Defensa

A P O C A L Y P S E N O W

Original screenplay by John Milius.

Inspired by Joseph Conrad's "HEART OF DARKNESS".

This draft by Francis Ford Coppola.

December 3, 1975.

This is an early version of the screenplay. It's quite
different from the final version but very interesting
anyway. It includes f ex The French plantation
scene, which was actually filmed, but later cutfrom the movie.

1 PRIMEVAL SWAMP - EARLY DAWN

It is very early in the dawn - blue light filters through
the jungle and across a foul swamp. A mist clings to the
trees. This could be the jungle of a million years ago.

Our VIEW MOVES CLOSER, through the mist, TILTING DOWN to
the tepid water. A small bubble rises to the surface;
then another. Suddenly, but quietly, a form begins toemerge; a helmet. Water and mud pour off revealing a set
of beady eyes just above the mud. Printed on a helmet,
in a psychedelic hand, are the words: "Gook Killer."
The head emerges revealing that the tough-looking soldier
beneath has exceptionally long hair and beard; he has no
shirt on, only bandoliers of ammunition - his body is
painted in an odd camouflage pattern. He looks tothe
right; he looks to the left; he looks INTO CAMERA, and
slowly sinks back into the swamp, disapperaring completely.

Our VIEW HOLDS, We begin to HEAR natural, though
unrecognizable JUNGLE SOUNDS, far off in the distance.
We PAN TO REVEAL a clump of logs half submerged in the
swamp; and part of what seems to be a Falstaff beer can
in the mud. A hand reaches out, and the beer candisappears.
As we TILT UP, we NOTICE that the log is hollow
and houses the rear of a M-60 machine gun, hand painted
in a paisley design.

Now the VIEW MOVES AWAY, ACROSS the ancient growth, PAST
the glimmer of what seems to be another soldier hiding in
ambush, wearing an exotic hat made from birds and bushes.
ACROSS to a dark trail where the legs of those in black
pajamas move silently acrossour ever TIGHTENING VIEW.
Their feet, boots and sandals leave no impression; make
no sound. A slight flicker of light reveals a pair of
eyes in the foliage across the path, waiting and watching.

The VIEW PUSHES ALONG WITH the Vietnamese, MOVING FASTER
AND FASTER WITH them, until suddenly, directly in front
about ten feet away, an enormous AMERICAN clad in rags
and bushes and holding a 12gauge automatic shotgun
casually at his side, steps in front of them. He smiles
laconically, and BLASTS OUT FIVE SHOTS that rip THROUGH
US. By the second shot, the whole jungle blazes out
with AUTOMATIC FIRE.

Out VIEW TURNS as the men around us are thrown and torn,
screaming and scattering into the jungle. More AMERICANS
appear; unexplainably, out of the growth. It is now that
we fullySEE the bizarre manner in which they are dressed.
Some wear helmets, others wear strange hats made from
feathers and parts of animals. Some of them have long
savage-looking hair; other crew-cut or completely shaved;
they wear bandoliers, flak jackets, shorts and little else.
They wear Montagnard sandals or no shoes at all, and their
bodies and faces are painted in bizarre camouflage patterns.They appear one with the jungle and mist, FIRING INTO US
as they move.

The soldier we saw earlier emerges from the swamp, dripping
mud, his MACHINE GUN BLASTING FIRE.

We begin to move quickly with one Vietnamese, breathlessly
running for his life; we MOVE INTO the jungle with him,
only to be impaled on a large spear of a smiling AMERICAN
painted and wearing feathers like an Indian.OUR VIEW
FALLS WITH him to the ground, STARING UPWARDS, as FLAME
and EXPLODING MUD scatter above us. Men scream and die
around us. The screams amid the GUNFIRE and EXPLOSIONS
are piercing and terrible, as though the jungle itself is
frightened.

An AMERICAN wearing a jungle hat with a large Peace Sign
on it, wearing war paint, bends TOWARD US, reaching down
TOWARD US with a large knife,...