She Waits – Script / Screenplay

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A war vet recovering from PTSD suffers a setback when his salvage ship goes down in the Bermuda Triangle and he’s the only survivor, but the worst is yet to come as the incident awakens the angry spirit of a love from his past life and no one believes him.

St. George, Bermuda 2012. While towing a broken down barge back from the Bermuda Triangle, PAUL KURTZ encounters a greenish colored fog on the water. A ghost ship suddenly emerges from the mist and suddenly he sees a beautiful woman (SAPHORA) standing on the deck of his ship. She extends her arms and rises into the air just as a ghost ship slams into his vessel. It causes his crew to become mummified and his own ship to turn into rust. Paul is knocked overboard. He sinks into the water and has his first ATLANTIS DREAM: we see feminine hands, caressing him… almost pulling at him into the ocean’s depths. Paul fights the hands off and swims for the surface. We cross-cut Paul being rescued by the Coast Guard as he tries to fight them off as well.

Paul wakes up in the hospital to his wife, a beautiful mulatto woman named CHRISTINA who was born and raised in Bermuda. Paul has a moment alone with the doctor, he inquires what the dreams he had under water may mean. The doctor tells him it was just the loss of oxygen under water. We learn from the conversation that Paul is a Gulf War veteran and he suffers from PTSD. Christina has a difficult time believing him because of a prior drinking problem. MIKE GROGAN is Chief of Police and he comes to the hospital to question Paul about the sinking of his tug boat. Paul explains to him about the mysterious green fog and the woman he saw on his tug boat just before a ghost ship appeared on the water.

Paul returns home from the hospital and that night he has a dream of a ship sinking during a typhoon. Paul is the captain of this ship and the dream only lasts for a few seconds. In his dream he is pulled deeper towards the ocean floor. His vision is clouded and murky…oil seeps through his ears and eyes. He is having sex with a woman underwater. They are both covered in black oil. Paul awakens from the dream drenched in sweat. He goes into the bathroom to wash his face and looks up to see Saphora in mirror standing behind him.

Paul goes to his insurance company the next morning to retrieve a check for the loss of his ship. When he rides away from the office on his motorcycle three Jamaicans attempt to car jack him. One of the thieves hit Paul in the face with a water balloon and they lead him on a wild chase into an alleyway. Paul confronts the men and the fight turns deadly just as a Rastafarian named KOFI JOHNSTON comes to his rescue. Kofi owns a bar called The Cellar and luckily for Paul the alley he is fighting in is just outside this establishment. Together, Paul and his soon-to-be-friend fight the Jamaican gang members. Kofi gives Paul one of his business cards and he invites him to come back to the bar with Christina as his guests.

Paul leaves Kofi and goes to a bridal shop that Christina owns for lunch. Christina is busy sewing a wedding gown when Paul comes in and surprises her. She notices Paul’s injuries and he explains to her what happened. Christina verbally admonishes Paul for fighting and implores him to stay out of trouble. Christina tells Paul they need to have a talk and she asks him if he really saw a woman in the bathroom like he alleges. Paul tells her that he did and it was the woman from his ship.

Paul and Christina pick up their son, JOSEPH for his birthday party at the beach. They have cake, fly kites and go swimming in the surf for fun. Later that evening, there is a disturbance along the beach. Paul goes to investigate the commotion and sees that the mummified body of one of his crewmen has washed up on shore. Paul also finds a gold ingot in the water. He reaches down to pick it up and sees Saphora’s face smiling back at him. Saphora’s hands reach up and grab his hands, pulling the wedding ring from his finger.

Paul attends a wake for his dead crew members and later the funeral for his First Mate, FRED MESSNIER who was also his best friend. Paul sees a woman (Saphora) dressed in white watching him from the tombstones. Paul goes after the apparition and when he catches her he finds out it’s not Saphora. It was just a female mourner. Paul literally runs into the Chief of Police, Mike Grogan, who is also a friend of the family. Mike asks Paul what’s wrong and Paul refuses to tell him. Mike confides in Paul that Christina is worried about him and the visions he keeps having of a woman from his ship. Mike tells Paul that he found the wreck of his tug boat and he had the metal and silver ingot tested. According to a carbon dating report he received of the metal from the tug and silver ingot they were both over nine-thousand years old! Paul tells Mike that the dreams of a ship sinking and the woman he saw in his bathroom are real and he feels like it’s some kind of “deja vu”.

Paul returns home and encounters Saphora again while he is taking a shower. He is having sex with a woman whom he believes is his wife, Christina but it turns out to be the ghostly apparition of the woman from his past. Christina comes home and finds Paul sitting naked in his kitchen. Christina demands an explanation and Paul tells her that he saw the “woman” again in the shower. Christina doesn’t believe Paul and accuses him of having an affair and hitting-the-bottle again because of his behavior and a beer can found on the table. Christina wonders if Paul has been drinking again. Meanwhile, Paul continues to dream – his waking life and his dreaming life blend together. Suddenly the telephone rings. Paul answers and he finds that Mike Grogan is calling him from the Sargasso Sea. Mike tells Paul that he found the wreck of his tug boat and the metal was oxidized and corroded like it had been at the bottom of the ocean for thousands of years. Mike also tells Paul that a coroners report stated that mummified remains of his friend, Fred Messnier indicated that he should have died over nine-thousand years ago. Paul confides in Mike again about his feelings about the woman on the ship and that he believes she is haunting him from a past life. Mike refers Paul to a psychologist that specializes in dream therapy and past like regression. Suddenly a greenish colored fog appears on the water and Mike sees the ghost ship that sank Paul’s vessel. The specter overtakes Mike’s motor boat and it turns everyone onboard into dust.

Paul and Christina decided to have a date night at Kofi’s bar. They meet Kofi in the V.I.P. section of the club along with two friends from Tokyo. Kofi offers them all champagne and Paul refuses which makes Christina extremely proud. Later that night, while on the dance floor a patron spills water on Paul’s shirt. Suddenly, Paul has another vision in which everyone appears to be dancing under water. Paul flees to the parking lot and goes into a trance. Christina follows Paul outside as he becomes the alter ego of a Greek sailor named BRASSIUS. As Brassius, Paul berates Christina and denies knowing her or that he is even married to her. In desperation, Paul steals a car and drives away with it. Christina and Kofi search for Paul all night long. The next morning Paul is arrested for loitering around the dockyards. The officers find Kofi’s business card in Paul’s shirt and phone him. Kofi and Christina drive to the station to bail Paul out of jail. They take Paul home and he tries to explain his actions at the club and his reasons for running away. Paul goes to the bedroom and brings back an old sketchpad that belonged to Christina. Paul asks Christina to look through it and she finds sketches of Saphora and an ancient, wooden ship with three sails and oars. Paul explains that he was the captain of this ship and it sank during a typhoon. Suddenly the telephone rings and Paul receives a call from DIANNE WILSON, who states that she is a licensed hypno-therapist. According to the therapist she was referred to him by Mike Grogan. She asks Paul to come in to her office for past life regression therapy.

Paul drives to Dianne Wilson’s office along with Christina and Kofi. Dianne Wilson uses hypnosis to put Paul under and during the session it’s revealed that in a past life Paul was named Brassius and he was the captain of a Greek merchant ship taking a consignment of valuable silver and gold ingots, perfumes and resins to a colony in the Aegean Islands. During the voyage the ship encountered a greenish colored fog that sent it off course to the island of Atlantis. While exploring the island, they met the ruler, Xercon and his beautiful wife, Saphora. Saphora is a “healer” that can use Fire-Crystals to heal broken bones and other mortal injuries. It is also revealed that Brassius and Saphora became lovers and they plotted to run away together back to Greece. Somehow, Xercon found out and he was going to have them killed. Brassius’ men rescue them and they make it back to the ship. A typhoon develops on the sea and it sinks the ship – killing Brassius, Saphora and his men.

After the session, Dianne Wilson explains to Christina that Paul is the reincarnation of a Greek sailor and Saphora is trying to make contact with him from a past life. Christina is irate and claims that Dianne Wilson’s findings are nothing but bullshit. Paul states that he feels Saphora is not dead and that her spirit is reaching out to him from beyond the grave. Dianne Wilson assures Christina that Paul’s dreams are real and that Saphora is using “water” as a “conduit” to get to him and this makes it possible for her to get to anyone whenever she wants too. Paul asks Dianne Wilson how he can protect his family from Saphora and she explains that by limiting their contact with water this may be the only way to stop her.

Paul spends the next two days trying to “Saphora-proof” their house: he shuts off the water inside and outside the house. Christina thinks that all of Paul’s efforts are a waste of time and she goes to work leaving him deal with the situation on his own.

Creative notes: This is the second draft of this particular version of my screenplay.

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She Waits ©

An Original Screenplay by Robert Grubbs