The Mummy (2017) Rewrite: Act 1
Just for fun
Use the table of contents on the side to skip to new material. (Substack is telling me this is too long for email, but if there’s an issue, you’ll be provided a link to see the full post.)
EXT. IRAQ - DESERT - DAY
The sun blazes over rugged terrain. RAHEEM SAFAR (30s), a rugged and handsome Egyptian-American, scans the horizon. His eyes are sharp, focused. Beneath the cloak he wears as protection from the sun, we see flashes of an American military uniform.
Safar spots a series of tire tracks in the hard-packed sand. With a gesture, he signals for his horse, mounts, and rides off in pursuit.
He comes upon an abandoned truck with a busted axle. The back doors have been thrown open. Crates that could not be carried off litter the ground, shattered and splintered with gunfire.
Safar dismounts and sifts through the destruction, revealing ruined artifacts. His shirt is stained red. Blood drips from his side.
EXT. VILLAGE - DAY
In a ruined village, bodies lay where they fell, ignored by the PARAMILITARY FORCES who busily sets up both a defensive parameter and excavating equipment around a man-sized OPENING in the shattered tile of what was the village center. The hole reveals a dark chasm beneath.
A PRISONER, his wrists and legs shackled, stares into the void beneath him.
PRISONER
You have your location, VAIL. So what happens to me?
CAPTAIN CHRIS VAIL, ever cruel and cowardly, shoots the prisoner in the back of the head. Blood runs from the body and into the dark pit.
A LARGE SOLDIER watches with concern.
LARGE SOLDIER
What the hell is this place?
Safar’s voice calls out from his hiding place.
SAFAR
The world is full of sacred sites, Vail, both the holy and the cursed. You needn’t have come to this place.
VAIL
(Gestures for his men to fan out)
Still alive Raheem? Which one is this? Holy or cursed?
Vail moves out of the town square where he’s open and vulnerable.
SAFAR
Like most sites, I presume it’s both.
VAIL
(Tracks the village with his gun site, looking for movement)
Always the philosopher.
He OPENS FIRE. The other soldiers ANSWER HIS GUNFIRE WITH THEIR OWN.
At last he motions for them to hold. Rubble tumbles from the ruined buildings, into the street.
VAIL (CONT'D)
Tell me you’re dead.
SAFAR
I’m dead–or soon will be.
Safar steps out into town square, hands on his head. Bloodstains now darken half his body.
VAIL
You’ve looked better.
SAFAR
I swore you wouldn’t leave this land with its treasures.
Vail takes aim.
VAIL
Your oaths will mean nothing when you’re dead.
SAFAR
Oh, but they will. I called an airstrike on our position.
Vail turns to look into the sky. The SOUND OF A PLANE AND MISSILE. Soldiers flee. AN EXPLOSION rocks the village. THE TOWN SQUARE COLLAPSES, taking Safar with it..
EXT. COLLAPSING CRATER
Safar lands in a deep crater, amidst the sand and rubble, his body broken. As he dies, he stares up at a ONCE-BURIED IDOL, eyes of stone seemingly staring back. The sky above the idol ERUPTS WITH THE ROILING FIRE OF A SECOND EXPLOSION.
INT. MORGUE - NIGHT
DR. HENRY JEKYLL (40s), enigmatic and composed, examines a body on the slab. MALIK, his chief security officer, watches.
The body–bearded and professorial–is no one familiar to us.
DR. JEKYLL
We need a new archeologist. Find me an expert who’s down on his luck. Someone desperate.
MALIK
And if I can’t find anyone who matches that criteria?
DR. JEKYLL
Find the right man and pull the rug out from under him.
INT. SUBWAY CONSTRUCTION ZONE - DAY
The cavernous expanse of a half-built subway tunnel echoes with the sounds of machinery. Powerful LIGHTS illuminate the rugged, unfinished walls. DR. JENNY HALSEY (30s), determined and enthusiastic, leads her CREW through the bustling construction site. She wears a hard hat and carries a set of blueprints.
A BUREAUCRAT looking awkward and out-of-place follows at her heels.
BUREAUCRAT
Did you hear a word I said? They’ve cut your funding. This dig is over.
HALSEY
(raising her voice over the noise)
Everyone, gather round!
The CREW, clad in safety gear, pauses their work to listen. They exchange curious and eager glances.
HALSEY (CONT'D)
Today, we both make history and uncover it.
The crew nods, a few of them sharing EXCITED MURMURS. Halsey places the blueprints on a makeshift table and taps a specific spot.
HALSEY (CONT'D)
Eight years of study and research have led me to this spot. Today, we find a long-forgotten tomb of the crusaders, or it may never be found at all.
She points to a section of the wall that bears faint inscriptions, barely visible beneath decades of grime.
HALSEY (CONT'D)
Remember, precision is key. We don’t want to damage anything significant.
BUREAUCRAT
It’s too late for that, Doctor. You’ve significantly damaged your reputation already. The funding is gone. Your work is over.
HALSEY
The men and the equipment are paid for. The Board can strip away tomorrow, but today belongs to me!
The FOREMAN adjusts his helmet.
FOREMAN
We’re ready when you are, Dr. Halsey.
HALSEY
Forward unto the past, my friends.
The FOREMAN signals. The DRILL rumbles to life, its bit slowly approaching the marked spot on the wall.
Halsey watches intently, her excitement tempered by a scholar’s caution. The drill begins its work, sending VIBRATIONS through the tunnel.
The noise is a mix of GRINDING STONE and the RHYTHMIC PULSE of a modern-day excavation.
HALSEY (CONT'D)
(to herself, hopeful)
The future is forever uncertain. Only history is set.
Modern technology meets ancient stone. Dust billows from its blades. The light shifts, casting moving shadows across enigmatic inscriptions.
The drill punches through, into a hollow space beyond.
HALSEY (CONT'D)
Hold! Hold!
The drill pulls back. Its spinning blade slows.
INT. CRUSADER TOMB
Halsey, the foreman, and the bureaucrat step through the hole and cast flashlight beams across the pillared hall, revealing it to be a large crypt with stone CASKETS surrounding a central STATUE OF AN ANGEL standing guard, sword drawn.
The angel’s face resembles Raheem Safar.
BUREAUCRAT
Do you have any idea how much paperwork you’ve just generated? You’ve been defunded. That doesn’t just go away with a snap of the fingers.
HALSEY
You can tell the Board, the Crusader’s Tomb beneath London is no longer a myth. This is history, gentlemen! This is truth!
VOICES RAISE in an EXCITED COMMOTION outside the tomb.
The bureaucrat and the foreman look back.
Halsey walks deep into the tomb, exploring her find.
ARMED TROOPS, followed by OFFICIALS, flood in through the opening.
OFFICIAL
We’ll take it from here. Have your men evacuate the area. This is our site now.
EXT. LONDON STREET – DAY
Traffic passes before a mid-scale apartment building.
INT. HALLWAY
Carrying her rugged work bags, Halsey arrives at her door, key in hand. An ENVELOPE with her name on it is taped to the door. She stares at the envelope a beat, too tired, too hopeless to react.
She opens the door.
INT. APARTMENT
The furniture is gone, but there’s a few pieces of scattered debris left behind from the move.
Halsey drops her bags where she stands–half in the apartment, half in the hall–tears down the envelope and steps inside, leaving the door open behind her.
In the center of her living room, she stares at all that’s gone. The envelope drops from her fingers.
For a beat longer, nothing happens, then she works off her bra from inside her blouse. She pulls out a blanket from the closet and switches on a FIRE in the fireplace. From the small kitchen, she retrieves a bottle of WINE, a glass, and corkscrew and then plops down in front of the fire, pours herself a glass, and drinks as she mutters to herself.
HALSEY
My goddam crypt. My goddam crusader. My goddam dagger.
She pours herself another glass.
HALSEY (CONT’D)
My goddam furniture.
The door she never shut now swings open, catching her attention.
Malik stands in the doorway, surveying the scene and Halsey watches him, the glass frozen at her lips.
MALIK
This–this we didn’t do.
He brings her bags inside and closes the door behind him.
Halsey SMASHES the wine bottle against the fireplace and points its jagged end in his direction.
Malik pulls out a knife, picks up the envelope, and uses the blade to open it.
HALSEY
Making yourself at home?
MALIK
(Reading the letter)
That’s messed up.
HALSEY
Read it to me.
MALIK
Don’t you think maybe you should…?
HALSEY
What did he say?
MALIK
I’d rather not.
HALSEY
There’s nothing left to steal, and you’re not touching me without losing your face. Read!
MALIK
(reading)
You say you don’t want to be alone, but the truth is, you do. You’re content with your obsession until you come up for air, and that’s when I’m supposed to be available, waiting with love and nourishment and support, to help you replenish your wasted reserves so you can dive back in and give all of yourself to your work. I’m proud of you, Jenny, but I can’t be there for someone who can’t be there for me.
Halsey finishes her second glass.
HALSEY
Everyone wants you to be their vision of someone else.
MALIK
There’s nothing I can do to help with that. I’m sorry.
HALSEY
Whatever you’re after, you won’t find it here. I’ve got nothing to offer anyone. Not anymore. Just go.
MALIK
We’ve been following your work.
HALSEY
You don’t even know who I am.
MALIK
Dr. Jennifer Halsey, you may call me Malik. Your theories could prove significant, I’m told, not that I’m one to understand these things. Today, I’m an errand boy, and you are my errand.
HALSEY
I’m your what?
MALIK
We can put you back in charge, Dr. Halsey. Get you the recognition you deserve.
He motions to the door.
MALIK (CONT’D)
But first, my employer requires your services.
EXT. PRODIGIUM HEADQUARTERS - DAY
The immense building feels out of place and out of time.
INT. HALL OF THE HONORS
Dr. Jekyll as a WORKER as a new PHOTOGRAPH, honoring the dead. The bearded professional in the picture we may remember from the morgue.
Malik walks up beside Jekyll but gives him a moment in silence before…
MALIK
Did he stay dead?
JEKYLL
His body passed quarantine quite satisfactorily.
MALIK
Well, at least there’s that.
They walk off together, passing long rows, one above the other. Photographs of the dead.
JEKYLL
The new archeologist, he’s here?
MALIK
She is.
JEKYLL
Dr. Halsey?
MALIK
Dr. Jennifer Halsey.
JEKYLL
Is she up for this?
INT. LIBRARY
Halsey, waiting, startles at their entrance.
MALIK
(holding open the double set of doors as they continue their conversation)
Are there ever?
JEKYLL
Dr. Jennifer Halsey, I presume, renowned archeologist. Come to help us with our little problem?
HALSEY
I’m not entirely sure. Mr. Malik tells me you can restore me to my site.
JEKYLL
Yes, doctor. Every word. You scratch our back, we make your dreams come true, but first there is the matter of the itch. You’ve been to the Middle East? Iraq?
HALSEY
Iraq? No.
Jekyll flashes her a look.
HALSEY (CONT’D)
Israel. Beirut. Greece. Malta.
JEKYLL
Specialty?
HALSEY
The crusades.
JEKYLL
(Turning his gaze to Malik.)
Not Egypt?
HALSEY
I did my early work in Damietta and Pelusium.
JEKYLL
(Pleased.)
Pelusium. Where the Egyptians lost to the Persians.
HALSEY
About 1200 years after that. Medieval. The Byzantines and the Crusaders, turned back by Saladin.
JEKYLL
What if I told you that Ptolemy took apart an Egyptian holy place, holy in the sense that the Egyptians considered it cursed, and sent it to Seleucus in Persia, ostensibly as a peace offering but quietly hoping it would be his ruin?
HALSEY
I’ve never heard of such a thing.
JEKYLL
No one has, and no one outside these walls is mad enough to think such a thing possible.
HALSEY
Who are you, exactly? Mr. Malik never told me your name.
JEKYLL
There’s an American soldier outside of London awaiting transport. He may have seen this holy place. We’re going to talk to him before he leaves, and I want you to join us.
HALSEY
So you can pinpoint the location?
EXT. MILITARY MENTAL HOSPITAL - EVENING
A cold, impersonal building–repurposed.
JEKYLL (VO)
We know where the holy site is, but we need to be sure what it is. That’s where I’m hoping you can help us.
INT. HALLWAY APPROACHING CELL
Halsey and Malik are accompanied by a PSYCHIATRIST and two ORDERLIES.
Malik hands the psychiatrist an INJECTION GUN.
PSYCHIATRIST
This isn’t how things are done.
MALIK
The clearances are in order?
PSYCHIATRIST
Yes.
MALIK
Then this is what we’re doing.
The psychiatrist indicates the desired cell, and Halsey peers in through a window in the door.
INT. MAXIMUM SECURITY CELL
Within a barred cell that occupies the majority of the hospital room, sits Raheem Safar, uninjured but not the noble soul we met before. He senses their arrival, and with an unsettling smile looks to the window and rises from his bed.
SAFAR
My dear doctor, what tender morsel have you delivered?
Halsey steps out of view. The door opens and the psychiatrist enters as far as the yellow strip indicating safe distance.
PSYCHIATRIST
You have visitors, Mr. Safar.
The others file in. Safar breathes deep, smelling the change in the air.
SAFAR
Delicious.
(Focusing on Halsey.)
You reek of the tomb.
HALSEY
A hazard of the job.
SAFAR
I like it.
MALIK
We have questions about your time in Iraq.
SAFAR
(Drawing closer to Halsey)
I was born in that desert. A new man.
MALIK
We can restore your memory.
SAFAR
I remember death and the taste of flesh.
(He stirs the air and sniffs again.) (To Halsey.)
Your flavors arouse me.
PSYCHIATRIST
You will behave, Raheem.
SAFAR
There’s that name again.
HALSEY
What would you prefer to be called?
SAFAR
Setepenre-set.
HALSEY
(A beat–mentally interpreting)
The chosen one of Ra and Set.
Malik casts Halsey a startled look.
SAFAR
(Smiling)
Saviors of the world. (beat) I don’t want your shot, and I remember well enough, though they be the memories of another man.
(His attention falls fully upon Halsey)
What will be my bounty should I comply.
HALSEY
You’re due back in the States to stand trial for murder.
Safar closes his eyes and tastes his lip with his tongue.
MALIK
We can return you to your former self.
SAFAR
Such as loss that would be.
MALIK
Die as you are or as you were, come with us. Those are your options.
SAFAR
(Addressing only Halsey.)
Did they tell you what I did?
HALSEY
They did.
SAFAR
And you’d let them set me free?
MALIK
Not you. U.S. Army Sergeant Raheem Safar.
HALSEY
Tell me what you saw.
SAFAR
What I saw? As if eyes alone are enough to behold eternity. What I experienced, Doctor, is everything the heart of man has longed for since the moment of his creation. It is his delivery unto salvation.
HALSEY
Could you be more specific?
SAFAR
Specific? Like a specific Crusader’s tomb hidden beneath London?
Halsey shoots Malik a look. Malik shakes his head.
SAFAR (CONT’D)
Specific? Like the dagger of Apophis?
HALSEY
Who told you these things?
SAFAR
Ra rises when Apophis falls, but chaos cannot be forever restrained.
HALSEY
Tell me what you saw.
SAFAR
You can see it for yourself.
MALIK
She’s not coming with us.
SAFAR
She is now, or my knowledge dies with me.
MALIK
That’s not…
HALSEY
You’ll take the shot?
Safar bares his arm and presses against the space between the bars.
SAFAR
If you’re going, you can shoot me. I’ll kill anyone else who tries.
MALIK
No.
Halsey holds out her hand for the injection gun. The psychiatrist hands it to her.
HALSEY
What did you see?
SAFAR
The temple of the serpent of chaos.
HALSEY
I’ll go.
She shoots Safar in the arm and stands back as he transforms from the lurid, hateful creature of moments before to the soldier he once was. He stares at those before him, first one and then the other, as if searching for answers–for hope.
SAFAR
(soft and trembling)
We’re damned. All of us.
INT. DR. JEKYLL’S OFFICE - EVENING
A KNOCK interrupts Jekyll as he holds and ponders what appears to be a VAMPIRE SKULL.
The last light of the day streams red through the windows, and with a SIGH, Jekyll extends his hand into the light. The skull disintegrates into a wisp of gray ash.
There was only the one knock, and now Jekyll brushes clean his hands and answers.
JEKYLL
Come.
Malik opens the door; Halsey barges past him.
HALSEY
Someone has got to start giving me answers.
Malik exits, closing the door behind him.
JEKYLL
I understand you’ve invited yourself to our little outing..
HALSEY
Who are you?
JEKYLL
Me in particular or us in general? I can give you names. We are known as the Prodigium. A warning. Beware.
HALSEY
Of what? You?
JEKYLL
The name, Dr. Halsey. That’s what we are. A warning. Monstrum vel prodigium. “Beware of monsters.”
HALSEY
The Sergeant. Is he one of your monsters?
JEKYLL
We all have that capacity within us. Are you religious? I am. (beat) Was. (beat) I suppose I still must be. (beat) The nature of evil unsettled my religious convictions, but not like most, I suppose. I understood why evil existed. I’d come to terms with God’s innaction in the face of it. No, what bothered me was the deeply unspiritual nature of the psychopath. It’s a neurological defect, an absence of the empathy that makes a human. In such a case, good and evil are not a choice of the soul but a biological switch, one which could be replicated.
HALSEY
You thought you could cure psychopathy.
JEKYLL
In some cases, I have. The natural psychopath remains beyond my reach, but empathy can be taken from us, like a viral infection. For that I have a cure. It must be maintained in daily injections across a lifetime, but a cure nonetheless. You witnessed it for yourself today.
HALSEY
They say he killed and ate his victims.
JEKYLL
He did.
HALSEY
And that was a virus?
JEKYLL
Infection is accurate. The virus is metaphorical. I tested my work on a dozen men sentenced to die with no effect, but one subject has signs of a transmitted psychopathy, one t transmitted instead of innate, and it was then that I proved such an infection could be controlled.
HALSEY
What signs? How could you possibly know?
JEKYLL
The only way I couldv know. I was the subject. The name is Jekyll. Dr. Henry Jekyll. Our work here is the nature of evil–the abyss itself, with all that entails. I’ve approached this work with eyes open. Now, tell me that you aren’t taking this next step blindly.
HALSEY
Sargeant Safar. He knows my hopes regarding the excavation, hopes I’ve never spoken aloud or written down. The dagger of Apophis is presumed a myth, like the Holy Grail–or UNholy, in this particular instance. I’ve told no one my theories that the crusaders the dagger to London and buried it in that tomb.
JEKYLL
But he knew? What do you suspect? Was he toying with you, using your most secret desire, or was he truly interested in the artifact?
HALSEY
I don’t know.
JEKYLL
Interesting. I’m tempted to send you with them, but if you stay, we’ll bring the dagger here–where it’s safe. You can study it to your heart’s content.
HALSEY
And if I go? What becomes of the dagger then?
JEKYLL
It will be here, waiting for you, should you return.
EXT. PRODIGIUM HEADQUARTERS - NIGHT
Malik and Halsey exit the building as a CHAUFFEURED CAR pulls up to the curb.
INT. CHAUFFERED CAR
Malik and Halsey ride in silence.
EXT. CHAUFFERED CAR
They pass through scenic London.
EXT. HALSEY’S APARTMENT BUILDING
The car waits, dark and quiet, at the curb.
INT. HALSEY’S APARTMENT–MAIN ROOM
The door opens to a dark and empty living room. Halsey enters. Malik stands at the door.
MALIK
You made the right choice.
Halsey opens her bedroom door.
INT. BEDROOM
Halsey SWITCHES ON THE LIGHT. The furniture in the room remains, but two drawers are half pulled out and empty. The closet doors hang open, revealing one side is full, the other, empty.
She throws her jacket on the bed, from which we linger our viewpoint as she lingers at the bedroom door staring at her lover’s absence. Malik lingers near the hallway door, almost out sight.
MALIK (CONT’D)
You’ve got your site back.
HALSEY
But Jekyll gets the dagger.
JEKYLL
You get the dagger in our safe keeping. It’s dangerous out there. People did over baubles every day.
HALSEY
It’s not a bauble.
MALIK
They’re all baubles, no matter what we pretend.
HALSEY
Am I safe?
MALIK
I think so. Now. You made the safe choice.
Halsey walks further into the main room, away from us.
INT. MAIN ROOM
Halsey plucks a piece of paper from the floor and studies it, quietly.
MALIK
Read it to me?
HALSEY
(Reading)
You’re content with your obsession until you come up for air, and that’s when I’m supposed to be available…
MALIK
Great men– great people accomplish great things because they’re obsessed. The right people understand that.
HALSEY
He wanted to be that obsession. I suppose we all do.
MALIK
Bullshit. I can’t see you longing to be some man’s obsession. You need a partner who’s willing to share you with your purpose, someone who has a purpose of his own. The two of you will go out into the world to do great things, separately, and find each other to recharge.
HALSEY
By some miracle of timing?
MALIK
You plan your time for getting lost and for being found.
HALSEY
Is that what you do?
MALIK
Maybe I’m not the one to be giving advice.
HALSEY
You did okay.
MALIK
It’s late and that plane leaves at first light.
HALSEY
Thank you for making sure I’m okay.
MALIK
Are you okay?
HALSEY
I will be.
Malik gives her a parting smile and closes the door behind him..
EXT. SKY–MORNING
A FEMININE FORM hovers effortlessly, silhouetted by the MOON.
POV – EXT. HALSEY’S APARTMENT BUILDING
The bedroom goes dark.
INT. BEDROOM–MORNING
Halsey blinks awake in the darkness of early morning. At her window, first light breaks.
INT. CRUSADER TOMB–DAY
Alone, Halsey steps through the hole she’d previously knocked in the wall and casts a flashlight beam across the pillared hall, revealing LIGHTS and other EQUIPMENT that’s been set up in her absence. She turns on the light.
Stone caskets surrounding a central statue of an angel. The angel stands guard, sword drawn. His face resembles Raheem Safar.
SAFAR (VO)
We’re damned. All of us.
HALSEY
Well. Shit.
Finally, she turns away from the familiar face to look about the awesome space surrounding her.
HALSEY (CONT’D)
(Addressing the statue)
You seemed to know so much. Any idea where I’d find the dagger.
Silence.
HALSEY (CONT’D)
Feel free to chime in anytime you want.
UNSEEN WOMAN (OS)
On every path, there are only blessings.
Halsey turns but finds no one.
UNSEEN WOMAN (OS, CONT’D)
Both for good and for evil.
HALSEY
Which are you?
UNSEEN WOMAN (OS)
Did they tell you what happened to their last archeologist?
HALSEY
Nothing good, I suppose.
UNSEEN WOMAN (OS)
These four thousand years, I’ve held back Apophis. Once you have the dagger, how long could you protect it? How long, the Prodigium after you?
HALSEY
Nonsense.
UNSEEN WOMAN (OS)
I’m not bound by your mortality.
HALSEY
Ptolemy moved the temple 2300 years ago. If you’re going to frighten me, at least get your facts straight.
UNSEEN WOMAN (OS)
My work began long before that pretender to the throne.
HALSEY
You let Ptolemy move the temple and the crusaders steal the dagger? Some guardian angel.
KEKET
I never called myself an angel.
An Egyptian woman steps into view, as if she’d hidden within the air itself. She is named for the goddess KEKET, and she is as tall and muscular as she is strong. Her clothes and appearance are ancient, and her lips betray hints of fangs when she speaks.
VOICES echo from outside the hole, in the subway construction zone.
HALSEY
(Bluffing)
That will be Dr. Jekyll. His men are trained to deal with your kind.
In an instant, Keket is beside her, baring Halsey’s throat, but she stops and sniffs the air.,
KEKET
You spoke the truth. (Smiles.) Allow me to show you his true nature.
JEKYLL (OS)
(An ongoing conversation)
You’re handy with the right tasks. Heavy lifting. Moving heavy things. Putting heavy things down again.
JEKYLL and a Black, female security officer, CHRISTIANA BEY, step through the hole, followed by other SECURITY OFFICERS.
BEY
You must consider us true renaissance men.
JEKYLL
More medieval, really, but there never was a hard distinction.
(He sees Keket.)
Demon!
Bey and the other officers respond without hesitation, drawing their WEAPONS and OPENING FIRE.
Halsey scrambles for cover.
Keket takes flight, simultaneously vanishing into the air.
Jekyll drops to his knees and opens his BAG.
JEKYLL
Buy me time!
Keket appears behind the man closest to Halsey and rips out his throat with her teeth. His GLOCK slides across the floor.
Halsey eyes the Glock, a few feet away. Reaching for it would mean losing her cover.
Jekyll swallows a PILL and switches out the VIAL on his INJECTION GUN.
Keket vanishes and reappears beside Bey. Bey spins, SPRAYING THE AIR WITH BULLETS. Keket vanishes.
Jekyll holds the injection gun to his throat.
Keket appears before him.
Halsey dives for the Glock. As Keket grabs for Jekyll, Halsey fires, BULLETS KICK UP DUST on the wall behind them.
Keket looks back at Halsey, annoyed.
Bey FIRES and hits Keket in the shoulder.
Keket vanishes, and Jekyll injects himself.
KEKET (OS)
The doctor’s ready for battle but you’ll find him liberal with his targets.
JEKYLL
I smell you, witch!
Halsey backs away, but her movement catches Jekyll’s attention. His eyes flash upon her.
Bey sprints after Halsey, her weapon trained on Jekyll. Together, the two women duck behind one of the caskets.
BEY
The demon’s not wrong, but sometimes, it takes a monster to catch one.
Jekyll leaps atop a casket.
JEKYLL
You reek of rot!
Bey grabs Halsey and pulls her along after her as she makes the run for the opening. The surviving men are already passing through.
Their movement captures Jekyll’s attention, and he leaps after them, like a wild cat.
They can’t cover the distance, but before he can reach them, Keket materializes on his back and SLAMS HIM INTO THE FLOOR.
Bey and Halsey escape through the hole.
INT. SUBWAY CONSTRUCTION ZONE
The men train their weapons on the women as they emerge.
BEY
Hold your fire! Hold your fire!
The men make room in their line, and Bey falls in with them, her weapon trained on the opening.
BEY (CONT’D)
(to Halsey)
Run and don’t stop until you reach the light.
HALSEY
Come with me.
BEY
The doctor will need us soon.
HALSEY
He’s a monster!
BEY
Not for long, and maybe not long enough. Run until you’re where the demon can’t reach you.
Halsey obeys and sprints out of the construction area and down a dark…
INT. SUBWAY TUNNEL
She looks behind her, drawn by the SOUND OF HER OWN FOOTSTEPS, ECHOING.
She stumbles but doesn’t fall. An unused Subway station awaits ahead, but from the shadowed tunnel on the other side of the station, Keket steps out into the light.
Halsey stops and they face each other across the distance.
HALSEY
What do you want from me? I’m not here to release Apophis. It was only meant to be a crusader’s tomb and a storied dagger, nothing more.
Instantly, Keket is before her.
KEKET
Jekyll would not come for any untainted artifact.
Keket places her hand and Halsey’s throat.
HALSEY
Safar saw the connection. Yesterday. He called it the dagger of Apophis. Jekyll wanted to protect the dagger, the others are going to the temple.
Keket withdraws her hand.
KEKET
Safar?
HALSEY
Setepenre-set.
KEKET
The one who carries that name is cursed. Not chosen of Ra but by Neferu, and if she is not awoken already, he will be the one to raise her from the dead.
HALSEY
(pleading)
If I can do anything…
KEKET
If he knows the purpose of the dagger, then Neferu will know its location, and the end has come.
HALSEY
I can help.
KEKET
Can you hold back chaos?
Halsey falls silent.
KEKET (CONT’D)
Kneel.
She places a hand on Halsey’s shoulder and guides her to her knees. Then she holds her own wrist to her mouth and bites. Drops of BLOOD fall to the cement floor.
KEKET (CONT’D)
When Queen Sobekneferu died, her daughter, Neferu, sought revenge upon those who killed her.
FLASHBACK–EXT. ITJ-TAWY–NIGHT
NEFERU, an Egyptian princess, fights alone against the FORCES of her mother’s successor, Sobekhotep. She wields DARK MAGIC, calling forth WISPY SHADOWS to strike at her command. On the horizon, a sandstorm grows.
KEKET (VO, CONT’D)
She called down APOPHIS to bring the world to emptiness and ruin.
INT. TEMPLE OF APOPHIS–DAY
A young and mortal Keket, along with SIX OTHER WOMEN enter the shadowed temple, carrying BURNING INCENSE BOWLS.
KEKET (CONT’D)
With her defeat, a weakened Egypt survived. We built a temple to secure her in death–
IPRESENT–INT. CRUSADER TOMB–DAY
She squeezes open Halsey's mouth and holds her bloodied hand high above her. A drop hits her chin.
KEKET (CONT’D)
–and seven priestesses sacrificed themselves to guard against her return.
Another drop lands on the outer edge of her bottom lip.
KEKET (CONT’D)
I am Keket, the seventh priestess of Set, guardian against the curse of Neferu, and today, you join our number. Together, we will kill the one called Setepenre-set before he awakens Neferu and brings the end of all things.
Halsey shudders and stares up at the bloodied wrist.
A BULLET CATCHES KEKET IN THE CHEST. GUNFIRE echoes through the tunnel. Keket vanishes.
Free of Keket’s hold, Halsey moves. The last drop splashes across her cheek.
And …
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