Then: a VOICE breaks through the static on the radio.
RADIO: Coast Guard Portland Station to Annabelle: Do you read me?
As the mate starts to answer, lightning STRIKES the huge mast. It CRASHES through the pilothouse window, SMASHING the radio. Glass, radio parts FLY.
The Captain’s shoulders slump: now they’re done for.
ON THE DECK – NIGHT
The Captain comes out on deck: his men stare at him, eyes full of fear, desperation. Then, impossibly… the WINDS TRAIL OFF. In seconds, the sea flattens into a sheet of glass. All is DEAD CALM. It’s eerie. Ropes CREAK. The men ERUPT in celebration, CHEERING, hugging each other: it’s over! The angry Captain YELLS:
CAPTAIN: It’s not over, you idiots! It’s just the eye of the storm!
The men look around: far off on the horizon, the raging storm still surrounds the ship… but overhead, stars appear. It’s eerie, strange.
FISHERMAN: Look!
Overhead, a new, brilliant star appears… and it’s quickly growing larger. The blazing light speeds toward the startled sailors, impossibly fast, intensely bright, blinding, all goes white…
KAWHOOSH! The light CRASHES into the sea. Water flies, the sea BOILS, CHURNING, ROARING, the water green-lit from below. Great clouds of steam BILLOW and HISS.
Then, without warning, the raging storm ROARS back with a vengeance, a huge wave SLAMS into the ship. Again the fishermen fight for their lives.
But then a dim light appears, far off in the rain: a barely visible beam sweeps back and forth in the storm.
CAPTAIN: The lighthouse! Head for it!
The desperate men struggle to steer their limping ship toward the light. Then, CLANG! The ship shudders, stops instantly: the ship has SLAMMED into… a wall! A solid wall, a wall made of… iron?
The sailors freeze, speechless: they look up the wall, up, up… flashes of lightning illuminate: a face! Twin beams of light comes from what look to be… eyes, in an enormous face. A giant?! Made of metal!
THUNDER BOOMS. The impossible face seems to turn downward… and looks at the men. The men quake.
A HUGE WAVE CRASHES over the ship and throws the men overboard, into the sea. The ship begins sinking fast.
IN THE WATER, NEAR THE CLIFFS – NIGHT
Men surface, cling to ship debris. Two men in a lifeboat pull their comrades from the chill waters.
A wave WASHES over rocks, leaves behind a limp fisherman, clinging to the rocks. Barely alive, whipped by wind and rain, he sees lightning-brief glimpses of the giant thing as it moves off in the HOWLING storm and disappears.
The VIEW MOVES up, up the rocky cliff to the lighthouse perched atop the cliff. The brilliant beam tries in vain to penetrate the RAGING storm…
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