Curse of the Rubyheart - part one Page 2

The Cantina Girl passes behind the Missionary Lady with a tray of beers. She pats her on the rump with a heavy hand.

  CANTINA GIRL

  Oh muchacha, you have a nice ass.

  Hey Cajon! Maybe she'll take your money.

  Nervious LAUGHS. Cajon lusts forward as the Missionary Lady wipes Cajon's cigar stained spittle from her glasses. Quickly, Cajon extends his extra long tongue toward her face. She SCREAMS and jerks back in terror.

  In the b.g. Cajon's men move on the other Missionaries. She pulls away from the long repulsive tongue. But Cajon is ? stronger.

  Hamp moves toward them, quickly. He tosses Cajon up against the wall. Four Aces flutter from his hand.

  MISSIONARY LADY

  Oh God, no! Thank you Christian.

  He pushes her aside.

  HAMP

  Sorry sister. Fat man, you're a lowdown cheat, you have my wife's pistol. Pistola de me mujer. You understand, don't you.

  You have her. Where is she?

  Cajon flinches under Hamp's raised fist. His beady eyes search the room for his compadres.

  ?HAMP

  She's alive! Isn't she?

  CAJON

  No speak English.

  Cajon's man moves behind Hamp -

  HAMP

  Bull shit! I ought to kill.

  - and smacks him on the head with a bottle. He teeters, his eyes turn inward, his legs rubber and he collapses. Cajon's men move the struggling Missionaries from the room. The Missionary Lady tries to revive Hamp, but she is torn away. Hamp's is drug to the window and heaved out. He bounces from an awning and lands in a huge pile of refuse near a voodoo shrine to Arnath, El Cajon's god.

  EXT. LATER, OVER HAMP'S BODY - NIGHT

  Cajon's men fight over Hamp's belongings. A crumpled letter is taken from his pocket. The letter has a logo with a crescent moon with a star bursting in the middle.

  It reads:

  "Your wife lives. Be in Bahia on the 10th of October. I will find you".

  It is signed with the letter "I". Cajon's men drop the letter as if it were a hot coal.

  CAJON'S MAN

  The Incarnus!

  Hamp is tossed into the piles of fruits, liquors and other gifts to the voodoo Gods. SWEAT RUNS DOWN HIS FOREHEAD AND A MIST SWEEPS OVER HIS FACE AS WE FLASHBACK -

  INT. LARGE CHAMBER - ARNATH'S TEMPLE - FLASHBACK - DAY

  - A gold mist breaks in the lifeless crypt. It has been ? ravaged by time and the elements. The fine dust of antiquity shifts slowly over the geometrically patterned floor. The temple's gigantic doorways and fixtures belay that it may have been inhabited by twenty foot giants or perhaps by those unspoken things that lurk in the corners of our minds.

  Hamp, younger and more rugged, moves cautiously among the rubble and the mist. Faint DRUMS beat rhythmically from a far. Hamp pulls a kerchief from his pocket and drops a gold coin which DISTURBS the silence.

  Hamp wipes his sweaty forehead, reaches down and pockets the coin. He waits tentatively for a response to the noise and several unseen SHADOWY SHAPES move along the walls.

  Above Hamp a red light pulses in the mist. Hamp timidly moves deeper into the chamber. Ahead, a glowing golden leg appears in the mist, then a golden belly. CLOSER, now. Protruding from the chest, a great ruby shaped heart beats crimson. A green laser from the idol's hidden eyes pierces the mist above Hamp's head.

  Hamp climbs the idol to the red ruby. In the mist above Hamp the great glowing golden arm is poised to dismember him. He reaches for the palm sized ruby.

  HAMP

  It's beautiful. Boy, wouldn't

  Betty Jo love this? Yeah.

  But his hand tugs gently. The idol's arm descends on Hamp, and unexpectedly, the ruby drops into his hand. With a woeful alien GROAN, the arm falls limp. A tall robed skeleton like creature looms through the mist. His rasping voice ECHOES.

  INCARNUS (V.O.)

  A curse be on you and all your family "Hampton Rhodes".

  Hyperventilating with fear, Hamp attempts to replace the Ruby_ heart. It won't fit. He jumps from the idol, races through the temple, alive with dark shapes. The sounds of pursuit.

  INT. DARK, ENDLESS HALLS OF THE TEMPLE - DAY

  Great gargoyles crash at his heels, he runs to the light.

  EXT. JUNGLE - DAY

  The Rubyheart seems to stick to Hamp's finger as he races through the jungle. The untamed undergrowth reaches out for him and above a giant vulture scouts his position. Arrows, darts and spears whiz past Hamp from every direction.?A cold debris filled wind follows him. He buttons up.

  Suddenly - the trail ends at a precipice, high above a raging river. Without thought he tucks in the ruby and jumps.

  HAMP

  OOOOOH SHEEEEEEEEEttttttt.

  Hamp's great splash --

  ? MATCH DISSOLVEs TO:

  EXT. THE ALLEY BEHIND THE CANTINA - NIGHT

  -- which becomes the splash from the spittoon full of water as Jose revives Hamp amidst the voodoo offerings.

  JOSE

  (accented)

  God damn it, Hampton you should know better.? I told you to be careful. You're lucky your not dead, hombre. But no, you just had to pick on Cajon, the scourge of the jungle.

  HAMP

  Jose, that slimy fat slob had Betty Jo's pistol. The one I gave her.

  JOSE

  Forget it Hamp. Look they probably

  traded for it. Some poor Indian took it off her dead body and didn't --

  Let it go. She's dead. Ten years,

  hombre. No white can survive the

  Amazon for that long. The Amazon is vicious.

  Jose shakes Hamp at the shoulders.

  JOSE (CONT'D)

  Go home. It's your daughter's birthday. Remember Jenny, or have you lost it completely?

  Hamp struggles out from his grip.

  HAMP

  I'm going to find Betty Joe.

  JOSE

  You are completely mad, hombre.

  HAMP

  Where's Cajon's base?

  JOSE

  At the head of the Xingu. You'll never make it.

  Hamp runs down the narrow, cobble stoned alley.

  JOSE(V.O.) (CONT'D)

  Poor devil, may god, your god.

  all the gods, help you.

  EXT. NARROW ALLEY - NIGHT

  A PROCESSION OF VOODOO CULTISTS winds slowly up the stairs at the end of the alley. Each holds a candle and is lavishly costumed. They CHANT rhythmic Brazilian melodies. Hamp struggles by and they mock him with degrading AD LIBS.

  CROWD

  Yankee go home.

  A fat BLACK PRIESTESS, heavily made-up, wearing a sheer pink diaphanous skirt and a halter top two sizes small, leads the procession. She catches Hamp's Adams apple with a fleshy arm. He stumbles and falls. The procession and the chanting stop. The Black Priestess takes a LONG PUFF from HER CIGAR , her eyes roll back so only white shows. Hamp GROANS as he stares into the white depths of her eyes.

  BLACK PRIESTESS

  Ou-ee,Ouee. I see trouble. Beware the Incarnus. Beware the Incarnus.

  HAMP MOUTHS THE WORD INCARNUS, -

  BLACK PRIESTESS (CONT'D)

  That's right, you in one heap a trouble, honey.

  The CHANT begins anew. The procession gives Hamp a wide berth. Hamp rises slowly and moves past the garishly costumed parade. He moves faster as the BEAT intensifies. A faceless Incarnus IN TOP HAT AND TAILS steps from the shadows and follows Hamp. Hamp's POV, down the stairs to the lights of Bahia, then UP over the balustrades, over the red roofs to the moonlit bay.

  EXT. THE RHODES MANSION ON THE MID PENINSULA - AFTERNOON

  Nestled in the woodsy foothills of the peninsula, there is an ethereal serene beauty to the Rhode's English manor home. The wondrous gardens are enhanced by a large reflecting pool. A large banner reads:

  HAPPY BIRTHDAY JENNY.

&nbs
p; This serenity is shattered by the SOUNDS of children, running, jumping and playing games. Fifties music BLARES. The children are dressed in the costumes of the times. Roy Rodgers, the Lone Ranger, Tonto, etc.

  Jenny moves toward the tent with EMMA McMURTREE, the English housekeeper. Emma has a dried apple doll face, gray hair and glasses - everyman's grandma. Emma puts her arm reassuringly around JENNY.

  EMMA

  Come on sweetie. Nothings wrong. You know how your Dad is. He has a single minded purpose and is probably in the middle of some deal, somewhere and he just can't get away.

  jenny

  (teary)

  He'll be here, I just know it.

  The children follow them to the table. Jenny sits in the place of honor and tightly clutches Tuffy, her worn and patched teddy bear. Above the ROAR of the children.

  EMMA

  Okay kids sit down. Quiet down. I mean quiet down.

  One child starts singing and they all join in to "HAPPY BIRTHDAY". Hadji puts his massive hand on her shoulder. In his Geoffrey Harder type voice.

  HADJI

  Make a wish, little Missy?

  Jenny nods and blows a few of the candles. Then blows again.

  HADJI (CONT'D)

  What did you wish for? A pony?

  JENNY

  (Disappointed face.)

  No Hadji, I wished my Daddy were here.

  (wipes her eyes again.)

  FAT CHILD

  Come on Jenny, cut the cake.

  JENNY

  Okay everybody lets eat.

  ELVIS CHILD

  Drink and be merry.

  TONTO CHILD

  Tomorrow we die.

  JENNY

  What did you say, Scott?

  scott

  Nothing Jenny! How's your teddy bear Jenny. Oh isn't he cute.

  Jenny's cute but who wants to have a girl friend that still plays with baby toys.

  BUDDY

  I'd like to be her baby toy.

  EMMA

  Don't pay them any attention, Jenny. Just cut the cake.

  Jenny cuts the first slice but Emma takes over, trying to maintain as the children fight over the cake and ice cream.

  EMMA (CONT'D)

  Single file children, ORDER, let's have some order.

  RACHEL, Jenny's best friend, walks toward her. Rachel is thin and dark with rosy cheeks and freckles. Her toy terrier, MITTENS, balks on his leash. She