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ATLANTIS
GOLD - S.15
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SCENE
14 - PORT OF LISBON
SURVEY
OF NAZI U-BOAT LEADS TO DISCOVERY OF ANCIENT CIVILIZATION LOST
CITY OF ATLANTIS
Having
safely delivered the Astute class submarine to the port of
Lisbon, and officially notified NATO, Marine Accident
Investigation authority, John and his crew think it is safe to
return to the coast of Africa, where they noted the magnetic anomaly,
suspiciously in the shape of a sunken vessel, that he suspects
is a WWII submarine.
Knowing
that he is a target for MI6, having, to some extent, saved the
Terramentals from becoming one of the MOD's unexplained
incidents, John heads south to Casablanca, with a change of
course to Rabat, then hugs the coastline, still proceeding
south down the north African coast, to Safi, when he engages
stealth mode.
ECHOES OF AN EMPIRE
INT. ELIZABETH SWANN - BRIDGE - NIGHT
Night has swallowed the Atlantic in a velvet hush. The ELIZABETH SWANN creeps along the Moroccan coast, her hull riding low in STEALTH CONFIGURATION. From above, she's little more than a glintless shadow, her solar wings drooping well below horizontal to absorb errant starlight.
HAL’S (A.I. Voice) smooth tones fill the quiet bridge.
HAL
My false telemetry feeds orbital trackers an elaborate fiction: a supply vessel a thousand kilometers off course, and gaining.
Inside, the crew are quiet—focused. JOHN STORM (40s), DAN HAWK
(20s), CLEOPATRA (20s). They are returning to the anomaly.
John hadn't wanted to. Too many memories stirred in wrecked hulls. Too many lies tied to too much gold. He remembers the headlines from last time: STORM ACCUSED OF LOOTING MORGAN’S TREASURE. It didn't matter that he’d left every coin untouched. Truth had a way of drowning when gold was involved.
Still... the signal was too clear. Too compelling.
JOHN
(Softly)
Dan, standard sub-surface entry protocol. Low visibility. Wide beam sonar.
Dan grins, not looking up from his console.
DAN
Nautilus is ready, Skipper. She’s itching to stretch her fins.
Cleopatra, seated beside him, leans forward, eyes bright.
CLEOPATRA
What exactly are we looking for this time? Another scandal, or another secret?
JOHN
(Dryly)
Both. But let’s start with the shape that caught our eye last time.
EXT. OFF MOROCCAN COAST - UNDERWATER - DAY
Fifty klicks out, beneath a sullen sea, the ROV NAUTILUS slips into the deep. Its camera feed flickers, steadies, then paints the screen in ghost-light grayscale. Ridged seabed, clusters of basaltic rock... and there—again.
A distinct curvature, half-buried in a rocky escarpment.
INT. ELIZABETH SWANN - ROV CONTROL ROOM - CONTINUOUS
John leans forward, a low murmur escaping him.
JOHN
That’s her. German profile. Early ‘40s.
On screen, the U-BOAT is skewered across a jagged ledge, her pressure hull torn open like a metal ribcage. The wreck tells a violent story, blast marks from depth-charges. The explosion exposed the interior to water and time. Long-dead crewmen sleep amid rusted valves and silence, just bones.
Dan steers the ROV through a narrow rupture.
DAN
Bulkhead doors are open. No attempt to seal off compartments. They went down fast.
JOHN
(Exhales softly)
Merciful, at least.
The Nautilus pushes forward into what was once the forward torpedo bay.
CLEOPATRA
Oh.
She breathes the word, a quiet gasp. On screen, WOODEN CRATES are stacked three high. One has ruptured. Its contents gleam unmistakably under the ROV’s lamps—GOLD INGOTS, dusty but unblemished. Stamped with eagles. And SWASTIKAS.
DAN
(Shouting, nearly overturning his chair)
HOLY FUEL CELLS! Is that real?!
JOHN
(Voice thickened, but steady)
Steady. Remember Morgan’s gold. It’s never just gold.
Hal’s voice chimes in, smooth as smoke.
HAL
Shall I alert Mr. Franks again, Captain?
Dan and Cleopatra crack up, a burst of nervous laughter. John shakes his head, lips twitching.
JOHN
Sarcasm, Hal? A dangerous trait for a machine.
He clears his throat, hands tightening on the control interface.
JOHN
(Aloud)
That’s enough of that. Back her out.
Nautilus reverses, nose tilting slightly—and then pauses.
JOHN
(Sharply)
What’s that?
To port, outside the light cone, a low wall emerges. Angular. Not natural. Dan swings the beam toward it.
MASONRY. Worn, aged, unmistakably carved. Steps half-consumed by silt. A doorway. Beyond it... more.
Dan’s breath catches.
DAN
Skipper... we’ve got structures down here.
The camera climbs higher. A PLAZA reveals itself. PILLARS. FOUNTAINHEADS shaped like dolphins. Symbols etched into weathered sandstone.
A TEMPLE breaches the gloom, its arched roof broken, but its presence undeniable.
JOHN
(A whispered impossibility)
No way.
CLEOPATRA
(Eyes wide)
Could it be Alexandria? Or Carthage, maybe?
John shakes his head, disbelief warring with sudden, chilling recognition.
JOHN
This is west of Gibraltar. Beyond the Pillars of Hercules.... Plato.
Cleopatra turns to him, expectant.
CLEOPATRA
And?
JOHN
And that makes it older. A lot older. Six thousand years, maybe more.
Dan leans in, his voice barely a whisper.
DAN
Say it, Skip.
John stares at the crumbling majesty on the screen—an entire city wrapped in sand and silence. He doesn’t want to say it. It feels like inviting myth to lunch. But the architecture... the ocean-worship... the impossibility of it...
JOHN
(A low, reverent murmur)
Atlantis. If it ever existed... this is where it sank.
INT. ELIZABETH SWANN - BRIDGE - CONTINUOUS
The ELIZABETH SWANN peels away from the dive site like a whisper in reverse, her twin foils retracting as she banks eastward, deeper into stealth. The solar wings curl low, reducing signature reflection. The main ballast tanks begin to flood.
JOHN
(Hushed)
Hal, erase our shadow. I don’t want so much as a sonar hiccup left in the water.
HAL
Understood, Captain. Initiating oceanic trace obfuscation.
Hal pauses, then adds:
HAL
I recommend course scramble—six vectors within a grid to confuse any satellite motion-tracking AI.
JOHN
Do it. Let’s give the ghosts below something to chase that isn't us.
Dan sits hunched over the nav array, watching Hal’s deception routines play out in pulses and arcs across the screen.
DAN
We’re a phantom now. Off the charts. Literally.
John doesn’t reply. His eyes are on the aft display, the distant coordinates of the wreck site glowing faintly before flickering out—scrubbed from view.
Cleopatra enters the bridge, her long coat fluttering slightly with the ship’s internal ventilation.
CLEOPATRA
The ROV’s sealed and decon’s complete. Nothing tagged us. Nothing followed.
JOHN
That we can confirm. But don’t exhale yet.
Outside, the Swann tacks southwest, then hard north, a zigzag ballet that leaves no readable wake. Hal injects spoofed positions into maritime GPS nodes and floods satellite pings with dummy echoes.
Dan clutches his thermos, knuckles white.
DAN
Anyone else feel like we just ran a con on the whole ocean?
CLEOPATRA
(Evenly)
I feel like there are a lot of very powerful people who’d prefer what we saw stays buried.
John exhales through his nose, a grim satisfaction.
JOHN
Which means we didn’t just find Atlantis. We found leverage.
No one replies. There’s too much weight in the water behind them.
Only when Hal announces they are 120 nautical miles clear of the original dive site—and still undetected—does anyone exhale properly.
John stands, eyes hard with purpose.
JOHN
Time to change course again. Let’s vanish into our own story before someone else tries to write the ending.
SCENE
16 - TREASURE TROVE >>>>
PROPOSED
SCRIPT ORDER (90-110 pages) - V1.0 DRAFT
SCREENPLAY
ACT
1.
SCENE
1. PROTESTS - Peaceful
North Sea oil pollution protestors are framed and imprisoned,
by a corrupt judicial system.
SCENE
2. PREDATOR - On release the
Terramentals
& smuggler Jorges
Dicaprio, complete a
mini-sub capable of sinking submarines.
SCENE
3. PHOENIX - Terramentals
locate & hijack HMS Neptune in Irish
Sea, Cumbria, using the Predator mini-sub -
knocking out the crew.
SCENE
4. BRITISH PETROLEUM -
Terramentals warn North Sea rig operators to stop. Claymore
rig is torpedoed, Royal
Navy respond.
SCENE
5. BBC WORLD SERVICE - Jill Bird
reports Terramentals rig attacks, world shocked at pollution
cover up. Charley Temple investigates.
SCENE
6. UNEP SOS - The
UNEP ask John Storm to survey North Sea for oil pollution.
Elizabeth Swann detects HMS Neptune radiation leaks.
SCENE
7. RADIATION ALERT - John
& Dan twig radiation from
HMS Neptune possible serious reactor damage. Must warn Terramentals.
ACT 2.
SCENE
8. STEALTH MODE - Storm spots Astute sub, Swann
in stealth
mode, detected as John warns extremists of sub
radiation leakage.
SCENE
9. CHANGE OF COURSE -
Terramentals change course, heading for the
Straits of Gibraltar. Not believing radiation warning.
SCENE
10. U-BOAT 986 - Evading Swann, HMS Neptune navigates
off transport lanes. Swann picks up magnetic signature of U-Boat
986.
SCENE
11. SENATE, UK & EU DEBATE -
Sub
hijacking & rig destruction, alarm bells around world. Deepwater
Horizon shivers down
spines.
SCENE
12. REACTOR LEAK - Terramentals realise John
telling truth, as radiation rector damage detection system HMS Neptune triggers.
SCENE
13. RESCUE TOW - John rescues
Terramentals. MI6 order Neptune
sinking. MOD knew reactor dangerous, want evidence gone.
SCENE
14. LISBON PORT -
Terramentals & Storm, shut Neptune's reactor. Tow, stricken submarine
to Lisbon, prevent MI6 sinking evidence.
ACT
3.
SCENE
15. ROV ATLANTIS - Swann returns U-Boat stealth mode at night,
to avoid tracking. Surveys site,
discovers Atlantis & Nazi gold.
SCENE
16. TREASURE TROVE - John reveals gold find &
threatened. US Linc Truman support. PM, Ed
Thomas, &
Sealord, royal
support.
SCENE
17. BLUE SHIELD - Cleopatra
alerts Blue Shield, Newcastle
University, potential Atlantis find, suggests UNESCO
world heritage site.
SCENE
18. GOLDEN OFFER - Claimants
reward John U-Boat gold find. Agrees 1% cover costs 9% to Blue Shield surveys.
UNESCO grateful.
SCENE
19. GREEN MOBILITY - Galvanized
to action UK hit green H2 button, John gets grants low
income families, Jill
Bird, news item.
SCENE
20. IMO IS GO - The International Maritime
Org green
H2 & methanol,
certification. USA in. China India stay with coal,
gas
& oil.
SCENE
21. AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL - John & George
amnesty, pirate
caselaw & video proof set up. Harry & Johnson
charged treason.
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