AIR DUEL! PART II

EXT. 10,000 FEET ABOVE - DAY

We see the white dot of a plane, Brian, and the black dot of a Bi-plane, the Villain, going distant, in a straight line. The geometric surface of the ground looks like a Tetris game.

INT. CROP DUSTER - DAY

Brian's hand sticks the closed laptop into the canvas bag between the seats. He pulls out a Blackberry with a cracked screen, presses the contact for Lovely Wife.

INT. BI-PLANE - DAY

The Villain, Von Umkraut, works the stick to stay in level flight. The altimeter needle dances at the two-thousand feet mark.

EXT. CROP DUSTER - DAY

We are stationary as the White Cessna buzzes towards us from the left, as it does, we barely get a glimpse of Brian on his Blackberry.

INT. CROP DUSTER - DAY

Our POV is the passenger seat, Brian holds the phone to his ear. A RING, and then a VOICE on the other end, it's Lovely Wife.

LOVELY WIFE
(filtered)
Hey Hon, how's it going?

BRIAN
Good! Say, you know we were talking about finding a way to move?

LOVELY WIFE
(questioning)
Yes?

BRIAN
Well..oh, can you hold a sec, I need to turn around.

LOVELY WIFE
Sure.

Brian sets the phone on his lap, pulls back sharp on the steering column, sending the plane upwards,, tilting our view of the cockpit to forty-five degrees. Short into it, we hear the CLICKING of the rudder pedals, the powered down ENGINE, his fancy footwork.

EXT. CROP DUSTER - DAY

The plane climbs towards us, the cockpit stops just short of our POV, engine almost in a stall, does a perfect one-eighty rotation, giving us a tail view, as we hear the engine ACCELERATE, the plane taking off, slightly downward, then level, in perspective.

INT. CROP DUSTER - DAY

Back to passenger POV, this time he is facing the other direction.

BRIAN
(pumps fist)
Perfect Immelman!!

In his joy over the well-executed maneuver, Brian forgets he was on the phone. He focuses on flying. His phone RINGS.

BRIAN
(mad at himself)
Sorry!

LOVELY WIFE
(polite)
No problem! What were you saying about moving?

BRIAN
(recalls)
Oh yeah, I entered a game of chicken with Count Umkraut, whoever pulls out first must leave South Carolina, should I go for it?

LOVELY WIFE
Hmm, I don't know, I'm still waiting to see what is up with Monster,com, Bernanke said the recession is over, but I don't think people are hiring yet.

EXT. 10,000 FEET ABOVE

The black and white dots move towards each other on a collision course.

BRIAN (O.S.)
Okay, that's cool, I'll just scare the crap out of him!

They laugh together.

LOVELY WIFE (O.S.)
Okay, just be careful up there.

BRIAN (O.S.)
I will Hon, gotta fly, thanks, bye!

We zoom at the same rate the planes are closing in, allowing us to make out their shapes with each passing second.

EXT. BI-PLANE - DAY

We are alongside the villainous Count Umkraut Von Crabgrass, he has his head pointed down but is looking forward, as if that would aerodynamically help his junky, battered plane.

VON CRABGRASS
I got you now, boy! I drink your milkshake!

INT. CROP DUSTER - DAY
We see the Bi-plane sputtering toward us, level, same altitude.

BRIAN (O.S.)
(determined)
Okay, think of something good here, Bri.

The Bi-plane is less than thirty yards away.

Brian throws the flaps, pulls straight back on the controls as hard as possible, the engine whines keeping the plane in the vertical, a brake-stop, blue sky fills the cockpit glass.

INT. BI-PLANE - DAY

Mere feet from a crash into the belly of the Cessna, Von Crabgrass thrusts the joystick straight down in a dive, we pass under the tail of the Cessna, inches from our head.

A spray SQUIRTS out of the Cessna tail, our lens blurred with the gelatin-like goo.

VON CRABGRASS (O.S.)
Aarrghhhhhh!

We can make out his gloved hand as he tries to free each finger, webbed in the gunk.

EXT. SKY - DAY

SLOW MOTION:

A side view of what just happened: the Cessna goes vertical, the Bi-plane enters the frame, dives down below the Cessna tail, then the money shot of goo, straight into our villains cockpit.

END SLOW MOTION

We're stationary as the black Bi-plane spirals downward, eventually disappears, the engine sound fades out. It's silent, seconds later we see a tiny puff on the ground, as if Wile E. Coyote fell into the canyon. We hear a distant BOOM.

EXT. CROP DUSTER - DAY

The Cessna does a fly by.

BRIAN (O.S.)
"Round Up" mixed with Jello, good stuff!

The Cessna flies off into the sun, silhouetted.

FADE OUT

Note: This was a writing exercise for an action film. The technical aspects, concerning POV's and angles, become really apparent in this type of script, it would be easy to leave something out. It's a balancing act of the action description and the famed "over-directing" the scribe is often accused of.