ACT SIX
FADE IN:
EXT. UNDERWORLD CITY - NIGHT.
Hatter leads Alice down a side street.
HATTER
This way!
They run down steps that lead to a city dock.
EXT. WOODEN JETTY. CONTINUOUS – NIGHT
Small boats are moored along the side of the jetty. Black water stretches away from the city...
Hatter and Alice run to the end and jump into a small motor boat filled with bundles of wool.
As Hatter desperately tries to start the motor, Alice looks anxiously back.
HATTER
There's a knack to this... (pulling at the cord) And I never learnt it…
Mad March and the others appear down the steps and sprint towards them.
ALICE
Hurry!
HATTER
Untie the rope!
She does so just as… the motor finally splutters to life.
And they're away... out over open water as the murky curtain of night closes in around them.
Mad March watches them disappear.
10 OF CLUBS
I'll call for the Scarab.
He pulls out a communication device... finds a connection.
EXT. POOL OF TEARS. OPEN WATER - DAY
The morning sun casts an orange glow over the water.
Hatter and Alice buzz over the tranquil surface, far from the city.
ALICE
Where is the Casino?
HATTER
Don't even think about it. You wouldn't last a minute in that place.
ALICE
How do you know?
HATTER
I live here!
ALICE
Maybe they'll trade Jack for the ring.
HATTER
I've told your you can't negotiate with the Queen. But…
An idea is coming to him.
ALICE
But what?
HATTER
The White Rabbit is a different kettle of onions. Perhaps they'll do a deal... maybe even spring your boyfriend.
ALICE
You think that'll work?
HATTER
It's a long shot, but the only one we've got.
ALICE
We?
HATTER
My shop's been ransacked. I'm homeless. I'm a target, not only for the Suits, but for the Resistance. And there's only so many places in Wonderland I can hide. As I see it, I have one option...
ALICE
Which is…?
HATTER
To go with you, back to your world.
He avoids eye contact, looks out at the vast lake.
Alice feels for him... and rather than getting tough she –
ALICE
I'm sorry Hatter. I guess I've ruined your life here haven't I?
HATTER
I had it coming. Dodo was right, I was dancing too close to the flame. Anyway, whatever's happened's happened and now, we're both in the same boat.
They share a smile... never a truer word spoken...
HATTER (cont'd)
You'll be back in a cozy pizza parlor chewing on egg fried rice and playing footsie with Jack before you know it.
ALICE
Pizza parlors don't serve egg fried rice.
HATTER
Clam chowder then.
ALICE
Pizza. They just serve pizza.
HATTER
But isn't that flat bread with tomato and cheese?
ALICE
Yes.
HATTER
And that's all they serve?
ALICE
You can have it with pepperoni.
HATTER
Isn't that processed pork butt?
ALICE
I try not to think about it too carefully.
Hatter tries to picture flatbread and pork butt.
HATTER
I can see it's going to take me a while to get used to your culinary tastes.
(seeing something above) Uh oh.
ALICE
What?
Hatter points to the Giant Scarab in the distant sky, getting closer...
HATTER
Before we do anything we've got to shake that royal flush.
He hits the throttle and heads for land.
INT. SCARAB BRIDGES – DAY
A large window to the sky. Mad March and the 10 of Clubs stand silhouetted against it. Looking down at the vast Pool of Tears.
10 OF CLUBS
They're heading for the shore.
MAD MARCH
Can't this thing move any faster?
EXT. Lakeside - DAY
Hatter and Alice pull the boat up onto the shore and hide it in the undergrowth.
A spine-chilling growl from deep in the forest.
ALICE
What was that?
Hatter looks up at the scarab, getting ever closer.
HATTER
I don't know who the weirdo is leading that posse, but he's got a hell of a nose for blood.
Hatter looks into the forest.
HATTER (CONT'D)
And this is the place to get it.
ALICE
What do you mean?
HATTER
Stay by me... there are things in these woofs that defy imagination.
He sets off, but Alice stays put, uncertain.
HATTER (CONT'D)
We can't shake the posse... and we can't fight em either, so there's only one thing
left to try.
ALICE
What's that?
HATTER
Lead them into a trap.
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. Wonderland WOODS – DAY
Hatter and Alice journey deep into the woody.
EXT. LAKESIDE – DAY
The 10 of Clubs and his men pull the small boat from the undergrowth...
10 OF CLUBS
That's it...
Mad March isn't interesting he's scanning the forest.
MAD MARCH
That way.
FADE OUT:
END OF ACT SIX
ACT SEVEN
FADE IN:
EXT. DARK FORESTS – DAY
Alice and Hatter walk apprehensively through the woods.
HATTER
Keep your breathing shallow.
A growl.
ALICE
Did you hear that?
HATTER
Look for a tree you can climb.
ALICE
What? Why?
HATTER
That trap we talked about, this is it and I'm the bait. Now get going.
Heavy footsteps shake the ground... like an earthquake gathering momentum.
ALICE
My God. What is it? Tell me!
HATTER
A Jabberwock.
ALICE
A what?
HATTER
Alice, get going!
ALICE
You're going to lead this thing back to the posse?
HATTER
Yes! After it gets a good look at me. Now get out of here.
ALICE
That's your plan!
A creature the size of a house partly obscured by the trees. It stops, stares at them, nostrils flaring, chest heaving.
This is the Jabberwock... Wonderland's version of the T-Rex.
HATTER
That's great! Now it's seen you, it'll want you.
Alice runs - in no particular direction – into the thickly shadowed wood, branches whipping her arms and face.
The Jabberwock roars... and chases her... crashing through the forest like a bulldozer.
HATTER (CONT'D)
Not that way!
Hatter veers back, crossing its path, trying to distract it. But it keeps right on after Alice.
She snakes around the trees, using them as cover.
The Jabberwock's huge head cranes forward as it runs, its jaws snapping, its claws digging up the earth...
Alice jumps between two trees growing close together, trips and falls. That's it. The Jabberwock is on her in an instant, its gaping jaws ready to tear her shreds.
But it stops, inches from her, it's body too large to pass between the two trees. Snap! Snap! It stretches its neck, enraged, determined to get a piece of her.
Alice scrambles to her feet and sprints, gaining some distance before the monster busts through the trees and... within seconds... is right up to her again.
Hatter darts out of the forest, runs along side her.
There's a clearing up ahead. Hatter vaults over a fallen tree, heads for it... Alice is with him.
They burst into the clearings exhausted, when...
The ground collapses under their feet.
A simple bear trap in the forest... swallows them up...
They fall into the darkness, landing awkwardly between sharp, pointed stakes buried in the pit floor.
Hatter gathers himself quickly.
HATTER (CONT'D)
You okay?
ALICE
Just about.
The Jabberwock skids to a stop... slides towards the trap... stops inches from the edge.
It lowers its huge head into the pit, sniffing for its prey.
HATTER
Lie low!
Alice flattens herself between the stakes.
Two huge nostrils, snorting steam, dripping ooze, search for her... moving close to her... but then –
The monster spears itself on a sharpened pole, pulls away.
Hatter and Alice watch, breathless, as the beast loses interest and lopes off into the forest.
Moments later there's another figure standing on the edge of the pit, looking down.
A wild old man. The WHITE KNIGHT.
WHITE KNIGHT
Vermin! Saboteurs! Anarchists!
Alice gets to her feet... squints at him.
WHITE KNIGHT (CONT'D)
I was this close to catching him! This close! Degenerate bagheads!
EXT. DARK FORESTS. LATER – DAY
Alice and Hatter are out of the hole looking on, as the, White Knight surveys the damage to his trap.
Although grey-haired and 60ish, the Knight seems limber, striding about with confidence.
He wears a make-shift, rusted metal breastplate bolted together over what looks like old rags, straw, carved pieces of wood... and on his face, a limp mustache.
He's a cross between Don Quixote and one of those Japanese soldiers discovered on desert islands years after the war.
He mutters to himself, angrily.
WHITE KNIGHT
Subverters. Pig pushing flecks. Bug bashers.
ALICE
Who the hell are you?
WHITE KNIGHT
I'm a knight. The White Knight to be precise. Sir Charles Eustace Fotheringhay Le Malvois the third.
He glares at them.
WHITE KNIGHT (CONT'D)
Who are you?
ALICE
I'm Alice.
WHITE KNIGHT
Alice? The Alice? ''The'' Alice?
ALICE
No . ''Just '' Alice .
WHITE KNIGHT
Justalice?
Hatter is staring at the White Knight, incredulously.
HATTER
I thought you were all wiped out years ago.
WHITE KNIGHT
Well you thought wrong. As you can see I'm as fit as a butcher's dog.
ALICE
Are there any others like you?
WHITE KNIGHT
Certainly not. I'm a one off. My Nan used to say that if I was the only eligible bachelor left in the world, there wasn't a warthog or wall flower who'd polish my escutcheon. (Chuckling fondly) Quite a card, my Nan.
ALICE
I meant - are there any the other Knights in these woods? Your comrades in arms.
WHITE KNIGHT
Heavens no. Are you mad? We were all wiped out years ago.
HATTER
You dug that pit on your own?
WHITE KNIGHT
Think I'm too old! Well let me tell you something knugface, youth is vastly overrated. I may have put on a few years, but I'm crafty. I have a very inventive and calculating mind, stacked high with groundbreaking, state of the art ideas. I invent all sorts of things. The beehive mousetrap for instance, and shark repellent, and windy hair sticks. This here 'pit' as you so rudely call it, is in fact my third attempt at 'The Gravity Assisted Snare Mark IV'.
Hatter and Alice look at each other incredulously.
HATTER
He's mad as a box of frogs.
ALICE
Surprise, surprise. Who isn't in this crazy world!
Alice buries her head in her hands.
ALICE (CONT'D)
Errrr! This is all too much.
HATTER
How the hell have you survived?
WHITE KNIGHT
(Insulted) I'm a knight.
HATTER
Apparently, you're THE knight.
WHITE KNIGHT
And I'm an inventor, as I said, although , if I'm honest, it's strictly on a part-time basis.
HATTER
You don't say.
WHITE KNIGHT
And I dabble in the black arts now and then. Soothsaying, toe nail readings, that sort of things. Here, let me show you... Give me your palm.
He grabs Alice's hand and starts reading her palm intensely.
ALICE
Get off!
But the White Knight's seen the ring.
WHITE KNIGHT
What's that on your finger?
ALICE
Nothing.
WHITE KNIGHT
It's the sacred ring. The Stone of Wonderland. Our ring! Where did you get it?
HATTER
Don't get too excited grandad. The ring stays on the lady's finger.
The White Knight falls on one knee, eyes shut, hands clasped together in prayer.
WHITE KNIGHT
It is meant to be. This place, this time, this meeting in the woods...
Hatter grabs Alice's arm and pulls her away, marching her through the woods… leaving the White Knight on his knees.
HATTER
We better get the hell away from this guy, before he gets us killed.
ALICE
Wait! Maybe he can help us.
HATTER
Have you forgotten the weirdo tailing us. This freak show will draw his attention for Sure.
ALICE
If this knight's survived out here that long, maybe he knows a thing or two.
Alice pulls herself free of Hatter's grasp and returns to the White Knight, who's in exactly the same spot, eyes closed, transfixed...
ALICE (CONT'D)
Listen Charlie. We have some very bad men following us who want to kill us and steal the ring. Do you know anywhere we can lay low for a while?
WHITE KNIGHT
(still locked in prayer, eyes firmly shut) The stars are aligned in a cosmic ray of hope.
HATTER
You're putting your faith in this guy?
ALICE
(under her breath) Yes. He may be nuts... and a hundred and fifty years old... and dress like a car trashy but he's a survivor.
WHITE KNIGHT
(Insulted) And I'm not deaf!
He gets to his feet.
WHITE KNIGHT (CONT'D)
Justalice. I, Sir Charles Eustace Fotheringhay Le Malvois the third, White Knight and guardian of the curtsey –
HATTER
(Looking back nervously) Get on with it.
WHITE KNIGHT
- will be honored to escort you, your goods and vassal –
HATTER
Vassal!
WHITE KNIGHT
- to my sacred kingdom.
CUT TO:
EXT. FOREST – DAY
Mad March and his men march through the woods. A growl from deep in the woods unsettles the 10 of Clubs.
10 OF CLUBS
Why would they enter the Forests of Wabe? No one has ever come out alive.
MAD MARCH
That's what they want you to think.
They stop at the bear-trap. Mad March eyes the surrounding area intensely.
MAD MARCH (CONT'D)
They were here a little while ago... the shadows are still warm.
10 OF CLUBS
Shadows?
MAD MARCH
But their footprints stop here.
The 10 of Clubs joins Mad March, who's staring at the forest floor.
Oddly, their footprints do exactly that... stop dead... as if they've vanished into thin air...
Mad March wanders back to the bear-trap, tries to read the signs.
MAD MARCH (CONT'D)
There are only two sets of prints... His and hers... they got out of the trap here, came over here... faced this area here and...
10 OF CLUBS
Who dug the pit I wonder?
MAD MARCH
Then they marched off over there and came back...
10 OF CLUBS
Must have taken ten men a week.
He stares into the pit.
10 OF CLUBS (cont'd)
Or one man ten weeks... Course, we can't be sure it was a man. Might have been a burly lass...
The 10 of clubs looks back at the Jabberwock's monstrous footsteps...
10 OF CLUBS (CONT'D)
Perhaps they were swallowed whole by the beast... That would explain it. One great snap of its jaws and they're gone. I bet it's tucked up in its cave right now sleeping it off.
MAD MARCH
No. The prints tell a different story. Somebody helped them... and who ever it was... just raised the bar.
10 OF CLUBS
I'm feeling a little peckish myself.
In one fluid movement, Mad March turns and strikes the 10 of clubs a fierce blow to the face...
10 OF Clubs (cont'd)
Ahhh!
He falls backwards into the pit, landing with a dull thud.
CUT TO:
EXT. WOODS/BLUFF OVERLOOKING KINGDOM OF KNIGHTS – DAY
Horses hooves wearing oddly shaped Hessian bags with neatly crafted raffia brushes trailing behind them, trudge through the rugged terrain.
Hatter, who's riding a mule with Alice while the White Knight leads the way on his horse, looks back at the path, admiring the invention.
HATTER
They even work over mud. Maybe Senile Sam really does have a trick or two up his gauntlet.
The White Knight dismounts, clears away foliage. Hatter and Alice are not far behind.
WHITE KNIGHT
Welcome... (gestures) ... to the kingdom of the knights.
He parts a final curtain of greenery to reveal, from their vantage point on a high ridge, a plateau below...
A vast dormant volcano stretches out before them... hiding the oddest sight within its crater - a checkerboard pattern of overgrown jungle...
Dark green vegetation next to paler green squares... a wild, sprawling, organic chess board...
ALICE
Oh. My. God.
Great stone buildings stand on some of the squares... Towers shaped like classic chess pieces... a bishop, a rook, a knight, a king etc... decayed and crumbling, but solid enough to form a fortified CHESS PIECE CITY on the forest squares, hidden from the rest of Wonderland inside the dormant volcano...
HATTER
Well, what do you know...
ALICE
It's like a chess board...
Hatter is genuinely awed.
WHITE KNIGHT
Let me show you around.