EXT. FOREST - NIGHT
SUPER: "Bavaria, West Germany, 1965"
A raven flies through the still night air, lets out a loud CAW, then lands on a tree branch, only to be flushed out by a young woman running frantically through the forest. She is MYSTIQUE in her human form, in her late 20s, wearing a long tattered white dress and carrying a CRYING BABY.
She pauses for a moment, panting and sobbing, holding the child close to her and trying to shush him. Her gorgeous face is smeared with dirt and tears, her once elegant dress is torn and bloody. The child is swaddled tightly in a ragged blanket.
There's a GUNSHOT. A MOB YELLS off in the distance.
She takes off again.
EXT. DARKHOLME ESTATE - NIGHT
An angry mob gathers around a house carrying torches and SHOUTING in fear and anger.
INT. DARKHOLME ESTATE - DINING ROOM - NIGHT
The kitchen is completely dark save for the fire of the torches outside. The mob BANGS on the doors and throw rocks at the windows. Some have already been broken. The servants inside rush around in fearful chaos, trying to save the furniture and dishes from the catapulted rocks, some using them as shields instead.
A maid carries an enormous vase past the windows and a rock CRASHES through, SMASHING the vase to pieces. She SCREAMS in fear and runs.
PARLOUR OF DARKHOLME ESTATE
Only one lamp is lit. Next to the fireplace, the parish PRIEST, a thin, wiry, angry looking man in his late 50s with disheveled hair shakily loads ammunition into a shotgun. A younger man, BARON KRISTIAN DARKHOLME, early 30's, with an equally disheveled yet gentler expression, comes through the doors behind him. He closes and bolts them, then anxiously grabs the priest's shoulder, but he shrugs him off.
NOTE: The Baron, priest, and mob speak in German with English subtitles, unless otherwise noted.
BARON DARKHOLME:
Father, I must beg you to think about what you're doing! You cannot possibly believe in this superstitious- you are a man of the cloth!
PRIEST:
You saw her! She changed shape right before my eyes! Before your eyes! Of everyone in the village,
you must see what's happening here. Unless...
He turns to Baron Darkholme with suspicion.
PRIEST:
...you have already seen it. Unless you already knew what she was!
BARON DARKHOLME:
I had no idea! But she is not some kind of demon!
PRIEST:
Then what would you call the thing she gave birth to? She and... that creature... are not human. Whatever she is, the village will not be at peace until they are dead.
BARON DARKHOLME:
She is my wife, Father! My wife! I cannot account for the child but...
The priest comes face to face suddenly with Darkholme with a concentrated hatred that should be reserved for convicted felons.
PRIEST:
Listen to me, Kristian. I have known you since you were born. I baptized you in this parish. But you cannot deny the work of Satan is afoot here. The village is ready to burn you along with whatever it is you were married to. If you do not help us find this witch and her spawn...
He grabs a gun off the mantelpiece, checks it for ammunition,
and shoves it into the Baron's hands.
PRIEST:
Then I will not be able to account for the villager's actions. Do you understand?
He opens the door to the angry mob. Baron Darkholme follows him outside.
EXT. LAWN OF THE DARKHOLME ESTATE - NIGHT
The priest stands on the high steps of the estate entrance and looks out at the mob, made of dozens of frantic, SHOUTING people. He raises his hand in the air and the mob stops its shouting, SHUSHING its other members to hear the priest speak.
PRIEST:
Attention everyone! Herr Darkholme has agreed to help us in our search!
The mob CHEERS. Baron Darkholme looks down at the gun in his hands.
PRIEST: (CONT'D)
We will form three search parties. One will take the East, one the West, and one the South. She won't get very far if she goes North,
there are already people there to meet her if she tries to cross the bridge. Spread out!
As the mob takes off in all directions, the priest begins heading South. Baron Darkholme starts to follow, then runs North. The priest happens to turn and see him. He follows Baron Darkholme into the night.
EXT. FOREST - NIGHT
Mystique crashes through the brush PANTING in terror, still in her human form and carrying her BABY. She pauses to catch her breath, then sees an old abandoned farm house. She pushes open the door and-
INT. ABANDONED FARM HOUSE - CONTINUOUS
A hand from O.S. covers her mouth before she can scream.
BARON DARKHOLME: (O.S.)
(In English)
It's me.
Mystique uncovers his hand from her mouth and reveals Baron Darkholme hiding behind the door. Mystique transforms into her blue scaled, yellow eyed form, still covered by the tattered white dress. She notices the gun in his hand.
MYSTIQUE: (In English)
What... are you here to kill me?
BARON DARKHOLME:
You can't stay here. Go to the bridge. I can buy you some time.
MYSTIQUE:
This is a trap.
BARON DARKHOLME:
No!
MYSTIQUE:
You'll kill me as soon as I turn my back, I know it. You're in with the villagers! Leave me alone!
Darkholme grabs Mystique and shakes her a bit with the force of his grip.
BARON DARKHOLME:
You don't understand! Those people... they're going to kill me too if they don't find you! Or...
MYSTIQUE:
Or what?
BARON DARKHOLME:
Or him.
He motions to the baby.
BARON DARKHOLME: I have a plan. If we do this then... at least the two of us could make it out of here alive.
Mystique stares in horror as the gist of his suggestion dawns on her.
MYSTIQUE:
No! I'd rather die!
BARON DARKHOLME:
Raven! Raven, please-
MYSTIQUE:
No! You coward! You'd rather let them kill a child-
BARON DARKHOLME:
They'll attack any man or woman with so much as a package in their arms! You will not make it out of here alive if you try to take him.
MYSTIQUE:
Let them kill me instead!
BARON DARKHOLME:
Who would raise him?
Mystique stares at him in defiance, then she realizes she has no answer and her eyes fill with tears.
MYSTIQUE:
There has to be some other way.
BARON DARKHOLME: (gently)
Give me the child, Raven.
She stares pleadingly into his eyes. He stares back with a stony expression. She bursts into tears and gingerly hands him the child.
BARON DARKHOLME:
Run.
EXT. FOREST - NIGHT
The priest TRAMPS through the underbrush, noticing a bit of Mystique's tattered dress hanging from a bush. He COCKS HIS GUN and continues warily.
EXT. ABANDONED FARM HOUSE - NIGHT
The priest creeps to the door and points his gun at the entrance.
PRIEST: (back to German with English subtitles)
Come out, witch!
Show yourself!
After a few intense seconds, Baron Darkholme comes out with the baby in his arms. The priest aims.
BARON DARKHOLME:
Wait! I'm not her!
He doesn't remove the gun from his cheek.
PRIEST:
Prove you aren't her and I won't kill you.
Darkholme approaches him cautiously and holds out his right hand.
He flashes a gold signet ring on his finger which displays the family crest.
BARON DARKHOLME:
Try to remove this ring.
The priest puts down his gun and attempts to remove the ring from his finger. It won't budge.
BARON DARKHOLME:
I've had this ring on since I was 13 years old. I've never taken it off. If you could not remove it,
neither could she.
PRIEST:
And where is she?
BARON DARKHOLME:
I don't know. I thought she may have hid in this old shack, but all I found was the child... the demon.
PRIEST:
For the sake of your own life,
Darkholme, I hope you are telling the truth. Come with me. We will inform the villagers and take care of this.
As the priest and Baron Darkholme take off back into the woods, Mystique comes out from hiding behind the farm house.
She nearly follows them, but then turns and heads north toward the river.
Mystique runs through the forest to the edge of a
CLEARING
Next to a ROARING river. She looks to the right and sees the bridge in the distance, crawling with members of the angry mob. She hides behind a large tree and transforms into her human disguise.
The priest and Baron Darkholme appear from the clearing and the priest calls to the mob gathered on the bridge.
PRIEST:
We have the demon! We have it here!
The mob CHEERS in ecstatic hysteria and swarms from the bridge to the clearing. They follow the priest and Baron Darkholme farther along the river and right past Mystique,
leaving the bridge unattended. She watches the mob pass her and makes a break for it.
RIVER'S EDGE
The rest of the torch-bearing mob, in a frenzied mixture of glee and fear, follow the priest and Baron Darkhome to a spot near a shallow waterfall. The mob's MUDDLED SHOUTS AND SHRIEKS IN GERMAN ECHO through the night.
PRIEST:
Give me the child, Kristian!
Baron Darkholme grudgingly hands the child to the priest. The Baron turns away in shame and tries to escape the huddled mob.
INTERCUT WITH MYSTIQUE ON THE BRIDGE
Mystique crosses the bridge halfway, then sees the mob and the priest with the baby in his arms and freezes in horror.
The priest takes the child by the leg, hoisting it up in the air. The baby SCREAMS. The mob GASPS in fear and disgust at the ugly creature.
PRIEST:
In the name of the Lord and everything holy, we shall cleanse ourselves of this evil tonight!
He turns to face the river.
PRIEST:
May God have mercy on this creature's soul!
He drops the baby into the river to the approving shouts of the mob.
Mystique falls to her knees as the baby's SCREAM is DROWNED OUT, its body quickly washed downstream as nothing more than a black lump. She bites her hand and SCREAMS into it, tears falling down her face in uncontrollable agony.
The body of the BABY disappears completely over the waterfall.
Mystique huddles on the bridge, unable to breathe through her SOBS, and the SHOUTS of the mob echo into the still night.
A raven perches on the edge of the bridge and lets out a CAW before taking off into the night sky.
We follow the bird into the air, higher and higher, past-
a bright white full moon.
A small dot appears in the center of the moon. It seems to be moving, vibrating just slightly.
We ZOOM IN to see tiny particles inside the dot coagulating into shapes that we begin to recognize from biology;
CHROMOSOMES, magnified to billions of times larger than their actual size.
We focus on one "x" shaped chromosome that looks a little different from the others.
The chromosome is ripped in half.
We ZOOM OUT to see the moon has become a cell undergoing mitosis.
The dot in the middle of the cell splits in half, ripping itself apart until there are two cells, then four, then dozens.
We ZOOM OUT even further to see hundreds of thousands of cells, moving quickly through the bloodstream, into the brain, where thousands of synapses fire between neurons.
We follow an electrical synapse at lightning speed through neuron after neuron, until it gets to the optic nerve.
We see very little when the synapse first arrives, but then the eyelids open and everything is flooded in light.
DISSOLVE TO:
EYEBALL'S POV
A white ceiling. STEADY, RHYTHMIC BEEPS and HEAVY BREATHING.