UNPRODUCED TERMINATOR: HK INTRODUCTION VIDEO SCRIPT / SETUP

 

BETHESDA  SOFTWORKS

  

Presents

  

TERMINATOR: HK

 HUNTER KILLER

 

 

 Powered by the revolutionary XNGINE

 

 

Original Game Concept by Christopher T. Shields

Based on concepts and details explained in the original movies

 and in the movie adaptations

 of

TERMINATOR and T2: JUDGMENT DAY

by

RANDALL FRAKES


 

      Title Shot / Opening Screen View:

 

      Shot 1)  Roll BETHESDA logo.

 

      Elements:  A huge green cursor appears at the left side of the screen, blinks several times, and then with a digital acknowledgement, the cursor rapidly moves across the screen, leaving the words  "BETHESDA SOFTWORKS" behind in TERMINATOR font.

      In the background, the player will start to hear drums, slowly building, leading into the original TERMINATOR theme.  The background music gets louder, building steadily as the logo flashes, and then fades from the screen in old style CRT format.  The music builds as each letter appears like in the movie, slowly spelling out the word TERMINATOR: HK.  As each letter appears and starts its journey across the screen, the names of the design staff and crew appear in green cursor graphics, blink, and fade only to be replaced by the next member's name.  The whole image is very similar to TERMINATOR, the movie, in that the player feels as if they are getting to see the credits of the first movie.

      As the credits finish, the "TERMINATOR: HK   Hunter Killer" Title will have formed on the screen and will solidify into solid, stainless steel logo / title as flames and the sound of a roaring fire lick up around the title.  The T:HK logo will reflect a flash of light which plays across its stainless steel surface.  The title then slowly begins to accelerate away from the player, into the background and finally disappears as the music fades as well, leaving only a slowly receding heavy drum beat.

 

      Setup / Intro Movie-

 

      SETUP-

      Visuals- Black screen with white lettering and verses from the Bible.

 

      "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world." 

                                                      -Ephesians 6:12

 

      "And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle."

                                                      -Revelations 9:9

 

      Pause for 40 seconds or until the end user presses any key.  In either event, fade the screen and roll the Intro Movie.

 

      INTRO MOVIE-   (description)

 

      The screen is black, we hear the sound of wind and the rustle of dust and debris being scattered.  Fade in, show ruined city, CRT text prints out LOS ANGELES, 2028 AD across the bottom left of the screen.  The green luminescent text pauses for 10 seconds, pulses softly and fades away.

      Pan in on a desolate street scene, shattered skyscrapers and store fronts stretch to the horizon.  A full moon rises over the ruins, visible through the skeletal remains of one of the skyscrapers.  A half buried skull fills the lower right of the screen.  The wind blows dust and ash out of the empty eye sockets, almost like tears.  The wind dies down and is replaced with the sound of heavy breathing, growing louder, nearer.

      The sound of heavy breathing is almost deafening when a dirty bare foot suddenly stamps down on the screen, narrowly missing the skull, and continues on.  As the foot lands there comes the sound of a grunt, as if the runner has just completed a jump.  The image of a scavenger in torn clothes, rags, and dirty garments is seen running away from the viewer, into the distance.  We watch as the scavenger recedes into the distance at a steady pace, getting further and further away, the image of the man growing smaller and smaller.

      There are a few seconds of silence, and then the measured whine of servos which gets louder and louder.  Suddenly, a side view of a gleaming chromed skeletal foot falls smoothly down on the aforementioned skull, smashing it like china.  The music (if any) starts to get more intense.  Pan up, past the foot, to take in what the foot belongs to.  The pan view reveals the hydraulic reinforced and powered leg, the torso, and further up to fully reveal the gleaming torso and death's head skull of a T-800 series Terminator holding a plasma rifle.  The scavenger has run away into the distance toward the back of the screen now, out of sight.  The Terminator has entered the screen seemingly from the right, facing at a 90 degree angle away from the running man and the direction that the runner has taken.  It stares straight ahead at the far left of the screen.  There is a whine, and the neck / head motors start, the head swivels to face towards the front of the screen, to the viewer, then the head slowly swivels back towards the right, to the back of the screen, into the distance where the scavenger has just run.  All this action is as if the machine were making a routine scan of the surroundings.

      Cut to full face shot of the Terminator, eyes glowing with the internal power of the unit.  There is a crisp whirring noise as the eye optics rotate, focusing on something beyond the viewer, the whirring sound comes again, the lenses of the eyes rotate and lock and then the machine is silent.

      Cut to previous view of the ruins minus the now crushed skull, only this view is in HK vision.  Everything is tinted red, we hear the internal 'terminator' sound as the HK unit processes all the information that it is taking in.  Many graphics highlight the display, including a compass which shows that the HK is facing NW and gives the exact degree reading.  Different displays for unit operating efficiency, communication channels, random post boot tests of circuitry, etc. appear and fade.  In the upper left corner of the view are the words STATUS: PATROL.  A small box in the lower right side states that the unit is in MODE: SEARCH and TARGET: NEGATIVE.  Other info shows including several performance graphs, mission time elapsed, etc.  Meaningless details that make the view utterly machinelike and efficient.  Some displays appear and then blink, fading away to be replaced by new displays.  Other displays stay longer or don't disappear at all.  The ruins slowly pan across the view, as if the HK unit were actually turning its head.

      Cut back to full face view of the HK unit facing the viewer.  The optics again whir, the head turns slowly from left to right as it tries to make a complete circle of its new vantage point.  The head stops, and then quickly turns to face the viewer.  More optics whir as the lenses try to lock.

      Cut back to HK visual.  See something move in the distance, something far away just a glimmer of movement.  New message appears on the screen, in large letters.  MOTION ANOMALY: CONTACT.  MOTION: TRACKING.  This text is larger than the other text, brighter by somewhat, and stays on a little longer.  The text blinks and fades.  A white box centers around the movement in the distance and new text appears beside the highlighted box.  TELEOPTIC ZOOM: 4X.  We hear the whir of lenses being adjusted.  The box enlarges, to show details of a figure running.  The box is now 4 times bigger than it was, about 1/10 the size of the screen, the rest of the screen is non-changing, but the image in the zoom box is changing constantly.  The text TELEOPTIC ZOOM: 8X appears, the lenses whir, and the box doubles in size, clearly showing the scavenger running away.  The image of the scavenger is suddenly painted in a bright white outline, the increased sound of processing is heard and a mechanical "SCHNICK" sound is heard.  The HK unit has acquired the target.  Several more lines of text now appear in and around the zoom box, including:

      STATUS: TARGET ACQUISITION

      TARGET: ACQUIRED

      MODE: INTERCEPT

      SUBROUTINE: TERMINATE

      Cut back to full length shot of HK unit.  The HK turns its body, and starts to run forward, toward the back of the screen, away from the viewer, gaining speed and receding into the distance, chasing its new target.

      Show man stop in the middle of the street, turns a corner, and hides behind the corner.  The scavenger bends over, catches breath in huge gasps, the constant running has started to fatigue him.  As his breathing starts to get shallow, he turns to the right, glancing around the corner, hearing a noise.  He is unshaven, long haired, a ruin dweller, not a member of the organized military Resistance.  This doesn't matter, just a point that is made to the viewer that all human life whether armed or unarmed, is forfeit to the machines.  Scavenger turns at the sound and the viewer hears it too; mechanical servos, gaining in sound and pitch.

      Cut to show full face of the scavenger as he turns, his long hair flows past the camera, blocking our view of his face as he looks quickly over his shoulder.

      Cut to show full face of the scavenger now, looking over his shoulder, his eyes widen and he mumbles "Nooooooo!".

      Cut to show full scene, the scavenger turns to face the viewer and breaks into a full run.  A few seconds into the run, he throws his head back again to judge the distance between himself and the HK unit.  Cut to show man running away from the viewer, his body speeding forwards toward a ruined building, his head turned to the viewer, looking over his left shoulder.

      Cut to image of street, the HK unit is coming at a full run toward the viewer, getting larger with each step closer.  The sound of the servos is loud and growing by the second.

      Cut to show full scene listed above again.  EXACT same scene where a few seconds into the run, the scavenger throws his head back again, looking over his left shoulder, to judge the distance between himself and the HK unit only this time, it is in HK video.  The symbols are back and we hear the internal processing sounds.  A stylized cross hair is trying to line up on the fleeing man but the scavenger keeps dodging, ducking behind debris, etc. to put cover between himself and the machine.  Show a range figure from the laser range finder of the HK unit.  48.3 meters and closing about two meters a second.

      Show running scavenger.  He slips and falls, quickly picks himself up and ducks into a blasted ruin, throwing himself up against a cracked concrete wall, flattening himself and spreading his arms to support himself as he tries to become one with the shadows.  He is very tired of running.  He starts to catch his breath, we hear the labored breathing, but he isn't moving.  His eyes dart left and right as we hear the approaching servos.

      Cut to HK unit.  It arrives on the scene, the scavenger is no where to be seen.  Show HK video, scan area with graphics, text IR CONTACT: NEGATIVE.  MOTION CONTACT: NEGATIVE.  VISUAL CONTACT: NEGATIVE.  All three 'negatives' flash rapidly and disappear from the screen.  New text appears:  BEGIN REDUNDANT SEARCH SUBROUTINE.  Show the HK unit's head, full shot, optics whirring, as it scans from left to right.  As it turns to a side profile, show the details of the cyberaudio units.  These look like the covers of speakers and they vibrate visibly as they operate, whirring softly as they dilate and adjust.

      Cut to HK video.  Panning across the ruined store fronts, stop, suddenly pan back to the left to the wall where the viewer knows that the scavenger is hiding.   New text appears and a rotating cross-hair appears in the lower right corner, slowly moving up to stop exactly on the center of the section of wall where the scavenger is hiding.  As the cross hair makes it journey across the HK video, we hear the computer processing, and new graphics appear along with wave table displays, strength meters, range displays, updates to status, mode, and subroutines, etc.  The words PARABOLIC ACOUSTIC TRACKING: CONTACT appears.  A small box with a strength meter appears, like a sine wave, and the sound of the scavenger breathing along with the man's fast beating heart is heard.  With each breath and heart beat, a pair of sine waves appear on the small display, overlapping each other and rising and falling.  Cut to to a close up view of the Endoskeleton's eyes.  They whir in their sockets as the head snaps thirty degrees towards the target in a machine-like knowing / feeling of satisfaction.  Fade back to targeting vision display.  Once the cross hair lands on the exact spot on the wall, the display blinks and fades.  A new display appears, showing the outline of the acoustic contact (a rough humanoid outline drawn in green, where the scavenger is hiding.  It is as if the HK is seeing through the wall, though it is more a highly accurate prediction of the target location and stature).  More data appears, showing possible elevations for weapons tracking, and a weapons track along with arrows showing possible target evasion and escape directions.  When the weapon is to be fired is highlighted with arrows and more cross hairs, etc.  The text PROGRAM: TERMINATE,  MODE: PURGE,  SUBROUTINE: TACTICAL appears as we see the barrel of the plasma rifle rise, slowly tracking along the projected path.  The sound of internal processing rises and falls.

      Cut to scavenger, realizing that he's made perhaps the last mistake of his life.  He turns his head left and right, shouts "Noooooo!" again and leaps off the wall, forward and slightly away from the viewer, at an angle, trying to desperately claw and sprint his way out of the killing zone.  But it is too late.

      Show HK video, the outline of the man is moving now, but the plasma rifle is already in position and it barks a short burst of machine gun like fury.  A burst of high glowing crimson bolts penetrate the wall, sparking as they burn through the 'thin' material that is concrete.  We see the outline image of the scavenger, parts of the outline become ragged and a bright white circle appears around the torso of the outline, expands slightly, and then grows dim as the outline starts to fall into a heap.  This is the computer graphical generation of an exploding torso, massive collateral damage that the viewer is spared from seeing.  The text PROBABILITY OF TARGET TERMINATION: 99.875% appears, blinks and fades.  STATUS: VERIFICATION OF TERMINATION.  STATUS: REQUIRED.

      Cut to a slightly different view of the street.  We see just the barest tip of a human torso laying in the street, there is a jagged, blackened hole and white, burnt ends of ribs showing through.  A trail of black smoke and the sound of sizzling meat comes to the viewer as the HK unit appears.  It scans the victim once, looking down at the bottom of the screen, and then turns its head, as if trying to acquire another target.  We pan up from the scene until we see the moon, once again through the skeletal remains of the blasted skyscrapers.  Slowly fade to black as we hear the wind and the sound of sizzling and the sound of servos and optics.

      Query user to PRESS ANY KEY.

     

      Go to Main Screen.

 

      Main Screen.

 

 

______________________________

RETURN