THE GORGE screenplay
the floor filled with lava. Clara is visible on the stone altar, and she is glowing, beatific, like a madonna. The angels are circled around the altar, perched on ledges in a semicircle.
    The interior of the cave is lit with fire, and from the back of the cave, lava bubbles up.

    ACE
    (loud)
    She’s not a virgin.

    He holds his backpack to his chest and wades into the lava, looking down at is pools around his ankles and then knees as he moves deeper.

    CLARA
    They want the baby, Ace.

    ACE
    They come down from heaven a little too early. This world ain’t been washed in enough blood yet.

    Ace wades deeper, the angels getting restless. Something bubbles and a liquid rumble comes from deeper within the cliffs.

    CUT TO:

    EXT. MOUTH OF CAVE. NIGHT.
    At the mouth of the cave, Bowie waits, watching Ace enter. He glances up at the sky. The clouds erupt in rain, the river swelling again. As he turns, his foot kicks something. A pile of bones, both animal and human, ring the outside edge of the cave.

    BOWIE
    No redemption.

    He opens the revolver, checks the chamber—three bullets.

    BOWIE (CONT’D)
    One for you, one for me, and baby makes three.

    He enters the cave.

    CUT TO:

    EXT. BABEL TOWER LEDGE. NIGHT.
    Farrengalli emerges from the cave and goes to help Dove up the rope. She’s having a hard time climbing because she’s holding the cell phone. Farrengalli reaches down to her.

    FARRENGALLI
    Give me the phone.

    DOVE
    You did this.

    FARRENGALLI
    You asked for it, babe.

    DOVE
    You’re nothing—

    SKEEEE . The Castle-thing slams into her, flailing, uncoordinated, but determined. Farrengalli jumps away. Dove screams as fangs and claws tear into her flesh. The cell phone drops from her hands to the rocks far below.

    FARRENGALLI
    Women.

    CUT TO:

    INT.CAVE. NIGHT.
    Ace is waist-deep in the water, moving forward. The creatures are even more restless.

    ACE
    Don’t you angels read the papers? I got something for you. I got something for all the babykillers.

    One of the goregoyles swoops down toward the altar and Clara rolls off the side into the water. The MagLite beam casts a rippling line of light as she pushes away underwater.

    ACE (CONT’D)
    Ye shall know them by their works.

    Ace pulls out the C-4 explosive, rigged with wires, a timer, and a plunger. Clara bobs to the surface and a goregoyle homes in and heads for her.

    BOWIE
    Get underwater! They can’t see you.

    Clara slides back under the dark water as the goregoyle misses her and flies over the surface, confused, unable to locate her.
    Another one soars toward Bowie, who ducks as its knobby limbs brush his body.

    ACE
    Come out, Michael. Gabriel. Joshua. Hell, even Lucifer if you’re here and you’re not too chickenshit.

    Ace is almost to the altar, the creatures still not attacking him, though they are growing restless. The water is almost covering the altar as Ace starts climbing onto it, still holding the explosive.
    Bowie sees Clara’s Maglite beam underwater, she comes up for a quick gasp and is down again, swimming toward him. He eases into the water and meets her, drags her toward the mouth of the cave.

    BOWIE
    Come on, the place is flooding.

    CLARA
    Ace?

    A couple of goregoyles swoop toward them. Bowie fires the revolver at one and the sound melds with the rumble and trembling rocks. Ace is now on the altar, kneeling, holding up the explosives like a sacrament.

    ACE
    Deliver us from evil!

    He triggers the detonator—
    KA-WHOOM .
    Bowie and Clara are propelled out the mouth of the cave as water gushes out, boulders and rocks tumbling around them. The water pushes them away from the avalanche, though small stones bounce off Bowie’s back as he tries to shield Clara.
    They are dragged under the water, but Bowie hangs onto her, flailing and stroking as the current pulls them into the open air.

    CUT TO:

    EXT. BABEL TOWER LEDGE. MORNING.
    Farrengalli crawls out of the cave, exhausted, clothes rumpled. He’s wary as he slinks onto the

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