

                                AMBROSE
                        (stopping)
                How I usually find you, Nyah.

                                NYAH
                How do you that.

                                AMBROSE
                Magic...

                                NYAH
                Ahh..

     POV THRU TENT ANNEX WINDOW (AMBROSE COMPOUND)

     looking down the length of the dock.  Ambrose, his arm around
     Nyah and carrying her suitcase, moves up the dock toward the
     house and camera.

     Stamp steps into the annex and looks over to Wallis, who watches 
     Nyah on the monitors.

                                WALLIS
                No flies on her.
                        (checking her on a scanner
                        screen)
                No bugs either.  She's clean.

                                STAMP
                        (drily)
                All cats are.

     INT - ETHAN - SAFEHOUSE (SHEEP FARM - DAY)

     Ethan watches the Nekhorvich video on the computer screen.

                                NEKHORVICH
                ...therefore in a search for our hero,
                Bellerophon, we created a monster,
                Chimera.

     Ethan then flips through a series of pictures on the computer
     depicting the myth of Bellerophon attacking Chimera.

     Billy moves up behind him.

                                BILLY
                What you got there, mate?

                                ETHAN
                A myth..just a myth...shouldn't you be
                checking out their countersurveillance?

                                BILLY
                Well you know his blokes'll place the 
                OSCOR in his annex, where else if you're
                pinpointing transmitters, video signals,
                covert chip cameras, anything radiating,
                oscillating..

                                ETHAN
                ..or hard wired..

                                BILLY
                        (please)
                - or hard wired, right.  First line of 
                perimeter defence'll run from the back of
                the dock to the front of the house.
                Whatever moves burps or bleep is gonna be
                picked up to a height of twenty feet.
                Basically impenetrable, I'd say.

                                LUTHER
                Ethan, here's Nekhorvich, and here's his
                boss

     Luther scans an entry from the IMF database with newspaper
     clippings, sidebars of still of McCloy and Nekhorvich.

                                LUTHER (cont'd)
                McCloy, Jon Chaddick, CEO Biocyte
                Pharmaceuticals..D.O.B.  September 30,
                1952, Manchester, England.

                                BILLY 
                        (a little lost)
                Well do you disagree with that?

                                ETHAN
                Not at all.  But how about going into town
                and confirming your intuitions on site?

                                BILLY
                Oh well, if that's how you feel about it.

     Billy leaves.

                                LUTHER
                ..then Cambridge..Harvard..entrepreneurial
                efforts..in efforts..in 1989, acquired Biocyte in
                hostile takeover..

     As Luther transfer info to Ethan's computer:

                                LUTHER (cont'd)
                Ethan, have a look at this.

     On Ethan's screen appears the Biocyte website; where among he
     various icons one offer McCloy's proud detailing of Biocyte's
     philanthropic efforts:

                                MCCLOY'S VOICE
                We at out state-of-the-art solar powered
                Biocyte building recognized that eternal
                vigilance is the price of health.. whether
                it's funding the teaching center at the 
                Royal Prince Edward Hospital, removing
                aerosol products from the marker or
                braving the influenza quarantine at Bruny
                island late last month..at Biocyte your
                life..is our life's work..

                                ETHAN
                        (quietly)
                ..Biocyte workers at Bruny Island.

     INT - AMBROSE'S (DAY)

     They've reached the head of the stairs.  Ambrose opens a door.
     It's a large bedroom opening onto a veranda with a view of the
     tent annex and the beach, and a very large bed.

                                NYAH
                Your room.

                                AMBROSE
                        (yes)
                Mmmm.

                                NYAH
                And my room?

     A long moment.  Ambrose walks to a mirrored wall.  The mirrors
     are sliding doors.  With a sweeping gesture, he slides one of the
     mirrors back and reveals a wardrobe of beautiful designer
     clothes.

                                AMBROSE
                Thought you could use a little something
                to wear.

     Nyah stares at the spectacular wardrobe.  Ambrose pulls out a
     slinky Armani and drapes it on the bed.

                                AMBROSE ( cont'd)
                Try it on..

     Nyah hesitates.

                                AMBROSE (cont'd)
                Go ahead.  I'm dying to see if I 
                remembered your size..

     Nyah picks it up.

                                NYAH
                No changing room?

     Ambrose sits on a chair by the window and waits.  Her blouse,
     belt, skirt, fall on the bed.  As her slender arm reaches down to
     pick up the Armani:

     AMBROSE

     grips her wrist, the flimsy Armani dangling in the air.

     CLOSE - NYAH

     meeting Ambrose's look.

                                NYAH
                You're not interested in seeing how it
                looks.

                                AMBROSE
                Oh, I am.  Later..

     The Armani falls in a fragile heap on the floor.

     CLOSE - ETHAN (DUSK)

     standing off to one side, listening to Nekhorvich's voice.

                                NEKHORVICH
                ..therefore in a search for our hero,
                Bellerophon, we created a monster,
                Chimera.

                                LUTHER
                Why's Nekhorvich going on about an old Greek myth?

                                ETHAN
                Nekhorvich specialized in recombining DNA
                molecules.  In the myth, Bellerophon killed
                Chimera, a recombinant monster with the head
                of a lion and the tail of a serpent who
                plagued the ancient world.  I think Nekhorvich
                has created a monster virus in Chimera and 
                apparently the means to kill it in
                Bellerophon.

                                LUTHER
                That simple, huh?

                                ETHAN
                Why not?

     CLOSE - NYAH (INT. AMBROSE BEDROOM - DUSK)

     lying back on a pillow, looking and off into space to right
     off camera.  She hears Ambrose's voice, with Ethan's voice

                                AMBROSE'S VOICE/ETHAN'S VOICE
                Damn, you're beautiful..

     Nyah reacts as if she'd been rapped on the nose, her eyes
     moist.  She turns abruptly to camera.

                                NYAH
                Did you say something?

     AMBROSE

     leaning on an elbow, looking down.

                                AMBROSE
                I said you're beautiful, Nyah.

                                NYAH
                Only because..it's spring..chalk it up
                        (looking him dead in the eye)
                - to spring fever.

     Ambrose, amused, lights a cigarette and inhaling:

                                AMBROSE
                Won't do, love.  It's not spring.  It's
                nearly autumn..You're in Oz.  everything's
                upside down and backwards here.

                                NYAH
                        (more direct)
                Maybe that's it, then.  Everything's upside
                down and backwards...

     CLOSE - ETHAN (SHEEP FARM SAFEHOUSE - DUSK)

                                ETHAN
                Luther..get us everything you can on the 
                outbreak of influenza on Bruny Island last
                month, including photos of the victims.

                                LUTHER
                Right.  I guess there aren't many flu
                epidemics in the middle of summer.

     Luther resumes working on his computer and sees Ethan is locked
     on Ambrose's compound on his computer screen, thinking of Nyah.
        
                                LUTHER (cont'd)
                She did it, Ethan.  Nyah's in the
                compound.

                                ETHAN
                Yeah?  I've just rolled up a snowball and
                tosses it into hell.

     Ethan stands.

     OUTSIDE THE SHEEP FARM SAFEHOUSE

     A brooding Ethan exits the sheep farm safehouse under a setting
     sun.

                                ETHAN'S VOICE
                Now we'll see what chance it has.

     Ethan stops, looking out over the broken plain.  His voice is
     heard overlapping into the next scene.

                                ETHAN'S VOICE (cont'd)
                        (softly)
                Damn, You're beautiful.

     CLOSE - NYAH (NIGHT)

     lying in bed, obviously hearing Ethan's voice again, and feeling
     very much alone.  She stares out into the night, a gaze that in
     its bemused intensity is an exact match to Ethan's.

     FADE:

     CLOSE - PHOTO - HONG KONG TIMES (INT. AMBROSE STUDY - EARLY DAWN)

     its front page, except for the headlines and date, covered with
     stacks of paper money, banded bundled dollars piled high as a
     cord of wood.  The amount $24 millions is written in ink over the
     money.

                                AMBROSE
                Twenty-four mil..

     Ambrose's hands shift to another photo of another newspaper, the
     LONDON TIMES, this one piled high with English pounds and the
     written amount: 37 million pounds.

                                AMBROSE'S VOICE
                Thirty-seven million pounds.  That's a
                promising bid.

     The third photo is of the AFTERNOON ARUBAN, with $14 million
     packaged on it.

     Ambrose, wearing a robe and seated at a glass-topped table, sets
     this last photo on the table on top the others.  He picks up
     Nekhorvich's digital camera, removes the film disk, and snaps it
     into its plastic case. He places the case into an envelope
     (NOTE: The same envelope seen at the track) and hands it to
     Stamp.

                                AMBROSE
                We'll need this at the track.  Well then.
                Sorted.

     Stamp is seated near him.  Glances toward Ambrose's bedroom and
     Nyah asleep in Ambrose's bed.

                                STAMP 
                        (pointedly)
                Not everything.  Why do you think she's
                really here?

                                AMBROSE
                From her point of view or mine?

                                STAMP
                Wasn't exactly gagging for it when she
                left you six months ago..The question is,
                do you trust her?     

     As he speaks, Ambrose pulls a cigar case and a cutter out of his
     robe.  Takes a cigar out of the case and clips the end of the
     cigar; the razor-sharp cutter decapitates the tip of the cigar 
     like a guillotine.

                                AMBROSE
                One considers her timing, of course -
                getting nicked within a week of the plane
                going down.  Suggestive, even borderline
                suspicious, but hardly conclusive.

                                STAMP
                Well, you've thorough about it, at any
                rate.

     Ambrose opens the cutter again to clean off the fragments of
     tobacco trapped by the cut.

                                AMBROSE
                Tell me, Hugh.  You don't exactly hang on
                Nyah's every word and gesture, do you?
                Fairly ratty nail, that.

     Sean touches the nail of Stamp's left pinkie finger.  Stamp
     reacts by slightly withdrawing his hand.

                                STAMP 
                Sean..

     With his left hand Ambrose grabs Stamp's left wrist.

                                AMBROSE
                You're not scrutinizing any casual shrug 
                for some hair-splitting nuance, are you?

                                STAMP
                Sean, please..

     Sean pulls Stamp's hand closer.

                                AMBROSE
                Suppose she is some sort of Trojan horse
                sent in by IMF to spy in us, why should I
                deny myself the pleasure of a ride or two?
                Or don't you think I can learn more from
                her than she can from me?

     Ambrose twists Stamp's wrist so that Stamp drops to one knee
     trying to alleviate the pain.

                                STAMP
                        (in pain)
                I do!..

     Ambrose leans in close to Stamp's face as he places the cutter
     around Stamp's pinkie.

                                AMBROSE
                Now Hugh, you must realize that some of us
                have the burden of sex to deal with..and
                my dear chap.  I may or may not know why 
                she thinks she's here, but I'm willing to
                take the risk, because Hugh, I am gaging
                for it..

     Ambrose closes the cutter on Stamp's finger and cuts the nail,
     just nicking the top of the finger and drawing blood.  Stamp
     cries out.  Ambrose tosses Stamp a napkin, light his cigar and
     exhale.

                                AMBROSE (cont'd)
                Don't ever question my judgment again.

                                                        DISSOLVE:

     EMPTY FRAME (EXT. RANDWICK RACE TRACK - DAY)

     with no sound, the back stretch an unrecognizable blur until
     horses at high speed burst into the frame bringing with them the
     sight and sound of their great nostrils snorting and gasping for
     jostling and going to the whip, the sound of the crowd
     overwhelming all but the announcer's voice carrying everyone
     around the far turn and into the home stretch with a ringing,
     controlled frenzy.

     EXT - PRIVATE BLEACHER (DAY)

     Nyah and Ambrose rising as the horses cross the finish.
        
                                AMBROSE
                        (surprised)
                You won.

                                NYAH
                        (looking at her ticket)
                I suppose I did.

                                AMBROSE
                What made you pick that nag?  She'd never 
                won a bloody thing.

                                NYAH
                'Thief in the Night?'

                                AMBROSE
                Say no more.  I'm off to grab a drink.
                Still favor Bellinis?

     She smiles, a little shakily.  Ambrose leaves.

                                A VOICE
                Naturally Vain..

     It's Billy passing behind her.

                                NYAH
                Pardon me?

                                BILLY
                'Naturally Vain.'  In the fourth.
                Check her out.  She's due.

     Billy hands her a chest sheet and moves on.  She opens it to the
     fourth race.  Taped onto 'Naturally Vain' is a small plastic
     piece with the note.  she regards the note, places the plastic
     piece in her ear.

                                ETHAN'S VOICE
                You can speak as if I'm right by your 
                side.

                                NYAH
                        (picking up binoculars)
                Where are you?

                                ETHAN'S VOICE
                At the mounting enclosure, just off the 
                tracks at two o'clock.

     THRU BINOCULARS - NYAH'S POV - MOVING

     thru the crowd onto the track over to the pre-post paddock where
     an animated gaggle of owners, heavy batters and investerace touts
     surround it.  Only Ethan is stock still - and looking up at Nyah.

     CLOSE - NYAH

     a swift intake of breath as she see him.

                                ETHAN
                How's it going?  Everything okay?

                                NYAH
                Just like old times.

                                ETHAN
                Just like old times?

                                NYAH
                Just about..

     She appears to be the picture of unruffled sang-froid.

                                ETHAN
                Tell me who you've run into at Ambrose's.

     ETHAN'S POV (THRU GLASSES)

     moving from Nyah to the champagne bar just behind where Ambrose
     is seen greeting someone in the crowd and they sit at a corner
     table in front of the window overlooking the track.

                                NYAH
                        (a breath, then:)
                Near as I can tell, there's at least a
                half-dozen other blokes about the place.
                Maybe more.  Hugh Stamp, an old mate of
                Sean's, is the only one I recognize, bit
                of a creep and then some..

     POV ETHAN

     Stamp, stands a pillar, his finger bandages, looking
     glum and looking down at Nyah.

                                ETHAN
                We know him.  He's over your left
                shoulder, looking right at you as you go on..

                                NYAH
                - Michael, his driver's an Aussie, new to
                me.  Then there's the blokes in the
                annex at the back of the house.

                                ETHAN
                Have you met them?

                                NYAH
                Annex is strictly off limits to me and
                they never come to the main house,
                Michael even takes their meals to them
                all but shoves them under the door.

                                ETHAN
                        (looking into Champagne Bar)
                I've no doubt.

     ETHAN'S POV MONOCULAR VIDEO RANGE FINDER

     of Ambrose sitting with someone whose face is obscured from his
     angle by bar patrons.

     BILLY

     is also looking.

     POV RANGE FINDER BILLY

     and from his point of view it can be seen that Ambrose is talking
     with John McCloy, the head Biocyte.  Ambrose takes an envelope
     out of his inner left jacket pocket and from it pulls out a small
     plastic container marked 'S.G.' (Identical to the object first
     seen in Nekhorvich's satchel at airport security.)  He opens it
     and removes a small shiny object about the size of a quarter.  He
     turns to the window and gestures.  Stamp enters the bar.

                                BILLY
                Ambrose is meeting some bloke in the bar.
                Big bloke, ginger hair. They're into
                something.

     ETHAN'S POV

                                ETHAN
                I'll be damned.  It's McCloy, the Biocyte
                CEO.

                                LUTHER
                Nekhorvich's boss?

                                ETHAN
                Yep.

                                NYAH
                Ambrose has photographs of newspapers with
                loads of money piled on them -- thirty-
                seven million on the London Times.  What's
                that about?

                                ETHAN
                Bids from possible Chimera buyers -- to
                prove that as of the date on the newspaper
                those bids are back up by earnest money --

     INT - VAN - LUTHER

     is monitoring both cameras.  All see Ambrose give the little
     wafer-like object to Stamp who places it in a small camera, hands
     it back to Ambrose and exits, waiting just outside the glass
     door.  Ambrose hands the camera to McCloy who looks puzzled.

                                LUTHER
                Looks like Ambrose is showing McCloy how
                to use a digital camera..

     McCloy puts it to his eye, fumbles, then with Ambrose's
     direction:
                                
                                ETHAN
                Whatever McCloy's looking at, he's not
                happy about.

     McCloy puts the camera down.  The two men have words.  McCloy
     shakily leave the table.  Ambrose opens the camera.

                                LUTHER
                Ambrose just pulled the memory card out of
                the digital camera and put it into an
                envelope, put it in his inner left jacket
                pocket...

                                ETHAN
                Left jacket pocket?

                                LUTHER
                Roger that.

                                ETHAN
                Confirm.  Left jacket pocket.

                                LUTHER
                Left jacket pocket confirmed.
                
     ETHAN BY THE MOUNTING ENCLOSURE

                                ETHAN
                Nyah, Ambrose is heading back.  There's an
                enveloped inside --

                                NYAH
                -- his left jacket pocket.

                                ETHAN
                Affirmative.

     AMBROSE

     passes by Stamp on his way back, hands him the camera.

                                NYAH
                        (after a brief pause)
                Where do I meet you?

                                ETHAN
                Betting table twelve off the paddock.
                Nyah, are you up to this?

                                NYAH
                I'll muddle through.

     WIDE ANGLE - BLEACHER (DAY)

     Ambrose arriving with a pair of drinks.  Nyah rises.

                                AMBROSE
                See anything you like?

                                NYAH
                Yeah.  Naturally vain -- but they're about
                to close the betting table and I haven't a
                sou..

     While Ambrose is still juggling the drinks, Nyah reaches into his
     trouser pockets, and rummages around.

                                AMBROSE
                        (laughing)
                Nyah!

                                ETHAN
                Billy, make sure Nyah's not followed.

                                BILLY
                No worries, mate.

     She pulls out a fifty-dollar note.

                                NYAH
                Would you mind terribly?

                                AMBROSE (cont'd)
                        (amused and turned on)
                - not at all.  But you'll pay for that
                and with interest..

                                NYAH
                I've no doubt..

     She heads up the stairs.

                                AMBROSE
                        (reaching into his pocket for
                        money)
                Hold on.

     Ambrose grabs her arm, and she almost drops the envelope she's
     just lifted.  (NOTE: It is important not to see her actually lift
     it).  She's holding it, pinned between her right arm and side.  As
     it's slipping, she notes Stamp above her, looking down and has to
     conceal what she's holding from him as well:

                                AMBROSE (cont'd)
                Put down a couple of hundred for.

                                NYAH
                To win?

                                AMBROSE
                What else?

     She takes it and as she does the envelope falls, but she manages
     to catch it with her left hand, blocking the move with her body
     as she does.

     WIDER ANGLE - NYAH

     moves along the aisle.

                                ETHAN'S VOICE
                Luther, smallest digital you got.  Ready
                to transmit.  Betting table twelve.

     EXT - VAN (DAY)

     designated as NEW SOUTH WALES DELIVERIES, 'anytime, anywhere.'
     Luther bursts out of the van, carrying the tiny camera and begins
     to thread his way thru cars and foot traffic.

     BILLY

     in dramatic contrast ambles at a conspicuously leisurely pace.

     NYAH

     passes Stamp, not seeing him standing just a row above, blocked
     from her by one of the pillars.  Stamp idly regards her and then 
     decides: he follows.

     LUTHER

     perspiring, approaches the betting table thru the last of the
     parked cars.

     STAMP

     approaches the door thru which Nyah had gone and starts to open
     it - only to have the door slammed in his face and on his
     bandaged finger by Billy, in a track usher's uniforms.

                                BILLY
                        (very solicitous)
                Sorry about that, mate, that must've
                really - aggrhh!..

     Even as Stamp winces in pain his arm has shot out and Billy finds
     himself pinned to the wall gasping for air.  If he'd been welded
     there by a band of steal he'd have more room to maneuver.

                                STAMP
                Say again?

                                BILLY
                Aggrhh-aggrhh-aggrhh...

                                STAMP
                Whatever you're about in future, watch
                your step.  Never know who you might run
                into...

     Stamp looks around, Nyah's nowhere in sight.  He's lost her.  Sees
     his hand's bleeding and lets Billy go, who nearly drops to the 
     floor.

                                STAMP
                Where's the loo then?

                                BILLY
                        (pointing up)
                - aggrhh-aggrhh-aggrhh...

     Stamp heads up the men's room.

                                BILLY
                        (croaking it out)
                ...

     Shakes his head, feeling lucky to escape with his life.

     EXT - PADDOCK - BETTING TABLE TWELVE

     Nyah into shot.  Stands in line.  She looks around.

                                ETHAN'S VOICE
                How'd you do?  Don't turn around.

     Nyah turns and looks Ethan dead in the eye.

                                NYAH
                I managed.

                                ETHAN
                You noticed.  What're you going to do?
                Spank me?

     She slips Ethan the envelope.  Ethan himself returns the look,
     holding it in spite of:

                                BILLY'S VOICE
                Stamp's out of the loo.

     Luther arrives, with the camera, opening for Ethan.  Nyah turns
     away.  Ethan pulls out the tiny memory card, slips it in the 
     camera.

                                ETHAN (CONT'D)
                        (looking into camera)
                This is going to take a couple of
                minutes..

     LUTHER

     is racing back to the van.

                                LUTHER
                There in twenty, Ethan..

     NYAH AND ETHAN (IN LINE)

     edge toward the window.

                                BILLY'S VOICE
                Stamp's a little shaky, but headed your
                way, mate.

                                ETHAN
                Copy that.
                        (to Nyah)
                Who do you like?  In the race?

                                NYAH
                        (nervous, she's heard Billy
                        too)
                What race are we talking about?

     INT - VAN (DAY)

     A sweaty Luther:

                                LUTHER 
                I'm booted up.  Go, Ethan.

                                BILLY'S VOICE
                He's heading down the stairs, now..

     Ethan places the digital camera on play and begins to go thru the
     stills.  As they cliff off, Ethan is visibly affected.

     LUTHER IN THE VAN

     watches the stills as well.  He's no less affected.

     ETHAN WITH NYAH

     He mutters some expletive under his breath, then, evenly:

                                ETHAN
                I want you out of Ambrose's place.

                                BILLY'S VOICE
                He's one tier from the bottom.

     Ethan glances over to the bottom of the stairs.

                                NYAH
                What are you talking about?

     As he lowers camera and removes the memory card.

                                ETHAN
                I want you out of there.

                                NYAH
                Why?  What's happened. What did you see?

                                BILLY
                Thirty steps..

     Slipping card back into envelope.

                                ETHAN
                Nyah, you've done more than enough.  Even
                the best of snake charmers get bit.

                                NYAH
                Ethan, tell me -
                                
                                BILLY'S VOICE
                Twenty, nineteen..

     Ethan's been talking to someone he's been urging to walk, not run
     to the nearest exit.  Now he drops all pretence:

                                ETHAN
                I want you out of Australia!
                        (more quickly)
                ..I don't know how much more plainly I can
                put it.

                                NYAH
                How do you suggest I go about it?

                                ETHAN
                He's touched your heart.  You're
                overwhelmed.  You need to think it over.
                You'll meet him somewhere in a month.  If
                You're not out in 48 hours I'm coming in
                and getting you out.  Give me the ear
                piece.

     She just gets it out of her hear and gives it to Ethan when she
     reaches the bookie who warns her to get down her bet.  She gives
     him her money and gets the tickets just as the buzzer goes off -
     no more bets.  Flustered by it she picks up her tickets but drops 
     the envelope.  She quickly kneels and scrambles to recover it,
     tucking it away and looking up - to see Stamp standing over her.
     almost exactly where Ethan had stood when she looked away.

     NYAH

     tries not to register alarm while she gauges how much Stamp had
     seen.

                                STAMP
                Get your bet down?

                                NYAH
                Just..

     She rises.  Stamp waits only a moment then follows.

     AT THE PRIVATE BLEACHERS (DAY)

     everyone's on their feet, the horses are in the backstretch.

     Ambrose is watching the race through binoculars.  Nyah comes up 
     behind and puts her arms around him.  With her left hand she puts
     the envelope into his right jacket pocket.

                                AMBROSE
                Your nag is making a run for it on the
                outside!
                        (lowering binoculars)
                Bloody hell, Nyah!

     She's momentarily startled.  Then:

                                AMBROSE (CONT'D)
                You picked another winner!

                                NYAH
                Well, that's good, isn't?

     A BLOW UP (INT. SHEEP FARM IMF SAFEHOUSE - DAY)

     of a shot from a digital camera card.

                                ETHAN'S VOICE
                Dr. Segi Gradski, Nekhorvich's
                colleague and lifelong friend..

     The photos is coded with the data in the lower left hand corner,
     01.27.99, the time in the right, 10:02:56 A.M.  Burned into the
     photo is '20 hours, 03 minutes after exposure.'

     Ethan paunches in.

                                ETHAN'S VOICE (cont'd)
                Twenty hours and three minutes after
                exposure.
                        (sotto voce)
                Twenty hours.

     Ethan doesn't say anything for a moment, then goes on to the next
     photo on the card: '25 hours, 40 minutes after exposure.'  It's
     Gradski again.  Gradski's eyes are darkly circled, his skull look 
     mottled.

                                ETHAN
                Six hours later.

     Another photo: '31 hours, 30 minutes after exposure.' Gradski's
     bleeding from nose, mouth and ears, the skin eruptions are
     pervasive, his body an open wound.

                                ETHAN ( cont'd)
                Six more hours.

     The next photo.  '34 hours, 25 minutes after exposure.'  Gradski's
     body at rest.

                                ETHAN (cont'd)
                Three hours after that, Gradski was dead..

                                LUTHER
                Here's a victim from the Bruny Island
                outbreak.

     The victim's face shows a devastation undeniably like Gradski's.

     A long, long moment as Ethan, Luther, and Billy sit in silence.

                                BILLY
                Oh, happy day.

     Ethan looks again at the first photo of Gradski.

                                ETHAN
                Nekhorvich said 'However we travel, I
                must arrive at my destination within 20 hours
                hours of departure.'

     CLOSE - NYAH (EXT. AMBROSE VERANDA - LATE AFTERNOON)

     Nyah is on the balcony.  Ambrose enters with two glasses of 
     champagne.  

                                AMBROSE
                To Australia.  It's made so many convicts
                feel at home.  Here's hoping it does the
                same for you..

     He laughs.  She doesn't.

                                NYAH
                Sean, there's something I've been meaning
                to talk to you about... Isn't going to be
                easy for me to say.

                                AMBROSE
                        (jocular)
                Then don't say it.

                                NYAH
                I don't know what to do about you, Sean.
                I'm more than a bit muddled.  I need time.

                                AMBROSE
                To do what?

                                NYAH
                Sort it all out.

                                AMBROSE
                And you're going to have time.  There's
                been a change of plans.

                                NYAH
                A change of plans?

                                AMBROSE
                Yes.  We won't be able to have dinner
                tonight.  Something's come up.  I hope you
                don't mind.

                                NYAH
                Oh, no, not at all.  Maybe just a bit.

                                AMBROSE
                Ulrich will be about.  He'll look after
                you.

                                NYAH
                Lovely.

     INT - AMBROSE STUDY (LATE AFTERNOON)

     Ambrose enters, slips off his jacket and hangs it over a chair.
     He walks to a desk and brings up a computer the Biocyte website
     and McCloy infomercial.  Stamp notes that Ambrose is 
     on the computer and moves to the desk.

                                STAMP
                I thought you were going to dinner.

                                AMBROSE
                        (pulling up something on the
                        computer)
                Hugh, take care of the Nekhorvich memory
                card.

                                STAMP
                Where is it?

                                AMBROSE
                In the envelope in my pocket.  My
                right.. jacket..pocket..

     Stamp leans over and pulls out the envelope.  As he does he sees 
     Ambrose has pulled up and started to play McCloy's informercial.

                                AMBROSE (cont'd)
                        (calmly)
                We've got an opportunity here.  I'm not
                going to miss it..

     CAMERA CARD PHOTOS (INT. SHEEP FARM - ETHAN & CREW)

     a microscopic view of myriads of ugly green spiky objects amid
     exploding red ones..

                                ETHAN
                Chimera attacking human blood..

     One more shot.  A lavender stained group of spiky objects amid
     exploding the green ones.

                                ETHAN (cont'd)
                Bellerophon attacking Chimera..

     On an adjacent screen is a frozen frame of McCloy looking thru
     the digital camera at the racetrack.

                                BILLY
                Ambrose obviously got these from
                Nekhorvich on the plane.

                                LUTHER
                What manic invents  disease like that in
                the first place?  Why would he do it?

                                ETHAN
                I don't know, but Nekhorvich was not a
                manic.  Get me a twenty on Nyah.

                                LUTHER
                She must still be on the property.
                                
                                ETHAN
                I told her to get outta there.

     EXT - LIMO (EVE)

     McCloy gets in the rear of the limo and lights up a cigar.  The
     limo takes off.  another car pulls out and tags along behind the
     limo.

     INT - OTHER CAR (MOVING)

     Michael at the wheel.

     INT - LIMO - MOVING (EVE)

     McCloy doesn't like the taste of the cigar, goes to toss it out
     but the electronic window button doesn't work.  He notices the
     evening paper partially open on the seat.  His name leaps out. He
     opens the paper

     THE HEADLINES

     announce that John C. McCloy, CEO of Biocyte, Inc., one of the
     world's leading pharmaceutical companies, has died of a straight
     and terrible strain of influenza

     Shocked, McCloy drops the paper, calling out:

                                MCCLOY
                George.  George.  George.

     The drover doesn't turn around.  McCloy can't believe it.  He
     bangs on chauffeur window.  The driver turns on the air
     conditioning in the rear of the limo.  McCloy clutches his throat
     and passes out.

     MCCLOY (INT. ICU UNIT - NIGHT)

     regains consciousness.  He's got tubes coming out of every
     orifice and is contained in the equivalent of a plastic bubble.
     Drenched in perspiration and he looks around for a call button.
     He grips the side of the bed.

                                MCCLOY
                Bloody room..just..shut your eyes, shut
                your eyes.

     He can't resist.  Opens them to look up thru the plastic to see:

     NEKHORVICH

     a shimmering blur coming in and out of focus.

                                MCCLOY (cont'd)
                I'll be buggered!..What's this then?


                                NEKHORVICH
                A visit from an old friend.

                                MCCLOY
                What's happening here?  You're dead!

                                NEKHORVICH
                Fatigued, certainly.  But dead is a little
                extreme.  On the other hand, when me dear
                Gradski had your pulse and blood pressure
                he has less than ten hours to live.

                                MCCLOY
                        (confused)
                It was in the bloody papers, on the
                telly..what's this about Gradski?

                                NEKHORVICH
                You are infected with Chimera, my friend.

     INT - AMBROSE BEDROOM (NIGHT) NYAH

     is on the phone.

                                NYAH
                International, please.  I'd like to make a
                reservation on the next available flight tonight.

                                OPERATOR
                Where to?

                                NYAH
                Where is next available flight going?

     The operator answers.

                                NYAH
                Fine.  I'll take it.

     She hangs up, goes to the door.  The house is eerily silent.

     POV - STAIRWELL (NIGHT)

     a play of shadows, the sound of the kitchen fridge.

     CLOSE - NYAH

     Moves softly downstairs & hesitates at bottom, glancing about.

                                NYAH
                Ulrich?..Ulrich!...

     Silence.  she goes into the kitchen.  No one.  She goes out the door.

     OVER NYAH'S SHOULDER - MOVING (EXT. SYDNEY - NIGHT)

     running pell-mell down to the shore.  Stops.  Looks outside the
     small skiff moored at the end of the dock.  It's dark and she
     decides to chance it.  She moves onto the pier, trying to glide
     by the boathouse.  A figure darts out and grabs her.  She tries to
     scream but can't.  The figure whips her around and she sees:

                                ETHAN
                Easy, easy, easy, shhh!

                                NYAH
                Oh Ethan!..

     She throws her arms around him.

                                ETHAN
                Are you okay?

                                NYAH
                I am now.  Get me out of here.  Just get
                me out of here.

                                ETHAN
                It's going to be okay.

     He holds her.

     INT - HOSPITAL ROOM

     McCloy's strapped down, but manages to reach the call button and
     push it.  Again and again.

                                NEKHORVICH
                No use, my friend.  The medical staff
                wants no part of this.  Doctors don't
                fancy the idea of dying any more than
                anybody else.

     McCloy stares at Nekhorvich for a long moment.

                                MCCLOY
                How could I possibly be infected?

     Nekhorvich shrugs.

                                NEKHORVICH
                That's exactly what Gradski said - 27
                hours before he died.  With Chimera, the
                most minute exposure can be fatal.

     McCloy again looks at his vital sign on the monitor.  He grips
     the edge of the hospital bed.

                                NEKHORVICH
                But then you shouldn't be feeling to ill.
                not for another three of four hours 
                anyway.

     McCloy breaks a fresh sweat in a sudden spasm of anxiety.

                                MCCLOY
                You have Bellerophon.

                                NEKHORVICH
                        (mildly)
                Do I?

                                MCCLOY
                You took it!  All of it!  And what if I need
                it?

                                NEKHORVICH
                        (amused)
                'If?'  My, my, my...the five hundred
                people on Bruny Island that you
                deliberately infected with Chimera needed
                it as well.

                                MCCLOY
                Oh, please!  How was I to know they had to
                be treated with Bellerophon within twenty
                hours?

                                NEKHORVICH
                By asking me.

                                MCCLOY
                You still don't get it, do you?  You want
                to make an omelet, you break a few eggs -
                I needed to know just how bad the disease
                was - in the real world, not the lab.  And
                you never know til you try.  You thought
                you were genetically splicing together
                strains of influenza to create a 
                cure for all influenzas.  But I saw you
                creating a disease so terrible in Chimera
                that the cure would be priceless.

                                NEKHORVICH
                You wanted the disease in order to peddle
                the cure.

                                MCCLOY
                Well, the thought had occurred to me.  I needed
                Chimera in order to peddle Bellerophon.  For
                hero to be appreciated, you need a monster.
                Now that's not so difficult to understand, is
                it?  Look, time was a shot of penicillin could
                knock off every bloody bug in the zoo!  Not
                anymore!..have you any idea the R&D money it
                takes to float one little pissy boutique
                antibiotic that's barely effective against one
                strain of one bacterium?  If I couldn't makes 
                money killing the microscopic little shits that
                are out there, you'd help me put one out there
                I can make on!..there it is.  I've
                confessed.  I, John C. McCloy, am in business
                to make money.  Lilly's making billions feeding
                Prozac to depressed dogs.  Pfizer doesn't even
                know where to put the money they're making on
                Viagra, and let me tell you that shit didn't do
                a thing for me even at twice the recommended
                dose, Jesus, who do I have to screw to get a
                a break!..now get me out of here, get me treated
                and let's go back to work!..

                                NEKHORVICH
                You know, I think it's a little late for
                that.  Do give my regards to Gradski if
                you see him.
                
     INT - HALLWAY (OUTSIDE MCCLOY'S ROOM)

     Nekhorvich heaves a sigh and rips off a latex mask, and the vocal
     oscillator, revealing an exhausted Ethan.  Angle widens to
     include Luther and Billy in hospital greens.

     Luther and Billy nod in disgusted assent.

     EXT - ANNEX (NIGHT) NYAH

     holds tight in her embrace with Ethan.

                                NYAH
                Ethan, you know what frightens me most
                when I'm with him?..the thought of never 
                seeing you..how are we getting out of here?

                                ETHAN
                Nyah, it's very important not do
                anything to alarm Ambrose..

                                NYAH
                What?  You told me to get out of here.  I
                thought you were here to collect me.  I
                was so relieved.

                                ETHAN
                        (with growing urgency)
                No time to explain.  You've done well,
                and we're so close.  So close.  It's
                critical that you do whatever Ambrose
                asks.  Don't worry - it'll be over soon..
                That's a promise.. Come on, now off you
                go!

     He gives her an affectionate smile and she reluctantly heads back
     to the house, her expression troubled, even suspicious.

     INT - HALLWAY (OUTSIDE MCCLOY'S ROOM)

     Having just taken off the mask, Ethan stands with Luther and Billy.

                                LUTHER
                        (disgusted by what he's heard)
                So Ambrose has Bellerophon and McCloy's
                got Chimera.

                                BILLY
                There guys are walking around with
                different halves of the same dollar bill?

                                ETHAN
                Ambrose got Bellerophon from Nekhorvich
                on the plane, but he didn't get the Chimera
                virus.

                                LUTHER
                Yeah.  Why else would he come back to
                Australia?  If he had them both, he could
                sell them anywhere.

                                ETHAN
                I kill Chimera at Biocyte and he's sitting
                on a cure without a disease.

                                LUTHER
                You've got the voice print, I'll get us in..

     EXT - AMBROSE HOUSE (NIGHT)

     Ethan enters and tears off his mask, revealing Ambrose filled
     with implacable rage.  He looks up to see Stamp who's been
     obviously waiting for him.  Tearing the voice oscillator.
     Leaning with both hands on a counter-surveillance monitor table
     he stares at the floor, his face rictus of hateful intensity.

                                STAMP
                You were right.  Hunt stung McCloy
                tonight.  He knows.  They'll be going into
                Biocyte...

     Ambrose looks up slowly to Stamp who's been standing by.

                                AMBROSE
                Good..then we go where he'll be, don't 
                we?  Well done, Hugh.  Well done.

     CHAUFFEUR'S WINDOW (INT. LIMO - EVE)

     being rapped on by the driver.

     MCCLOY 

     wakes with a start.  The window's lowered -- Billy's in livery.

                                BILLY
                You're home, guv'ner.  Home..

     It's taking time to register.  Then:

                                MCCLOY
                - where's George.  My regular driver.
                Where is he?

                                BILLY
                Took ill, guv'.  Touch of the flu. They
                say it's going around.  Nasty business.
                Mind you don't catch a chill now.

     Still dazed, McCloy manages to nod and exit the limo.  Billy
     drives off.

     CLOSE - COMPUTER SCREEN - BIOCYTE BUILDING BLUEPRINTS
     (INT. SHEEP FARM SAFEHOUSE)

     including all specifications.

                                ETHAN
                Luther, do you have the building up and
                running?

     Luther punches in and up comes a squat little island a hundred
     yards off shore, connected to the mainland by a wooden bridge.

                                ETHAN (cont'd)
                That's not exactly it.

                                LUTHER
                Sorry, that it a Biocyte facility, their
                storage structure..

                                ETHAN
                Nyah still on the property?

                                BILLY
                She hasn't left it.

     Then:

                                LUTHER
                Okay, here you go -

     As Luther speaks, the building - on his computer graphics, one
     with the BIOCYTE PHARMACEUTICALS ELEVATORS AND RENDERINGS, is
     being rapidly morphed to three dimension existence off the
     rendering specifications by Luther, as if the building itself
     were being constructed at a madly rapid pace, from its foundation
     to its reinforced steel structure, to its honeycombing of floors,
     to its outer skin.  Luther's reconstitution of the building lot
     static, but moving around and above it even as he proceeds.

                                ETHAN
                Let's start from the inside out.

                                LUTHER
                All storage and production of Chimera is
                done here, in this lab on the forty-second
                floor, the heart of the building.

     BIOCYTE LAB

     Only about eight personnel -- chemists in lab coats, workers in
     bio-containment suits, etc. -- populate the lab, passing through
     security door and air locks, monitoring the virus stock, pading
     the injection gun, etc.

                                LUTHER'S VOICE
                Chimera itself is kept in two places: in
                production vials in an incubation room and
                housed in a small airtight chamber - inside
                three injection guns.

                                BILLY'S VOICE
                Mate, you kill it in both places, we're
                laughin' and we go home.

     WITH LUTHER AND ETHAN

                                ETHAN
                Now how to get in there.

                                LUTHER
                No garage entrance.  Lobby's protected by 
                five guards on rotating patrol.

     Ethan watches the rendition of the Biocyte lobby on screen

     CLOSE - AMBROSE (NIGHT)

     in overhead light, his eyes are dark pits, somehow underlying her
     saturnine intensity:

                                AMBROSE
                If you look at Hunt's operational history, he
                invariably favors misdirection and deception.
                For a start he won't go into Biocyte from the
                ground where he has to risk confrontation
                with security.

                                ETHAN                        
                Not going in from the ground.  Show me the
                atrium.

     INT - BIOCYTE ATRIUM SHAFT

     The height and extent of the atrium are revealed, as well as its
     conclusion in a glass floor in the ceiling of the lab.

                                LUTHER'S VOICE
                        (unhappily)
                The atrium?  One of a kind.  Runs down the
                center of the building.  Provides 24-hour
                natural light via mirrors and daylight
                storage cells.  Optimal growing conditions
                for the virus.  Ends in a glass floor which
                doubles as part of the lab's ceiling.

     WITH LUTHER AND ETHAN

     Luther sees the glint growing in Ethan's eye.

                                LUTHER
                        Hey, atrium roof closes at sundown.

     EXT - BIOCYTE ATRIUM SHAFT

     As the sun sets, the louvers of the atrium roof begin closing.
                        
                                LUTHER'S VOICE
                And if the louvers are open for more than
                thirty seconds at night, the Civil
                Emergency alarms are tipped.  Those even I
                can't stop.  Thirty seconds total to get
                you in and the cable out.

                                ETHAN
                Security?

                                LUTHER
                Thirty-second opening in the roof and a
                250-foot drop.

                                ETHAN
                I'm not waiting 48 hours.  When we're done
                at Biocyte, if she's not out of Ambrose's,
                I'm going in and getting her out.

     CLOSE - AMBROSE (NIGHT)

                                AMBROSE
                No, Hunt will prefer to engage in some
                sort of acrobatic insanity to enter
                Biocyte somewhere through the atrium where
                security is minimal..

     Suddenly there's the roar of helicopter rotors.

     ETHAN (EXT. SYDNEY - NIGHT)

     is poised, upside down, on cable against the Sydney skyline.

     THE ATRIUM LOUVERS

     begin to open.

     WITH LUTHER (INT. VAN)

     hurriedly working the atrium's controls, hitting 'ENTER',
     repeatedly.

     INT - COPTER (HOVERING)

                                BILLY
                Package away in five..four..three..
                two..one...

                                LUTHER
                I'm not ready!

                                ETHAN
                I'm gone..

     Ethan plummets towards the atrium.

     WITH LUTHER (INT. VAN - NIGHT)

                                LUTHER
                        (frantically working controls)
                C'mon!  C'mon!  C'mon!

     ETHAN'S DESCENT

     is so swift it appears as though he's going to hit the atrium
     louvers but as he reaches roof level they crack open just enough
     for him to dart thru like thread thru a needle

     Luther begins the countdown.  His countdown continues, running
     under the action and dialogue below.

                                LUTHER'S VOICE
                ..nineteen..eighteen..seventeen...

     ETHAN IN MID-DESCENT (MOVING)

     moves down the shaft of bluish light, past the building's walls.

                                LUTHER'S VOICE
                        (low)
                ..sixteen..fifteen..

     Ethan streaks thru the beams of light toward the atrium floor.

     INT - ATRIUM FLOOR - ETHAN 

     reaches the end of the cord, slows himself to a stop and sees 
     the security guard through the window. The guard starts as he 
     catches a glimpse of Ethan's reflection in the control panels. 

                                ETHAN
                Luther, I'm looking at security. 

     CLOSE - LUTHER

                                LUTHER
                        (utterly shocked) 
                Oh. Uh. Commencing diversion. 
                        (sotto voce, typing swiftly) 
                Alarm in cosmetics. 

     INT - ATRIUM FLOOR 

     Ethan swings himself up to the ledge above the guard's window, 
     putting himself out of the puzzled guard's sight. 

                                LUTHER'S VOICE 
                Gotta get that cable out. 

     Ethan unhooks the cord and flips to the atrium floor.  An alarm
     goes off. 

                                LUTHER'S VOICE (cont'd)
                There it goes.. 

     Still confused and concerned, the guard doesn't immediately react 
     to the alarm or the ringing phone.  He finally answers the phone. 

                                GUARD #2'S VOICE 
                        (on phone) 
                AY!  what's the matter with you?  Can't you 
                hear the alarm's gone off in cosmetics? 

     The first guard gives up what's confused him. 

                                GUARD 
                        (sarcastic) 
                Right.  Then I guess I'll have to trot off 
                to see who's pinching eyeliner, won't I.
                        (exits, grumbling) 
                I'll even check the stairwell on the way. 

     UP ANGLE - CABLE                                                

     being swiftly retracted toward the atrium's opening as it closes. 

                                BILLY 
                Retracting cable. 

                                LUTHER'S VOICE 
                        (low) 
                Three..two..one.. 

     UP ANGLE - ATRIUM                                             

     The cable just makes it thru the atrium as the louvers close. 

                                BILLY'S VOICE
                Cable's clear. 

     INT - ATRIUM FLOOR - ETHAN 

     reaches down and presses a silent beeper. 

     WITH LUTHER (INT. VAN) 

     sees a little red diamond-shaped light pop on his screen 

                                LUTHER
                Transponder activated..Reading package and 
                Cable is clean. 
                        (exhaling, relieved) 
                He's on his way. 

     Staring at the buildings control panels.

     ETHAN (INT. ATRIUM) 

     hugs the floor just out of sight of the befuddled security guard. 

                                AMBROSE'S VOICE 
                He'll make the attempt at the only possible time 
                for both of us, 11 P.M. - when the guards rotate
                and the buildings air-filtration generators go
                active, covering the sound of his break-in.. 

     WITH LUTHER 

                                LUTHER 
                Ethan, the generators are about to go active. 
                We'll be out of contact for eleven minutes. 

     CLOSE - GENERATORS                                          

     dark and silent. 

     GENERATORS 

     turn over and roar to life. 

     ETHAN AT BOTTOM OF ATRIUM

     cuts into the glass floor, pops it out, and drops thru the
     opening.  None of it's heard under the generators.. 

     Ethan drops onto the lab floor and heads across the lab and up
     the ramp to the hot zone. 

                                AMBROSE'S VOICE 
                The frequency of the generators operate to 
                our advantage - cutting radio 
                communication from his team for the next 
                eleven minutes.. 

     INT - BIOCYTE LOBBY (NIGHT)

     Stamp, flanked by several of his team in Biocyte security guard 
     uniform, crosses the lobby toward a pair of actual Biocyte 
     security guards who appear more puzzled than alarmed at this
     unexpected influx.

                                ONE OF THE GUARDS
                What's this, then?  Reinforcements? 

                                STAMP 
                Not exactly, mate. 

     WITH LUTHER (INT. CONSTRUCTION VAN - NIGHT)

     His attention in drawn to a spot on the grid where Nyah's
     transponder blip, a circular yellow one in contrast to Ethan's,
     is moving.  Troubled:

                                LUTHER 
                Billy.  I think we got a problem.  Nyah's
                on the wing.  Up early.  Billy, do you 
                copy?

     INT - CHOPPER 

                                BILLY 
                Exactly where is she? 

                                LUTHER 
                ..in the building... 

                                BILLY'S VOICE 
                Say again. Sounds like you're saying 
                'she's in the building.' 

                                LUTHER
                I am. She is.

                                AMBROSE'S VOICE 
                Ethan does it the hard way to avoid 
                confrontation.  Neutralizing security 
                guards is simply too distasteful to him.. 

     INT - BIOCYTE LOBBY                                                       

     The two guards who had greeted Stamp and his arriving team lie 
     inert on the lobby floor. 

                                AMBROSE'S VOICE 
                I've never found that a problem... 

     WITH BILLY (INT. HELICOPTER - NIGHT)                                     

     Billy's so surprised he momentarily gets loose with the copter 
     and it banks off.  As it and he recover: 

                                BILLY 
                Right. Well, then. She's not likely to 
                be alone. is she? 

                                LUTHER'S VOICE 
                The question Is 'how many of 'em?' I 
                can't get thru to Ethan. Not 'til the 
                generators go off. 

                                BILLY 
                When's that? 

                                LUTHER'S VOICE 
                Not for another eight and a half minutes.

     WITH LUTHER                                                         

     staring at the red and yellow blips in vertical alignment, the 
     Yellow one, Nyah, considerably below the red one, Ethan. 

     INT - HOT ZONE ENTRANCE (NIGHT)

     The door reads.  DANGER: LIVE VIRUS: INCUBATION ZONE.  EXPOSURE IS
     FATAL.  Ethan pulls on a protective mask from his pack and puts a 
     miniaturized recorder up to the voice print activator:

                                MCCLOY'S VOICE 
                John C. McCloy.. 

     Ethan's buzzed into the hot zone.  He steps into the air locks. 

     INT - SHEEP FARM IMF SAFEHOUSE

     A small bomb is placed by the dark gloves of someone unseen. 

     EXT - CONSTRUCTION VAN - NIGHT                                         

     a shadow falls across the dirt in front of the bumper. 

     A SMALL OBJECT 

     with a digital clock face, its red LED illuminating descending
     numbers, is carefully placed inside the bumper.  The magnet on it
     doesn't quite catch.  It's then placed more carefully. 

     INT - CONSTRUCTION VAN 

     Luther doesn't pick up on the faint metallic sound just outside. 
     He's concentrating on the flashes on the screen showing the
     transponder rising in the building.  Increasingly desperate:

                                LUTHER 
                It looks like Nyah's headed toward an 
                elevator. 

     ETHAN 

     working meticulously an a computer monitor. 

     DOWN ANGLE - ELEVATOR DOORS 

     and a security guard's body lying in the corridor.  A pair of 
     trousered legs step over the body and into the elevator joining 
     Nyah's legs and feet, and other pairs of trousered legs.  The
     elevator doors close. 

                                AMBROSE'S VOICE
                If Hunt actually manages to squeak thru 
                the atrium he's liable to make it to 
                Chimera before we will.. 

     CLOSE LUTHER 

     On his computer screen the yellow dot continues its ascent, the
     two dots growing ever closer. 

                                LUTHER 
                She's in the elevator heading toward Ethan. 

                                BILLY'S VOICE 
                How much longer before you can reach him? 

                                LUTHER
                Five and a half minutes. 
                        (looking at his chronometer) 
                He's breached the hot zone.. 

                                AMBROSE'S VOICE 
                On the other hand we know where Hunt will 
                be and he doesn't know we're coming..

     INT - INCUBATION ZONE

     In front of each of three large television monitors is a vial
     shaped roughly like a sealed beaker somewhere between one and two
     liters in size.  Each one is contained behind Plexiglas and each 
     one pale yellow, one sunset red.  Behind them are monitors marked,
     respectively:  WORKING SEED STOCK, MASTER SEED STOCK, IN VITRO
     VIRUS.  Behind these is a monitor screen with a blow-up of the
     contents of the vials & the magnitude of the blow-up - 950,000x.

     These are X-Ray microscope blow-ups, i.e., allowing the viewer to
     see the motility of the virus and its metabolism, not dissimilar
     to an MRI this of Chimera in its three different cultures..

     Ethan's on the computer controls, racing thru to WORKING SEED
     STOCK, which calls for optimal levels of 6.9 pH and 11 
     degrees Celsius.  He drops the pH to zero and punches up the
     temperature to a hundred.  The effect on the greenish hue in
     the bottle is subtle but immediate - not so subtle is the
     effect on the virus seeds viewed microscopically - they
     immediately appear agitated, their microscopic DNA innards
     contracting and expanding.

     Ethan moves on to the Master Seed Stock and the In Vitro Virus
     panels on the computer.  The changes he makes are reflected on
     the digital monitoring panels before each viral container.

     THE WORKING SEED

     vial has begun to change colors from sea green to a paler pea-
     green.  The liquid itself begins to thicken:

                                COMPUTER VOICE
                        (female)
                Alert.  Chimera-working-seed-stock-pH-and-
                temperature-level-outside-optimal range.

     As the liquid grows more viscous the X-Ray have a progressively
     more difficult time penetrating the individual cells, resulting
     in a low humming sound which grows as the liquid gels.

     ETHAN

     at the control panels for maintaining the virus.

                                ANOTHER COMPUTER VOICE
                Alert.  Chimera-master-seed-stock-pH-and-
                temperature-level-outside-optimal range.
                                
                                FIRST COMPUTER VOICE
                Alert.  Chimera-working-seed-stock-pH-at-
                unacceptable-level..

                                THIRD COMPUTER VOICE
                Alert.  Chimera-in-vitro-pH-and-
                temperature-level-outside-optimal range..

                                FIRST COMPUTER VOICE
                Alert.  Chimera-working-seed-stock-pH-at-
                critical-level.  Alert.  Stock-life
                threatened.  Alert.

     The X-Ray microscope shows the individual seed-cells sticking
     together, some exploding, then all movement ceasing.  The Liquid
     itself is suddenly shod thru fluorescent sparks before it
     congeals to an opaque mush.

                                FIRST COMPUTER VOICE (cont'd)
                Alert.  Chimera stock life..terminated..

     Simultaneously with the seed stock, Ethan's damaging both the
     working seed in-vitro virus.

     WIDE ANGLE - HOT ZONE

     Ethan places a little plastique on a timer and runs up a ramp to
     the decontaminant air lock at the back entrance to the hot zone.

                                BILLY'S VOICE
                How're we doin', then?

                                LUTHER
                He should've have killed the virus in the
                incubation area..Nyah's exited the
                elevator on the same level as the lab.

                                BILLY'S VOICE
                What can we do' mate?

                                LUTHER
                        (staring at them)
                Hope he kills all the bugs before the 
                yellow dot gets to the red one.

     CLOSE - LUTHER'S SCREEN

     The read and yellow blips are now on the same plane.  The yellow
     dot moves toward the red one as if drawn by a slow motion magnet.

     DOWN ANGLE - ETHAN

     looking up as his entire body is hit with air like he's a wind
     tunnel.  When the air flow ceases, a green light goes on.

                                COMPUTER VOICE
                Subject is contaminate free.  Zero contaminate
                factor.  Subject contaminate free.

     ETHAN - GLASS OBSERVATION ROOM

     heads up a ramp to the three injection guns.  Hands in gloves he
     reaches into the chamber for one of the injection guns.

                                LUTHER'S VOICE
                He's still got three injection guns in the
                test lab..They're loaded with doses of
                Chimera which he'll destroy by firing
                into a hyper-thermal chamber.

     He places the barrel of the gun, seals the chamber, and fires.
     There's a tiny flash of light.  Ethan withdraws the gun.

     INT - CONSTRUCTION VAN

     Luther's sweating it as the clock counts down:  :30, :29, :28..

                                LUTHER
                - twenty-seven, twenty-six, twenty-five,
                come on, Ethan we're almost there!  I-I'm
                off sensitive for this..

     In a spasm of anxiety Luther bolts to his feet, wipes his brow.

                                LUTHER (cont'd)
                - eighteen seconds, the generators'll be
                off and Ethan's back on line..

     Luther glances thru the van window only to see reflected in the
     van side mirror:

     MIRROR REFLECTION - CHROME BUMPER (EXT. CONSTRUCTION VAN)

     reflected in it is the face of a digital clock, its red LED
     illuminating the clock's numbers fourteen - thirteen - twelve -

     WITH LUTHER

                                LUTHER
                        (realizing what he's in for)
                Oh - oh - oh -

     Even as he moans he's frantically ripping out the computer and
     cords dangling, hotfoots toward the van exit.

     INT - HOT ZONE - GLASS OBSERVATION ROOM

     Ethan fires the second injection gun.  Picks up the third and
     last.  He pauses as he's about to fire it, staring intently
     suddenly the gun is held by:

     NEKHORVICH

     who turns the barrel from the hyper-thermal chamber and releases        
     into his wrist.

     BACK TO ETHAN - GLASS OBSERVATION ROOM

     whose vision of of Nekhorvich fades.  Still thinking of Nekhorvich he
     continues to stare at the gun for another moment and before he can fire:

     INT - SHEEP FARM IMF SAFEHOUSE

     The bomb's LED readout shows 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.. As it reaches 0
     a small light on the bomb suddenly stops its incessant blinking.

     EXT - VAN

     explodes.  Saw horses and dirt fly.

     INT - GLASS OBSERVATION ROOM - ETHAN

     looks up just in time to see Ambrose and team arrive at the far 
     end of the lab.  They immediately open fire, shattering the
     room's walls and the glass injection gun chamber.  As the
     injection gun begins falling to the lab floor below, one of
     Ambrose's team runs to grab it, but before he can reach it he is
     shot by Ethan, who's falling to the floor below.

                                AMBROSE
                        (to Ulrich)
                Get it.

     As Ethan hits and dives for cover, Ulrich goes for the gun
     Ethan shoots Ulrich in the leg.  Ulrich hops back in pain.

                                AMBROSE
                Those were two explosions, your van and
                your safehouse, in case you didn't hear
                them both -- I believe that means you've
                also lost a friend.

     Ethan's crouching on the ground protected behind a series of
     vertical metal sheets.

                                ETHAN
                And you couldn't walk to tell me about it.

     Ethan moves to pick up the injection gun which lies in the
     shattered glass on the floor.  Ambrose, Wallis, and a couple of
     other Ambrose team members fire, kicking up broken glass.  Ethan
     backs off.

                                AMBROSE
                        (yelling)
                Hold your fire, dammit!

     The two spot one another in a mirror on the far wall of the hot
     zone..

                                AMBROSE (cont'd)
                Well, Hunt.  How've you been?
                
                                ETHAN
                        (smiling)
                Fight a bit of a cold..

                                AMBROSE
                And you're happy about that?

                                ETHAN
                Beats fighting the flu, I'm here to tell
                you.

                                AMBROSE
                You know, that was the hardest part of
                having to portray you.  Grinning like an
                idiot every fifteen minutes.

                                ETHAN
                I would've thought the hardest part was
                exercising restraint.  Curbing that
                pressing need of your to get your gun 
                off.  You were in such a hurry to knock
                off that 747, you never figured out where
                the virus really was.

                                AMBROSE
                I knew where it was.

                                ETHAN
                Oh.  then you knew the only way 
                could smuggle the live virus to the CDC
                scientists in Atlanta was by injecting
                himself and using his own bloodstream as a 
                Petri dish, doing it inside of twenty
                hours so he could take the anti-virus and
                still have it be effective.  You knew that
                while you were knocking him off and
                destroying the very thing you came for.

     Ethan has been using this exchange to ease a fresh seventeen
     round clip into his weapon and he punctuates this last with a
     spray of gunfire, attempting to cover his own effort to the reach
     the injection gun.  The return fire nearly hits the injection
     gun, kicking up glass and dust and making it move around on the
     floor.

                                AMBROSE
                Stop!  Put a sock in it!  Hit that bloody
                gun and you'll spray the bloody virus all
                over the place!

     Everybody's regained cover but the injection gun remains out of
     everybody's reach.

                                ETHAN
                There it is, guys, the last of it.

                                AMBROSE
                Yep.  You've provided us with a golden
                opportunity to have both the bug and the
                bug killer.

                                ETHAN
                What was the top bid?

                                AMBROSE
                Why, you going to make me a better offer?

                                ETHAN
                Than thirty-seven million pounds?  Not
                really.

                                AMBROSE
                        (not amused)
                Somebody's been slipping you our mail.
                Come on out here, you bad girl.

     Nyah walks out into view on her own.  Ethan sees her reflection in
     the mirror.  Enraged, but trying to control it.

                                ETHAN
                She doesn't belong here, Sean.  Let her go.

                                AMBROSE
                She wouldn't  be here if it wasn't for
                you, Hunt.  from this moment you're
                responsible for what happens to her, and
                if you're looking out for her well-being,
                I suggest you advise her to pick up the
                gun and bring it to me.  Ball's in your
                court, Hunt.  What've you got to say?
                Nyah's waiting for your answer.

     A pregnant pause.

                                LUTHER'S VOICE
                        (breaking through the static)
                Ethan, Nyah's in the building!  Do you 
                copy?

     WITH LUTHER (EXT. BIOCYTE)

     a mess amid the rubble of the construction van.

     ETHAN

                                ETHAN
                        (dryly)
                Thank you.

                                ETHAN (cont'd)
                Sure he won't shoot you the minute he's
                got it?

                                AMBROSE
                Oh, Hunt, please! One can't hold Nyah
                responsible for her actions..

                                ETHAN
                In other words, you're calling her a
                flake.

     CLOSE - NYAH

     listening.

                                AMBROSE
                You know women, mate.  Like monkeys, they
                are.  Won't let go of one branch til
                they've got a grip on the next...get it,
                Nyah.  I'll cover you.

     Ambrose cocks his weapon.

                                AMBROSE (cont'd)
                I'm waiting.

                                NYAH
                        (not much more than body
                length from Ethan)
                This isn't exactly working out the way you
                thought it would, Ethan.  Sorry.

     Finger on the injection trigger, she rises and turns the barrel
     on her arm, firing.  The sound of the air pressure pushing the
     virus into her is unmistakable, as is the circle of tiny puncture
     wounds on her skin.  Nyah moves in front of Ethan, covering him,
     as she turns to face Ambrose.

     ETHAN

     shocked by Nyah's gesture but as she addresses Ambrose he
     resets the 'Countdown' on his chronometer to twenty hours.  As
     it drops into the nineteen:

                                AMBROSE
                        (frustrated in the extreme)
                You..bitch!

     She's been laughing away with Ethan:

                                NYAH
                You're not going to shoot, Sean.  Not
                this bitch.  She's worth thirty-seven
                million pounds.

     CLOSE - ETHAN'S HANDS

     fingers press a red button on a tiny detonator.  There's a bright
     heat flash from the hot zone and an explosion of gas and water --
     the plastique killing any airborne virus.

     Ethan uses the diversion to grab Nyah and run with her to the far
     side of the lab, behind a stock of horizontal cylinders.

     INT - LAB

     Ambrose and team recover from the explosion and begin firing on
     the tanks protecting Ethan and Nyah, surrounding the two with
     fire and jets of released steam.

     INT - LAB - ETHAN AND NYAH

     behind the stack of tanks.  Ethan launches an explosive down a
     short hallway, blowing a hole in the building's exterior wall.

     INT - ENTRANCES TO THE LAB

     A group of Biocyte security guards enter from behind Ambrose and
     team and catch them off-guard.  All hell breaks loose.

     INT - LAB - ETHAN AND NYAH

                                ETHAN
                        (outraged)
                What did you think you were doing!

                                NYAH
                I wasn't thinking!  Just..trying to keep
                you from getting hurt, that's all.

     This hits Ethan with the force of a blow.

                                ETHAN
                - you who don't have a conscience.

                                NYAH
                        (something of surprise to
                        her)
                I guess I lied..You can't get both of us 
                out of here, can you?

                                ETHAN
                No.

                                NYAH
                Then you'll have to kill me before it's
                too late.  Before I start killing people.

                                ETHAN
                No.

                                NYAH
                I'm infected with Chimera.  You know you
                don't have a choice.  Just do it now.

     She puts Ethan's gun to her forehead.

                                NYAH (cont'd)
                For god's sake, get it over with.

     THE HAMMER

     pulls back.

     CLOSE - ETHAN

     He can't fire, lower the hammer.

                                ETHAN
                We've got 19 hours and 57 minutes before
                you start killing anybody.  I'll get 
                Bellerophon into your system by then.
                Just stay alive.  I'm not gonna lose you.

     Ethan runs from the cover of the tanks toward the exploded wall
     once in the open, he exchanges direct gunfire with Ambrose's
     team, wounding a couple men.  He reaches the wall and dives thru,
     camera with him as he drops 25 stories, the sound of gunfire in
     the air all around him.

     Less than a hundred feet from the ground a small dark chute
     deploys and Ethan is lost from view beneath it.

     PANNING SHOT - PAINTINGS (INT. CULTURAL ARTIFACT CENTER)

     of Aborigine paintings, eerie patterns made of man and nature
     phantasmagorical, like the patterns that form under the eyelids
     shortly before sleep.  B.G. the haunting notes of didgeridoo
     insure they're not being overheard.

                                SWANBECK
                        (reading the paintings titles)
                'Dreaming of Birds and Flying Fox,'
                'Bushfire Dreaming,'  'Wind Dreaming,' --
                oddly appropriate -

     Swanbeck breaks off and turns to a somewhat battered and battle
     weary Ethan:

                                SWANBECK (cont'd)
                - since it appears that Chimera, the
                mother of all nightmares is on the loose
                somewhere around here - is there any way
                this disaster can be viewed as a qualified
                one?

                                ETHAN
                        (tight-lipped)
                Not yet.  We did manage to pull any
                sensitive equipment and material out of
                our safehouse wreckage.

                                SWANBECK
                We could lock down passport control and
                all ports of authority, but that won't
                stop Ambrose, and beyond him, we don't
                know who else we're looking for -- all 
                terrorist bank accounts of which we're
                aware are stable.  No deposits, no
                withdrawals.  Therefore no suspects.

                                ETHAN
                We think we've got our finger on the 
                buyer.

                                SWANBECK
                Do you?  Even assuming you're able to
                prevent Ambrose selling Chimera, you've
                now got an additional problem.  You
                destroyed all of Chimera at Biocyte.  If
                Ambrose is going to sell Chimera now,
                he'll have to do it by taking a pint or so
                of Miss Hall's blood to market.

                                ETHAN
                Yes, I believe that's right.

                                SWANBECK
                But that leaves another seven or eight
                pints of Chimera.

                                ETHAN
                You mean that leaves Miss Hall.

                                SWANBECK
                Yes, I believe that's right.  Now my
                understanding is that 20 hours after
                exposure, the victim becomes infectious.
                Highly infectious.

     Ethan glances at his chronometer.  Swanbeck sees it.

                                SWANBECK (CONT'D)
                You noted the time of exposure?

     Ethan nods.

                                SWANBECK (CONT'D)
                - good.  Then if you manage to get hold of
                Ambrose, and obtain what he's got, you've
                got -
                        (glancing at the chronometer)
                - 8 hours 57 minutes and twenty-three
                seconds to destroy the largest remaining
                source of Chimera on earth.

                                ETHAN
                She sacrificed herself..

                                SWANBECK
                Brave girl.  If you can get hold of
                Bellerophon with the time limit, you may
                spare her the ultimate sacrifice.  But in
                either case you've got less than nine
                hours to kill her or cure her.  After that
                it's out of our hands and a matter of
                worldwide material law.  And Hunt.  However
                you obtain it, we want you to preserve a
                sample of Chimera.  Bring it back alive.

     Ethan's staring at Swanbeck.

                                SWANBECK (CONT'D)
                Something else?

                                ETHAN
                Aren't you even curious?  About why she
                did it?

                                SWANBECK
                No.  I can't afford to be curious.  And
                neither can you, Hunt..

     As the eerie wail of the didgeridoo seems to mount in volume and
     intensity, the overcast sky filtering into the loft seems
     particularly oppressive.  Ethan's up against it and he knows it.

     A VIEW OF SYDNEY

     from harbors to skyline in all its sunlight splendor.

     Nyah sits for a moment, looking steadily at Ambrose.  Ambrose pats
     the cannister he's carrying.

                                AMBROSE
                Feel like pleading for your life?

                                NYAH
                        (with an edge)
                Not as much as you feel like hearing it.

     Ambrose slaps her.  With scarcely a flicker of hesitation she
     slaps him back.

                                AMBROSE
                God damn it, Nyah!  Why did you do it?  Why
                did you save that bastard?

                                NYAH
                If it'll make you feel any better I won't
                do it again.

     It doesn't.  Full of pain and rage, he gets out of the car.

                                AMBROSE
                If it'll make you feel any better, you're
                going to take a lot of Aussies with you
                and make me a lot of money.

                                NYAH
                What are you talking about?

                                AMBROSE
                In just a few hours you can be assured of
                going down in history as the typhoid Mary
                of Oz.  G'day.

     A nameless guard from Michael's car idling nearby gets into the
     back seat with Nyah.  Ambrose shuts the car door in Nyah's face,
     gets in Michael's car takes off.

     EXT/INT - IMF HELICOPTER - BLUFF

                                ETHAN
                Luther?..Luther.

     Luther drops a tiny part into his computer board and, as he tries
     to fish it out with the aid of a magnifying glass:

                                LUTHER
                Ethan, I keep telling you there's not a 
                chance of locating Nyah til I access the
                satellite and there's not a chance of
                doing that til I get this thing booted up
                and running!  How much time does she have left?

                                ETHAN
                Ninety-seven minutes, twenty-seven
                seconds.

                                BILLY
                Before we kill her or cure her..

                                LUTHER
                Right.

                                ETHAN
                Wrong.  All we've got to worry about is
                Ambrose.  Nyah will take care of Nyah.

                                BILLY
                What are you talking about?

                                ETHAN
                Unless we dose her with Bellerophon on the
                next ninety-seven minutes, Nyah will kill
                herself.  So, first things, first.
                Swanbeck said there's no cash movement
                from any monitored terrorist accounts.

     EXT - BEAR ISLAND CAR PARK

     McCloy's black limousine is in the car park.

                                ETHAN'S VOICE
                Confirms what Ambrose is gonna do -

     INT - TUNNEL - BEAR ISLAND

     Barrels of toxic materials line the walls, as an armed guard 
     patrols the corridor, leading into the main chamber, where we
     follow McCloy into

     INT - SLABHOUSE

     McCloy enters and begins pacing.

                                ETHAN'S VOICE (CONT'D)
                - who he's doing it with, and where he's
                gonna do it.

     EXT - MOTORCYCLE AND LINE OF VEHICLES (DAY)

     speed along an isolated road in close formation before turning
     onto a side road, revealed as leading to a bridge across a small
     strip of water to a small island.

     EXT - BEAR ISLAND - LANDWARD SIDE (DAY)

     As the cycles and vehicles cross the bridge and approach the
     front gate, the camera swings around the side of the island
     establishing the geography and the six cannon emplacements
     before coming to a stop on

     EXT - BEAR ISLAND - SEAWARD CLIFF - ETHAN

     scaling the seaward side of the island with minimal gear
			
     EXT/INT - IMF HELICOPTER - BLUFF

     resting like a giant locust, half hidden by a cluster of trees on
     the bluff overlooking Bear Island.

     Billy's at the controls, with binoculars, maintaining
     surveillance of the island and environs.

     In the back, Luther is at Work on his GPS computer.

                                BILLY'S VOICE
                Ethan's out from under the bridge and on
                the south-east face..

     EXT - CLIFF/VIEW OF TUNNEL

     Ethan climbs the side of the cliff.        

                                BILLY'S VOICE
                Ethan, Ambrose and his tem have
                over the bridge -

                                ETHAN
                Copy that.

     Ethan reaches the clifftop and sees armed guards patrolling.

                                BILLY'S VOICE
                You all right, mate?  From here it looks
                like very security.  What's it look like 
                like from there?

                                ETHAN
                Risky.

     He's over the top and moves swiftly to cover.

     Ethan surprises and kills a perimeter guard, then runs to a
     length of grating and lifts one of the panels.

     Ethan climbs down through the grating in the roof of the tunnel.
     Using a bar to swing down, he breaks a second guard's neck and
     drops to the floor.
        
     EXT - BEAR ISLAND - ENTRANCE (DAY)

     Ambrose and team drive through the entry gate -- passing its
     BIOCYTE PHARMACEUTICALS sign and various no-nonsense warnings of
     'No Trespassing,' etc. -- before Biocyte security guards close it
     behind them.

     INT - TUNNEL - NEAR THE GRATING

                                ETHAN
                Breached the structure at the ten o'clock
                grating.  In the tunnel moving toward the
                target.

     Ethan begins heading down the tunnel.

     INT - SLABHOUSE BUILDING

     Ambrose and team enter, where McCloy and his CHEMIST and
     ACCOUNTANT are waiting.  As Stamp stands back, observing, and
     Wallis sets up a laptop, Ambrose walks up to a refectory-like
     table and stands opposite McCloy.  Ambrose reaches into his coat
     and puts two cannisters on the table in front of McCloy.  McCloy's
     chemist picks up the cannisters and inserts them into two
     chambers connected to his microscope.

                                CHEMIST
                It's a DNA match.  The blood's loaded with
                Chimera.

     An insert of the microscope plate shows the two samples, as
     Bellerophen destroys Chimera.

     The chemist presses a button on the chamber and there's a heat
     flash.  The chamber red light moves to green, and there's a 
     mechanical voice: 'Substance destroyed.'

                                CHEMIST (cont'd)
                And they certainly have Bellerophen.

     The Kev cannister is out on the table.

                                MCCLOY
                Well, then.  You've got both the virus and
                the anti-virus, Chimera and Bellerophen.
                Which means I've thirty million for
                you

     Ambrose doesn't respond.

                                MCCLOY (cont'd)
                That's all the cash I can come up with

                                AMBROSE
                Not exactly.  Wallis?

                                WALLIS
                        (off Biocyte figures on laptop)
                More like two-two point two million.

                                AMBROSE
                In any case we don't want your cash.

                                MCCLOY
                Then what do you want?

     Ambrose picks up a mobile phone and dials.

                                AMBROSE
                Stock, Mr. McCloy.  Stock options, to be a
                little more precise..
                        (into the phone)
                - cut her loose..right in the center of
                town..the more crowded the better..
                        (punching off, to McCloy)
                How quickly can you manufacture more of
                the antivirus.

     INT - TUNNEL - CAVITY IN THE WALL

     As he moves along the tunnel, Ethan suddenly flattens himself
     against a wall as he receives a transmission from Luther.
        
                                LUTHER'S VOICE
                Ethan, just picked up an Ambrose call -
                Nyah's been dropped off.  I think she's
                alive.

                                ETHAN
                Where is she?

     EXT - HELICOPTER - BLUFF

                                LUTHER
                Somewhere in Sydney.

     INT - TUNNEL - CAVITY IN THE WALL

     Ethan hears something and ducks into a nearby cavity in the
     tunnel wall.  As a guard approaches, Ethan steps out of the
     cavity and knocks the guard out, then throws him into the
     opposite wall.

                                LUTHER'S VOICE
                Ethan?  Do you copy?

                                ETHAN'S VOICE
                'Somewhere in Sydney?'  Care to harden the
                target?

                                LUTHER'S VOICE
                Can't.  Until I can get the GPS up on our
                computer..it's still down..

                                ETHAN
                The clock is ticking..

     Back to the matter at hand, Ethan completes the move on the 
     guard and knocks him out.

     INT - SLABHOUSE

                                MCCLOY
                Bellerophen?  No time at all once I've got it.

                                AMBROSE
                Good.  Biocyte stock is just a week or two
                away from going through the roof.

                                MCCLOY
                        (alarmed)
                What are you talking about?

                                AMBROSE
                An outbreak of Chimera.

                                MCCLOY
                Where?

                                AMBROSE
                In downtown Sydney for a start.

     McCloy is stunned.

                                AMBROSE (cont'd)
                You create the supply, Mr. McCloy, we've
                just created the demand.  Three million                
                people in Sydney and 17 million people in
                Australia are going to need Bellerophen
                within a matter of days..not to mention
                the rest of the world..

     INT - TUNNEL - OPEN AREA - ETHAN'S FEET

     stealthily approach a couple dozen jittery pigeons, cooing
     and pecking.  The intensity of their noise-making increases
     as Ethan reaches them.

     INT - TUNNEL - OUTSIDE OF THE SLABHOUSE ROOM DOORS

     Hearing the disruption of the pigeons, one of Ambrose's
     guards leaves his post at the double doors and head the 
     tunnel toward the birds to investigate.

     INT - TUNNEL - OPEN AREA

     Ambrose's guard draws his gun and continues approaching the
     pigeons.  Before the guard can see him, Ethan runs forward, and
     sends the pigeons into scattered flight, blinding the guard.
     Ethan jumps into a back flip and double kicks -- first knocking
     away the guard's gun and then knocking him out and flat on his
     back.  Ethan continues his flip and lands right back on his feet.

     INT - SLABHOUSE

                                AMBROSE
                -- now here's the way it's going to
                work..Wallis, the shares outstanding are..

                                WALLIS
                Ninety-three point four million.

                                AMBROSE 
                Which means, Mr. McCloy, we have to get
                our hands on four hundred and eighty
                thousand options.  We'll borrow your
                thirty million to buy those options.  Your
                stock's never sold above thirty-one
                dollars a share.  We'll agree to buy at
                fifty.  
			
                                AMBROSE (cont'd)
                When your stock goes north of two hundred, 
                and it will, those options will be worth 
                billions.  We can borrow whatever we need 
                to buy the 48,000,000 shares, fifty-one 
                percent of Biocyte.

                                MCCLOY
                Outrageous.  I won't let you take control
                of my company.

                                AMBROSE 
                Sit down.  You'll be a billionaire.  Better
                than being broke.  I've got terrorists and
                other pharmaceutical companies standing in
                line.  Ball's in your court, Mr. McCloy.

     INT - TUNNEL - OUTSIDE THE SLABHOUSE ROOM DOORS

     Ethan pulls a can of explosive material form his pack.  He
     rolls it towards the double doors, and it stops just before
     reaching them.  Then, pointing his gun to the ceiling, he 
     fires into the air.

     INT - SLABHOUSE ROOM - AMBROSE

     hears a noise and looks to Stamp, who heard it as well.
     Stamp nods to two guards to check it out.  They head across
     the room to the double doors.

     INT - TUNNEL - OUTSIDE THE SLABHOUSE ROOM DOORS - ETHAN

     waits for the right moment before raising his and firing
     at the can of explosives.  Just as it ignites, the guards
     open the doors and are blown back by force of the explosion.

     INT - SLABHOUSE ROOM - AMBROSE

     reacts and turns toward the explosion.  Amidst the flames and        
     debris, a single white dove comes flying into the room.  And
     beyond it, Ambrose can see Ethan Hunt in silhouette walking
     slowly past the doorway.

                                AMBROSE
                Run that bastard down.

     Orders are shouted, and guards, along with Stamp, hotfoot it down
     the tunnel-corridor in the direction of the explosion.

     INT - TUNNEL - STAMP AND GUARDS

     run down the tunnel.  The guards move commando-style, directed
     by Stamp's hand signals.

     INT - SLABHOUSE - MCCLOY AND AMBROSE

     Ambrose loads his gun and drags the tip of the barrel along the
     table.

                                AMBROSE
                We're running short on time, Mr. McCloy.
                We've got to conclude our business.

     McCloy pauses only a moment before nodding to his accountant.

                                MCCLOY
                Yes, start the transfer.

     The accountant begins working on his laptop.

                                AMBROSE
                        (to Wallis)
                Follow it.  Let me know.

     INT - TUNNEL - STAMP AND GUARDS

     pass a couple of doorways.  A pigeon flies past Stamp's face and
     he stops.  As he turn, Ethan Lowers himself from a hiding place
     in the ceiling.  Stamp and Ethan pull their guns on one another.
     They're in a face-off until they both agree to drop their guns,
     but Stamp catches his in mid-air and points it back at Ethan.

                                ETHAN
                You broke our deal.

                                STAMP
                You're too trusting.  Raise your hands
                slowly.

     As Ethan raises his hands, he pulls the pin on a grenade and then
     kicks it between Stamp's legs.  The handle flies off:  It's live.
     When Stamp looks down in surprise at the grenade, Ethan kicks out
     his gun.

     Trying to escape the grenade, Stamp smashes into Ethan and seems
     to have hit him in the jaw.  Both hit the ground as the grenade
     explodes, with Stamp appearing to have the upper hand.

     INT - SLABHOUSE

     As everyone waits for the transfer to complete, the grenade
     explodes out in the tunnel.  McCloy and his accountant freeze
     with alarm as a sprinkling of dust settles on the room.

                                AMBROSE
                        (to the accountant)
                Keep it going.

                                STAMP'S VOICE
                Sean, this rat's reached the end of the
                maze.

                                AMBROSE
                        (into walkie-talkie)
                Is he alive?

                                STAMP'S VOICE
                More or less.

                                AMBROSE
                Bring him to me.

     INT - HELICOPTER - BILLY AND LUTHER

     Luther has the GPS computer starting to access the satellite.

                                BILLY
                        (nervously)
                We're due to take off.

                                LUTHER
                Not for seven more minutes.

     INT - SLABHOUSE - WALLIS

     checking his computer screen, which shows the transfer has
     finished successfully.

                                WALLIS
                Sean.  Transfer complete.

     Stamp drags Ethan in, arms pinned with heavy tape.  Stamp
     Ethan look grimy as sandbags after a busy day of tunneling.

     Ambrose rises to examine his prize.

                                MCCLOY
                        (apprehensive)
                What exactly do you intend to do with him?

     Ambrose walks behind Ethan and kicks his knees out from under
     him.  Ethan falls to the floor.

     INT - HELICOPTER - BILLY AND LUTHER

                                LUTHER
                Ethan?  Ethan?  Do you copy?

     Luther hears nothing in response but while noise.  He looks to
     Billy and indicates there's no answer.

                                ETHAN
                Well, mate, maybe this is one of those
                times we shouldn't follow orders.

     EXT - HELICOPTER (DAY)

     the rotor blades turn over.

     INT - SLABHOUSE BUILDING (DAY)

                                AMBROSE
                        (to Ethan)
                What have you got to say for yourself.
                Hunt?  Any last words?

     Ethan appears as if he wants to respond, but can't.  Ambrose
     kicks him again.

                                AMBROSE (cont'd)
                Stop mumbling.

                                STAMP
                Afraid he's got no choice.  I believe I
                broke his jaw.

                                AMBROSE
                Hugh, I'm impressed..

     Ambrose has picked up a pair of Berettas, and is proceeding to
     load both full seventeen round clips.

                                MCCLOY
                        (anxiety mounting)
                What do you intend to do?

     Ambrose favors McCloy with a glance of genial exacerbation.

                                AMBROSE
                You needn't watch.

     FULL SHOT - HELICOPTER (DAY)

     rising off the golf green, and banking toward the island.

     INT - SLABHOUSE (DAY)

     Ambrose standing before Hunt with a pair of fully loaded
     Berettas.  The sound of the helicopter grows.

                                AMBROSE
                - right.  We don't have a lot of time,
                Hunt.  whatever you've got to say, say it
                now.

     Ethan indeed makes some considerable effort to speak but can only
     manage a few guttural, progressively desperate sounds which
     continue as:
        

                                AMBROSE (cont'd)
                Sorry mate, I can't understand a bloody
                word.  How about giving us a big smile to
                remember you by?
                        (hearing the helicopter)
                No?  Well, then.  This is what's known as
                getting your gun off.

     With that Ambrose empties thirty four rounds from the two
     Berettas into Ethan whose body jerks crazily on the floor.
     McCloy nearly faints, and Ambrose laughs at his squeamishness
     until something on Ethan's body catches his eye: the top of the
     little finger on the right hand is bleeding.  Ambrose grabs
     Ethan's face, and rips off a latex mask: revealing Stamp, eyes
     wide open and thoroughly lifeless.  His jaw, under the mask had
     been taped carefully close with the same heavy tape Ethan has
     used to mount the drain-pipe shotgun on the tunnel wall.

                                AMBROSE (cont'd)
                Bloody hell!

     He looks around, but Stamp is gone.  So is the cannister and
     kevlar vest that had been on the table moments before.

     EXT - BEAR ISLAND

     Ethan's on the motorcycle, heading toward the gates, which a pair
     of security guards are frantically trying to close.

     Billy and Luther in the copter are over the island, and bank so
     Luther can fire a grenade launcher and blow the back of Ambrose's
     boat.

     The guards close the gate, Ethan runs the motorcycle up the
     hillock and jumps the gate, over onto the bridge.  Ambrose follows
     in the SUV, crashing thru the gate.

     They race across the bridge and the road, onto the huge
     greensward opposite to and similar in shape to Bare Island.
     There, with the helicopter hovering, Ambrose manages to corner
     Ethan and after they expend whatever ammunition their weapons
     hold, they move into each other bare handed and engage in
     ferocious, no-holds-barred combat, the helicopter hovering low
     enough to keep away whatever's left of Ambrose's henchmen, the
     chopper's downdraft hitting them and flattening the grass around
     them.  Ethan prevails.

     A SPECTACULAR VIEW OF SYDNEY

     on bluffs overlooking the city.  Camera moves slowly to the top
     of the bluff.

     EXT/INT - IMF HELICOPTER (DAY)

     With Billy flying and Luther at the door, machine gun in
     hand, the copter nears the Bare Island gun pit and Ethan.

     EXT - BEAR ISLAND GUN PIT - ETHAN

     runs into the central 'hole' area, guns in both hands and
     wearing the kevlar vest.  He runs toward the walled edge of 
     the enclosure and jumps.  As he pulls himself up the top of
     the wall, he sees the IMF helicopter approaching.

     A gunman appears from the tunnel entrance and opens fire, the
     bullets exploding into the wall around Ethan, who jumps out
     of the way to avoid them.

     EXT/INT - IMF HELICOPTER

     is under fire as well, bullets spraying the windshield,
     driving Luther back inside and causing Billy to turn the
     chopper around.

                                BILLY
                Man at your six.

     EXT - BEAR ISLAND GUN PIT - ETHAN

     who rolls and returns fire at the gunman.  Ethan first hits
     the gunman in the leg, and then shoots and explodes the
     canisters behind the gunman, killing him.

                                ETHAN
                        (to Billy)
                The field of fire is too heavy.  Back off
                and pinpoint their positions.

     BEAR ISLAND HILL - MOTORCYCLE

     bearing down on him as he stands up.  Ethan just manages to
     dive out of its path before a second motorcycle comes up over
     the hill.  Ethan flips backwards and fires his pistol,
     shooting the second cyclist off his bike.

     The motorcycle flies over Ethan, who runs after it and jumps
     on, revving the throttle and taking off.

     BEAR ISLAND - PARKING AREA - AMBROSE

     deploys some of his men via walkie-talkie while others
     scramble into their cars.

                                AMBROSE
                        (into walkie-talkie)
                Hunt's heading for the bridge.  Coming in
                at twelve o'clock high.

     BEAR ISLAND BRIDGE

     A Gold Falcon with several of Ambrose's men inside enters the
     bridge from the mainland and speeds toward the island.

     EXT - BEAR ISLAND COMPLEX

     Ambrose's men exit the complex and get into their cars.

     BEAR ISLAND HILL - ETHAN

     crests a hill aboard the cycle, the IMF chopper in b.g.

                                ETHAN
                Clear that bridge for me.

                                LUTHER' VOICE
                Roger that.

                                BILLY'S VOICE
                They're tracking you on the left, Ethan.
                Prepare for some fire.

     BEAR ISLAND ROADWAY

     Michael's SUV and Wallis' sedan speed along as a gunman from the
     SUV fires on Ethan up the hill, spraying bullets around him.

     BEAR ISLAND BRIDGE - GOLD FALCON

     approaches the island.  Luther fires his grenade launcher.  It
     hits the Falcon's trunk, lifting its back wheel off the ground,
     but the Falcon keeps coming, its trunk ablaze.  Luther reloads as
     a gunman leans out the window, firing up at Ethan on the hill.

     BEAR ISLAND HILL - ETHAN

     lays on the cycle's throttle, accelerates down the hill and
     propels the bike into the air and off the island, just as
        
     EXT - IMF HELICOPTER - LUTHER

     again fires his grenade launcher, this time at the front of the
        
     BEAR ISLAND BRIDGE - GOLD FALCON

     on the bridge.  The grenade explodes at the front of the car
     and hurls the Falcon into the air and off the bridge.

     BEAR ISLAND - HILL/BRIDGE - ETHAN

     is in mid-air on the cycle, heading down toward the bridge.  Just
     as he lands, the Gold Falcon flies off the bridge, and Ethan
     speeds through the flames and off onto the mainland.

     BEAR ISLAND - BRIDGE

     Michael's SUV arrives and tears through the gate and flames,
     followed by Wallis' sedan and then Ambrose, riding a motorcycle.

     ROAD LEADING FROM BRIDGE - ETHAN

     races up the road to find a white Falcon approaching.

     The IMF chopper arrives and gunfire's exchanged.  Luther takes a
     hit in the shoulder and drops his gun as the chopper banks away.

     INT - HELICOPTER - LUTHER

     Luther grips his shoulder in pain and falls back into his seat,
     jarring the GPS computer.  It responds by beeping and coming to
     life.  Nyah's yellow dot pops up on the screen.

                                GPS COMPUTER
                The target is located.

                                LUTHER
                Ethan, the computer's up.  I've got Nyah.
                She's moved out of the city.

                                ETHAN
                Luther, say again.

                                LUTHER
                She's on the North Head Bluff - 
                approaching the cliffs.  One klick away.

     EXT - ROADWAY - ETHAN

                                ETHAN
                        (over increasing static)
                Copy.  She's only got twenty-eight minutes
                left.  Track ahead and pick her up.

     INT - IMF HELICOPTER 

     Luther bands his shoulder wound and monitors his GPS laptop.

                                LUTHER
                We won't be able to cover you.

     EXT - ROADWAY - ETHAN

     slightly slows the bike to concentrate over the static.

                                ETHAN
                You're breaking up.  Track ahead and pick her 
                up.  You've got me on GPS.  Bring her to me.

     Ethan pulls out and throws away the earpiece.

     INT - IMF HELICOPTER

                                LUTHER
                Billy, North Head.  Haul ass.

     EXT - ROADWAY

     Ethan heads downhill as the SUV approaches on an adjacent road.
     He pulls out in front of it, immediately drawing fire.  Without
     slowing, Ethan drops to the side his cycle for cover.

     INT - IMF HELICOPTER - LUTHER

     watches the GPS laptop as the chopper speeds over Sydney.

     EXT - ROADWAY - ETHAN AND WALLIS' SEDAN

     Wallis' sedan appears from an adjoining road and pulls in behind
     Ethan, who climbs back aboard his cycle.  Cut off, the SUV turns
     onto a side road to intercept Ethan.

                                WALLIS
                Get him.

                                ULRICH
                I can't get a good shot.

     Before an intersection, Ethan both revs and brakes, spinning the
     bike and creating a smoke screen.  Wallis' car enters the smoke.

                                ULRICH (cont'd)
                I can't see him, mate.  Slow down!

                                WALLIS
                Shut up.  I know what I'm doing.

     Wallis breaks hard, but not hard enough:  he stops just in the
     path of an oncoming 18-wheeler.  His car's demolished.

     EXT - ROADWAY - ETHAN AND SUV

     Ethan pulls out of the smoke as the SUV bursts out of the scrub
     behind him, striking the rear of the cycle.  Ethan puts his bike 
     into a spin and pulls his gun, ending up alongside the SUV
     passenger window.  He fires through the window, shooting both
     Michael and the bodyguard.

     The SUV veers off, crashing into a line of parked cars.  It hits
     the first car and flips up and over, landing upside down on
     several more parked cars.  Ethan speeds off on his smoking cycle.
     Ambrose arrives and then takes a side road.

     INT - IMF HELICOPTER - LUTHER

     working on his GPS laptop.  The range -- ie, the distance from
     the moving copter to the yellow dot, Nyah, on the edge of the
     screen -- is reduced to about two kilometers.
                                
                                LUTHER
                        (to Billy)
                Range is two kay.
                                
                                BILLY
                I hope there's a place to land.

     Luther looks up from the screen to see the bluff of North Head at
     the entrance to Sydney's harbor.

     EXT - THREE-LINED ROADWAY - ETHAN

     tearing down the road, when suddenly from a side trail Ambrose
     pulls out behind him and begins firing.  Ethan weaves to avoid
     Ambrose's fire and passes a car, pulling in front of it for
     cover.  The car skids, forcing Ambrose to veer around it.

     FROM COPTER TO GROUND (MOVING)

     rapidly approaching the North Head bluff.

                                BILLY
                There she is.  I got visual.

                                LUTHER
                We're down to seven minutes 23 seconds..

     HIGH ANGLE - NORTH HEAD

     moving up behind Nyah who is walking purposefully to the edge of
     the bluff and a precipitous drop to rocks and surf a hundred and 
     fifty feet below.

     Camera drops to Nyah's shoulder level and moves with her to the
     bluff's edge.  As she's just a few steps away from stepping
     off, there's a roar and the helicopter rises into the shot,
     before her wild-eyed Billy gesturing, 'Stop!  Stop!' to Nyah.

     EXT - ROADWAY

     Ethan passes narrowly between a car and oncoming truck.  Ambrose
     follows as soon as the truck clears.  Ethan fires backward using 
     his side-view mirror to aim, exploding Ambrose's windscreen.
     Ambrose skids until his wheel clips a rock, knocking him upright.

     Ethan turns into a side road and speeds through open scrub.  Back
     on the main road, Ambrose roars off to intercept Ethan.

     EXT - CLIFFTOP - ROCK LEDGE

     On a clifftop clearing, Ethan races along as Ambrose moves to cut
     him off.  They head toward one another.

                                LUTHER'S VOICE
                Ethan, we've got her.  Tracking to you now.
                We're reading 5 minutes 19 seconds.

     EXT - CLIFFTOP - CLEARING

     Ethan and Ambrose round a bend and face one another.  Without
     hesitating, they charge towards each other.  As they near one
     another, each leaps forward and off his bike, and they collide
     hard in mid-air.  They fall to the ground fighting as their bikes
     skid and Ethan's explodes, raining debris upon them.

     Ethan and Ambrose rush towards one another.  Ethan flips Ambrose
     to the ground.  Ambrose pulls a gun from his ankle holster.  As
     Ethan knocks it away, he loses his own gun and they both fall off
     a 30-foot cliff.

     INT - IMF HELICOPTER

     at top speed over Sydney.  Nyah appears weak and shivers.

                                LUTHER
                        (to Billy)
                Bearing two one zero.  About 3 klicks.
                        (into microphone)
                Ethan, we're moments away..

     EXT - CLIFFTOP - CLEARING - FIGHT

     Ethan and Ambrose rise from the fall.  Ethan jumps up and sweeps
     Ambrose, dropping him to the ground.  Ethan begins strangling
     Ambrose but gets knocked off, and when they both stand, Ambrose
     gets Ethan in a choke hold.

     Ambrose hits him and grabs a rock and hits Ethan in the
     midsection and the face.  Ethan kicks it out of his hand and
     connects with several punches, knocking Ambrose to the ground.

     Kneeling, Ambrose pulls a knife from a boot holster and cuts
     Ethan across the back and face.  Ambrose dives on Ethan and the
     knife is poised above Ethan's eye before Ethan grabs the knife
     and clears, holding it out toward Ambrose.

                                AMBROSE
                Go ahead.  Use it Hunt.  It's not a bad
                way to go.  A lot better than the way that
                bitch is going to die.

     Ambrose swings again and misses, and Ethan delivers a series of
     kicks, leaving Ambrose stunned and barely standing.  Ethan steps
     back, and with a running start, strikes Ambrose with a leaping
     kick that drops him to the ground and knock the knife out of his
     hand.

     EXT/INT - IMF HELICOPTER - CLIFFTOP

     As they approach in the distance, Billy, Luther and Nyah finally
     gain sight of Ethan in hand-to-hand combat.

     EXT - CLIFFTOP - CLEARING - FIGHT

     Ethan turns and walks away from Ambrose toward the cliff edge.
     The copter lands and Luther runs toward Ethan but pulls up,
     looking over Ethan's shoulder.  Ambrose has a gun aimed at        
     Ethan's back.

                                AMBROSE
                Hunt.  You should have killed me.

     Near Hunt's feet is his own gun, obscured from Ambrose's view by
     dust from the copter.  Ethan tosses the canister to Luther and
     then kicks his gun up out of the dirt and into the air.  He
     catches it, drops down and fires, killing Ambrose.

     EXT/ INT - HELICOPTER ON CLIFFTOP

     Ethan reaches Nyah at the copter.  Inches apart, they can only
     stare silently at one another.

     INT - CULTURAL MUSEUM

     Didgeridoo music.  A child admires a painting.  Swanbeck and Ethan
     face one another.  A long, long pause.  For a moment it appears as
     if Swanbeck has lost awareness of Ethan's presence.

                                SWANBECK
                Sorry, Ethan.  I don't quite know where to
                begin.  Any suggestions?

                                ETHAN
                You'd like me to conduct my own
                debriefing.

                                SWANBECK
                Why not?  You've done just about
                everything else on this operation.

                                ETHAN
                I'd thank you -- but I'm not sure that was
                a compliment.

                                SWANBECK
                Of course it was.  Anyone whose operations
                requires the level of disinformation that
                yours do, is bound to get a little flak
                here and there.  You try flogging the
                stories on CNN I've had to come up with
                about what's been going on around here the
                last few days.  At any rate, it's been
                most instructive -- what they'll swallow,
                or what they'll broadcast with a straight
                face.
                        (picking up a file)
                Miss Hall's blood, it appears, has
                absolutely no elements of the Chimera
                virus.  Not even antibodies.

                                ETHAN
                Yes, I gathered as much.

                                SWANBECK
                And the only other remaining sample was in
                the canister you recover from Ambrose.

                                ETHAN
                Yes.

                                SWANBECK
                And that appears to have been destroyed.
                It also contained the anti-virus,
                Bellerophon.

                                ETHAN
                Well, Bellerophon, it turns out, was only
                really effective against Chimera.

                                SWANBECK
                But you were under specific instructions
                to bring back a living sample of the
                Chimera virus.  I'd be very interested to
                know how, after you'd managed its recovery
                intact, it subsequently got destroyed.

                                ETHAN
                By fire.  That's the best way, really.


                                SWANBECK
                So you didn't fail mission, you simply
                changed it.

     Ethan doesn't respond.

                                SWANBECK (cont'd)
                It's no longer enough for you to execute
                and implement IMF policy, you now wish to
                go in the business of creating it?

                                ETHAN
                No, I don't.  But in this case -

                                SWANBECK
                In this case, it wasn't a bad idea.  In
                face, it was a pretty damn good idea.
                Just don't make a habit of it.  And, as for
                Ms. Hall, in light of her efforts, her
                criminal records will certainly be
                expunged.  I'm assuming you approve.

                                ETHAN
                I do.

                                SWANBECK
                Where is she now, by the way?  Do you
                know?

                                ETHAN
                I don't.  No exactly.

                                SWANBECK
                Well, Hunt, what are your plans?

                                ETHAN
                Not sure.  Some sort of vacation.  I'll
                let you know where I'm going.

                                SWANBECK
                Oh, you don't have to do that. Wouldn't 
                be a vacation if you did.

     Ethan and Swanbeck exchange one final, knowing glance.

                                SKY NEWSCASTER
                This incident in the wake of rumors
                suddenly surfacing about Mr. McCloy and 
                Biocyte's financial difficulties --
                including criminal allegations of insider 
                trading, embezzlement, conspiracy to
                commit fraud, and stock parking -- have,
                understandably, sent stock prices of the
                pharmaceutical company plummeting.

     EXT - SYDNEY (DAY)

     Ethan emerges to a very crowded street.  Billy and Luther are
     waiting.  Both look to Ethan.

                                LUTHER
                        (worried)
                So what did he say?

                                ETHAN
                Good job.  And thanks.

                                BILLY
                        (incredulous)
                That's it?  That's it? That's it?

                                LUTHER
                        (dryly, looking at Billy)
                And the check's in the mall.

                                BILLY
                Right.  Just remember, mates.  Billy
                Baird's the name.  Anything you need to
                get, move or watch, I'm your man.

     And Billy's gone.  Ethan and Luther remain alone, both reluctant
     to say anything, both reluctant to leave.

     One quick bear hug, then:

                                LUTHER
                Always nice hearing from you man.  Stay in 
                touch..

     And Luther's off.  Ethan looks after him, a bit wistfully.  Then,
     curiously tentative he moves off into the crowd.  After a half-
     dozen steps, something catches his eyes.  He stops.

     One quick bear hug, then:

                                NYAH
                        (a tad wary)
                Do you know me?

     NYAH

     is inches from him.  Without batting an eye.


                                ETHAN
                No.  Should I?

                                NYAH
                No.  You just looked as if you did.

                                ETHAN
                No...

     She wraps her arms around him and kisses him with considerable
     conviction.

                                ETHAN (cont'd)
                ...just as if I'd like to.

                                NYAH
                Oh.  Well..

     He kisses her with a conviction that is more than a match for
     hers.

                                NYAH (cont'd)
                ..I think that can be arranged.

     Looks around at the swirling crowd:

                                ETHAN
                Let's get lost.

     And in a moment they've vanished from the frame and into the
     crowd.  Camera begins to pull back, the bustling crowd ever
     filling the frame - and in the distance, perhaps, just a splash
     of a bouquet of flowers can be seen, appearing to bounce along on
     its own, the rising beat of the MI theme:

     BEGIN CREDITS:  IMF II - CHIMERA



   




