EXT. KINGDOM OF THE KNIGHTS - DAY.
The White Knight leads Alice and Hatter through the overgrown city - it's structures so covered with vegetation that they merge selflessly with the forest... only when Alice looks up, can she see the chess piece buildings clearly, looming large like sad giants.
WHITE KNIGHT
This was once the greatest city in the realm... the Red King and his elected council ruled Wonderland with the wisdom of the ages.
HATTER
I've read about it, seen the pictures, but I never imagined it like this...
ALICE
The Hearts destroyed everything?
WHITE KNIGHT
We lived in harmony for a thousand years. They allowed their world of powerful emotions to be ruled by our thoughtful laws... But when the Queen came to power she just wanted to feel the good... not the bad.
ALICE
That's why she came for the Ring?
WHITE KNIGHT
She wanted the Looking Glass. We put up a good fight, but they were crazed, fought like banshees.
HATTER
Are we safe here?
WHITE KNIGHT
'The Touch Sensitive Early Warning System' will alert us to any intruders... it's the mark V, greatly improved thanks to a new goose feather trip mechanism.
Half buried in the forest floor, leaning at an angle, a magnificent stone podium with two craved thrones...
WHITE KNIGHT (CONT'D)
Believe it or not... this was once the throne room... sadly all that's left now is... the throne...
On the throne, dressed in frayed and rooted robes and propped up by rusted armor, sits a skeleton...
On its head - a jeweled crown.
HATTER
And the Red King.
WHITE KNIGHT
Don't wake him.
ALICE
Yuck. How long has he been dead?
WHITE KNIGHT
He's not dead! He's asleep. If he were to wake, you'd go out - bang! - just like a candle.
ALICE
What do you mean?
WHITE KNIGHT
You're just a thing in his dream.
HATTER
What does that make you? His nightmare?
WHITE KNIGHT
I keep him comfortable, poor old fella. He's seen better days. There are a thousand more like him, spread out across this great kingdom, tucked up in everlasting slumber.
A flicker of sadness appears in his eyes... then...
WHITE KNIGHT (CONT'D)
I bet you're hungry.
Alice and Hatter exchange a glance - they're ravenous.
CUT T0:
INT. HAPPY HEARTS CASINO. WAITING ROOM - DAY
The Housewife, Elder Man, Female Student and Cop sit or pace or lie across the seats... waiting.
HOUSEWIFE
Little things come back to me, but I don't know if they're real or not... a small girl falling off her scooter and hurting her arm... Is it my daughter... or a friend...
or is it me... I have no idea.
The door opens, the MAILMAN who was gambling beside the HOUSEWIFE is shown in...
MAILMAN
I think I've made enough to pay off my mortgage... but they won't cash me in.
Another door opens... on the far side of the waiting room and a lab technician appears and gestures to the Female student and the cop...
LAB TECHNICIAN
You two. This way.
The student and the cop are led out.
CUT TO:
EXT. FOREST - EVENING.
Close on Mad March's face... his searching eyes, scanning... his eager mechanical snout, sniffing. Behind him the evening sky is turning pink.
10 OF CLUBS (O.S.)
(calling up) Any sign of rain?
Pull back to reveal Mad March high up in a tree, searching the forest canopy... while the 10 of Clubs and his men wait patiently below.
The 10 of Clubs has a frightening black eye.
10 OF CLUBS (CONT'D)
I'm sure I felt a drop.
The little radar gizmo on Mad March's head whirs and clicks.
10 OF CLUBS (CONT'D)
Should have brought a hat.
The radar locks onto something... Mad March's ears perk up.
MAD MARCH
(Sotto - to Alice) You think you're clever don't you? Very, bloody clever...
(shouting down) We're heading east... to the old kingdom of
the Knights!
10 OF CLUBS
Excellent! Well done.
EXT. KINGDOM OF THE KNIGHTS. WHITE KNIGHT'S SHELTER - NIGHT.
The White Knight's cozy shelter in the woods amidst the ruined city is a scrap yard of inventions in progress.
Hatter and Alice sit at the 'Portable Fire and Barbecue Mark III', polishing their plates.
ALICE
(picking a bone clean) That was good Charlie. What was it?
WHITE KNIGHT
Barbecued Borogove. They're the devil to catch, but well worth the trouble, don't you think?
Alice looks at the bone, worried what a Borogove might look like, then shrugs and throws it in the fire.
ALICE
When in Rome.
WHITE KNIGHT
I'm just off to check the 'Wind Propelled Mollusc Fountain Mark II'. Won't be long.
He disappears, leaving Alice and Hatter alone.
HATTER
You were right about him. He may be a few toadstools short of a good night out, but he knows these woods pretty well.
Alice looks at Hatter.
ALICE
What I want to know is how we're going to make a deal with the White Rabbit?
HATTER
I know a gal, Carlotta Sin Delaware, who dates a guy who used to play cards with a rich kid who once studied law with an electrician who works, part time, with one of the technical staff.
Alice
How well did you know Carlotta Sin Delaware?
HATTER
That's not a question you ask a man in his prime.
ALICE
Great. I'm sure Carlotta's boyfriend will love helping one of her old flames, particularly when it might get him killed.
HATTER
I said it was a long shot. Listen. So long as you've got the ring, you've got a chance.
ALICE
'You'? What happened to 'We'?
HATTER
I can't leave, Alice. Wonderland's my home, I'm not going to just abandon it, despite what I said. I have to stay and fight.
ALICE
What?
HATTER
Seeing this great kingdoms what it's become, is a wake up call. My people - the hundreds of refugees hiding underground - are counting on me.
ALICE
Didn't that Dodo guy say he was going to have you hunted down and killed?
HATTER
Yes. But if I show up with the ring...I think he'll forgive me.
ALICE
So that's what this is about!
HATTER
Don't worry. I'll make sure I get you home safe and sound first.
ALICE
And Jack?
HATTER
You've got to forget about Jack, Alice. We'll never get him out of the Casino alive, and trying will only set off alarm bells... and make your escape impossible.
ALICE
So you were just leading me on back there?
HATTER
Believe me, it would be suicide.
Hatter looks at her beautiful face lit by the orange glow of the fire and feels, inexplicably, irrationally, jealous of Jack...
HATTER (CONT'D)
(Sotto) Jack's a lucky guy.
ALICE
What?
HATTER
Nothing. It's late. Lets get some rest and talk about it in the morning.
EXT. KINGDOM OF THE KNIGHTS. WHITE KNIGHT'S SHELTER - NIGHT.
A full moon lights up the ancient ruins, overgrown with jungle foliage.
The White Knight swings in a hammock snoring melodically through his teeth. Hatter is asleep against a tree stump.
Alice is curled up bed of straw... awake.
She gets up and looks at Hatter, his handsome face, unusually peaceful now...
Then she looks at the ring... and sets off on her own.
EXT. WOODS/BLUFF OVERLOOKING KINGDOM OF KNIGHTS - NIGHT
Alice climbs onto the ridge, out of breath and sits to recover, looking back at the Knight's kingdom - now glowing in the moonlight.
A breeze blows her hair back and she leans back against a flat rock, exhausted.
The tinkle of a bell.
A striped tortoiseshell CAT in a red collar with a tiny golden bell sits on a nearby rock watching her.
Alice stares at it.
ALICE
Dinah?
The CAT takes off, into the woods. Alice is up and after it.
EXT. DARK WOOD – NIGHT
Alice runs through the forest, following the faint tinkle of the Cat's bell.
An ominous growl stops her.
Then the thumping footfall of a heavy beast. She runs away from it but is met by the shriek of another animals just as, terrifying.
Then, through nearby trees, the CAT again, running scared.
ALICE
Dinah!
Alice chases it, zigzagging through the somber wood, the beast's roars at her back.
The CAT is there one second, gone the next.
ALICE (CONT'D)
Dinah! What are you doing here?
But just as she feels she's getting close to it, it disappears.
Alice stops, out of breath, back up against a tree, the growls and shrieks getting closer.
Suddenly the Cat is at her feet, encircling them. Alice leans down to pick her up, but it runs towards –
The oddest sight –
A DOOR in a tree.
Alice approaches it. The door is ajar. Behind her, the beasts are getting closer. Alice pushes the door open and steps inside.
INT. ALICE'S CHILDHOOD HOME - NIGHT
The front entrance, hall and stairs of a suburban home. Everything is covered in earth, leaves, abandoned for years.
Alice looks back through the front door at the dark forest.
The CAT sits outside, watching her, and...
A BROAD GRIN SPREAD ACROSS ITS FACE.
Bang! The Front door slams shut!
MATCH CUT TO:
INT. ALICE'S CHILDHOOD HOME – NIGHT
Alice jumps at the noise, stares at the front door in horror, but she's not the Alice we know, but her younger self, 10 YEARs OLD, in a blue nightdress and carrying a storybook...
And the hallway is also transformed - lit in a homey orange glow, toys littering the patterned carpet, family pictures crowding the walls, yellow flowers in a vase on a side table...
... and from an unseen kitchen, the soft sound of Sarah Vaughn singing ''Someone to watch over me'' wafts from a radio...
A welcoming family home, filled with warmth and security.
YOUNG ALICE moves inside, knocks lightly on a hallway door... but there's no reply so she pushes it open...
YOUNG ALICE
Dad?
She steps into her father's study and gets a shock. It's completely empty... the shelves are picked clean of books, the furniture is gone, the carpets, lamps shades, figurines, fruit basket, and even curtains, are all gone.
She drops the storybook - It's Alice in Wonderland.
YOUNG ALICE (CONT'D)
Dad!
EXT. WOODS/BLUFF OVERLOOKING KINGDOM OF KNIGHTS - MORNING
Alice wakes, she had fallen asleep against the flat rock when she first leaned against it. The Cat, the woods, the childhood home, all a dream. She gets up, looks back at the Knight's Kingdom lit by the dawn sun, and sets off into the woods.
EXT. KINGDOM OF THE KNIGHTS. WHITE KNIGHT'S SHELTER - MORNING
A CROW squawks loudly. Hatter wakes suddenly and sits straight up.
HATTER
What was that?
The CROW squawks again. Hatter looks over at it, flapping in its bamboo cage, one of its claws pulled by a thread...
SQUAWK!
The White Knight wakes.
WHITE KNIGHT
That's the early warning system. Someone has broken through the perimeter!
HATTER
Where's Alice?
The straw bed is empty...
The White Knight is up, gathering his arms.
WHITE KNIGHT
Battle stations! Sound the order of the Seraphim! Drum, fife and pickle!
HATTER
I need to borrow a horse.
The White Knight heads to the horses.
WHITE KNIGHT
Which way should we go?
HATTER
You don't have to come, Charlie. This isn't your fight.
WHITE KNIGHT
You couldn't be more wrong. You led the Alice of Legend to me for a reason. Call it what you will, divinity, fate, an alignment of forces beyond mortal understanding. In time you will see that I am the true paladin here, and you are merely a harbinger.
Hatter ignores him, too preoccupied to enter into a quarrel, and mounts up.
WHITE KNIGHT (CONT'D)
Besides, you'll never find her without my help. Remember, I am also well versed in the black arts. We shall be guided by my psychic connection with the mysterious sinews that bind mankind to the outer realm.
He closes his eyes and presses his fingers to his temple.
WHITE KNIGHT (CONT'D)
Ah qaladoon de booshe.
Hatter heads out.
WHITE KNIGHT (CONT'D)
You're going the wrong way harbinger. We should head west.
HATTER
You go west if you like, I'm going east.
WHITE KNIGHT
Why?
HATTER
She's gone to the Heart's Casino.
WHITE KNIGHT
But that's certain death. Why would she go there?
EXT. WONDERLAND CANYON – DAY
Alice is up, walking through a canyon. She looks up at the rocks around her apprehensively.
Suddenly, a Suit jumps down from a rock... then another and another... Alice is surrounded.
Mad March steps forward.
MAD MARCH
You look like you could use some company.
FADE OUT:
END OF ACT SEVEN
