Roswell Theogony

_________
Act 5
-----------------------------------------------Credits

EXTERIOR - DAY

Title over: North Africa, the Mediterranean Sea

ANCIENT ROMAN RUINS OF Leptis Magna

RHEA is standing on the edge of the crumbled marble ruins on

the edge of the lovely beach, with white sand, looking
solemnly north out to Sea.
She is a GODDESS, still 20 years old, but in beautiful
hairstyle and clean white, long toga gowns, and barefoot.
GAIA steps up next to her, out of nowhere, also as seen
before - maybe 70 years old - in clean white gowns and
lovely hair too. She looks out to Sea as well.

GAIA
Beautiful.
RHEA (angrily)
What am I doing here?
GAIA
You know. You are the Great Mother Goddess.
RHEA
I thought you were.
GAIA
Let's sit in the shade of the palm trees. This African Sun
has always been too much for me.
RHEA
Damnit, Ge, where is my child?
GAIA
Let's sit. I'll tell you all.
RHEA
You sit. I know you had something to do with it.
GAIA
Rhea -RHEA
This was Elysion wasn't it?
GAIA
Yes. The first Martian Base on Earth. Even long before Egypt
and Greece. It reminded us of home. Now it is the Roman
ruins of Leptis Magna, on the Libyan coastline of course;
where Tritone and Eleusis began your original ceremonies, by

the way.
RHEA
My ceremonies?
GAIA
Your Descendants will live here in a few years time, by the
way. In seventeen years in 1962, to be exact.
RHEA
So it is still 1945? Where is my Child?
GAIA
Dead.
RHEA cries, and then angrily slaps GAIA.
RHEA
Damn you! I know you were behind it!
GAIA
Yes. But that's not the end of it. You notice I said "Your
Descendants"?
RHEA
Mars! Greece? It's ridiculous. I am a mortal woman in
Kansas, for God's sake. How can -GAIA
Sit down and shut up!
RHEA
Damn you!
GAIA
You want to know the truth or not?
RHEA

You just said I already do.

GAIA
Then act like it. You can rescue and reconstitute your
famous son, if you'll just listen to me and -RHEA
Son?
GAIA
Yes. I'm trying to help him, and you, but we must first go
in to the complete Ceremony, and then -RHEA
You've known this all along? When were you going to tell me?
If ever?
GAIA
I'm telling you now. I brought you here today.
RHEA
And who made you the Imperator and Judge? Where is my Baby?!
GAIA
Nyx and Erebus stole him away into the Night and Darkness.
Nyx is, as you should know, the sole parent on her own of
Hypnos and Thanatos, Sleep and Death.
RHEA
Why should I know that?
GAIA
They are one version of one Greek mythos as a Creation Myth.
It's as good a narrative as any, for our purposes, for now.
RHEA
Greek? I'm from Kansas.
GAIA

What do you think Kansas is? Or was, rather? Cowboys and

farmers? Wake up, Woman.
RHEA
Maybe I will sit down.

They sit in the shade of several lovely palm trees on the

beach.

GAIA
The Mediterranean Sea is my favorite. You have forgotten it,
that's all. Memory is Prophesy, as I believe some Greek
philosopher might have said. Fate as a Necessity, you know,
is how, so that, we can know what happens next.
RHEA
For instance what Descendants I may have here on these
shores in seventeen years?
GAIA
If you can save him.
RHEA
From who? From what? Nyx and Erebus?
GAIA
Yes.
RHEA
Why should they have done that? And who or what are -GAIA
Will you just listen for a few minutes? It'll pop into your
brain. In Hesiod's Theogony -RHEA

As good a start as any?

GAIA
-- Nyx is born of Chaos.
RHEA
That's about right.
GAIA
With Erebus, Darkness, Nyx gave birth to Aether and Day.
Never mind the Greek words for them, we'll try to speak
mostly in good Kansas American English for you.
RHEA (sarcastic)
Thanks.
GAIA
Nyx, rather than Chaos, according to the prophet Orpheus,
was the first principle from which all creation emerges. A
Dark Cosmos - all that Black Space out there. In addition to
Hesiod and Homer, and Orpheus - which, whom, I'm sure, got
their information originally from the Egyptians, who of
course got their facts -RHEA
From Mars, yeah, where else.
GAIA
Good guess.
RHEA (shrugs)
Why not?
GAIA
You don't believe it?
RHEA
Are you ever going to get to the point?

GAIA
Darkness always gave oracles or counsels from a cave-like
temple that was not exactly in the Underworld, Underground
on Earth, but rather on the dark side of the Earth, away
from the Sun, at night. And she still hovers on the Dark
Side of the Moon, mostly out of sight of "Earthians".
RHEA
"Earth-shuns?"
GAIA
Skip a few Aeons. Ages. You already know about Mars and the
"Stones" or Seeds flying here to Earth because the Red
Planet was dying naturally, of old age. Whether you think
you know it or not. I know you do. This is where you come
in. We had to find "healing for Death, and defense against
Old Age", as Apollo sang in one of the Homeric Hymns.
RHEA
Good.
GAIA
You have even heard of The Eleusinian Mysteries, which
really go into it all, derived originally here from the
Libyan city of Elysion, as you mentioned, as the birthplace,
or arrival point, of some of the key Ancestors of ours. The
Greeks ably carried on the knowledge and the ceremony.
Solutions to your dilemna, which is everybody's too, can be
achieved only if the two sciences, archaeology and the
history of comparative religions, are properly co-ordinated.
The Greeks have a language semi-coherent to us folks today,
which helps to translate the almost indecipherable Egyptian
and Martian hieroglyphics. We have to go with the Greek
interpretations, I'm afraid, for now.
RHEA
Martian and Egyptian just too "Alien", huh?
GAIA

I'll ignore that. I'm glad to see you have some sense of
humor returning. You'll need it. The Snake Goddess appeared
clearer around 8,000 B.C., 10,000 years ago, in this neck of
Africa. When the Sahara Desert was encroaching on the green
verdure of the Hill of Graces, as Herodotus called this
region - the Triple Cities.
RHEA
Snake Goddess, eh? Was that you?
GAIA
The Homeric style effaced and excluded that archaic
subterranean realm, and brought us up another several
thousand years or so out of the prehistoric gloom, into the
familiar names of Zeus, Persephone, and Dionysos!

CUT:
INTERIOR - DAY - FLAGSTAFF

A CAFE, in the Weatherford Hotel, with 1945 style; of people

eating and moving around.
KAY and JACK are sitting at a table eating lunch - he in his
AAF uniform still, and she, solemn, grim.
JACK
I came as soon as I could.
KAY
Months have gone by, Jack, and all I got was cryptic 'love
letters'. I don't know if it was insulting, or what.
JACK
But I do love you, Kay. I'm sorry I couldn't be here for you
and your father, and Molly, but I really was in the middle
of the War. How is he?

KAY
Awful.
JACK
May I see him?
KAY
I don't know.
JACK
Kay, my Dearest, I'm sorry. Will you marry me?
KAY
What?
JACK
I love you. Please. When we were ... well ... All I could
think about was you. You know all about the headlines, in
Japan, and the War and the Superbombs. I was there. The War
is over, thank God. Thank God. I'm home. I'm back. Stationed
in Roswell. We can get married there.
KAY
Yes. Oh. I do love you too.
JACK
I bought an engagement ring.

He puts a ring on her finger right there at the table in the

Cafe, with a few other curious women watching them.
KAY
Oh it's beautiful.
JACK
Yes?

KAY
Yes.
They get up, pay the bill, and leave.

EXT. - DAY

Walking up the street toward her home, holding hands.

JACK
Oh, I can breathe again.
KAY
Was it that bad?
JACK
Yes. I wish I could tell you, but it's still ...
classified ... for some reason, even though it's in all in
the newspapers.

In VOICEOVERS, GAIA and RHEA also are talking.

RHEA (voiceover)
The divorce from Jack was final on September 24, 1945.
GAIA (v.o.)
Zeus.

KAY
Jack, my Dear, don't take this the wrong way, but Daddy ...
thought he was being followed by Government Agents.

JACK
Because of me?
KAY
Well, partly. The Doctors thought he was being paranoid
schizophrenic or -JACK
No, he was right.
KAY
What?
JACK
They are following me all the time, still, because of my
work. It's not paranoia.
KAY
But Daddy was getting so violent about it and ... fighting
the Babbitts destroying the water springs up on the Peaks,
and putting in that awful ski area road, tearing up the land
... the drinking didn't help of course. He'd always had a
bad temper -JACK
They've told me I could go to Leavenworth Prison for twenty
years, if I ever say anything. I shouldn't even be telling
you this.
KAY
Oh my.
JACK
I'm sorry. It has put you and your family in danger.
KAY
But ... it was the war effort? Surely now, with the war over
--

JACK
No. Oh, I don't know. Maybe I'm imagining it all, and that
someone is watching me all the time. Listening.
KAY
No. How could they?
JACK
Kay, my Dearest, there is so much I wish I could tell you.

They get up to the O'Brien House, and go in the front.

KAY
Now, please, Jack, I've explained it to you, so, please, be
prepared, try not to be shocked. It's so horrible as it is.

INT. - THE HOUSE

Same as before, except MOLLY opens the door, and ... DAVE is
sitting in his pajamas by the kitchen door, with a scraggly
beard and unbrushed hair, smoking a cigarette listlessly.
MOLLY
Oh Jack, it is so good to see you, safe and sound.
JACK
You too Molly, I've missed you folks. I'm sorry I haven't
been able to keep in touch very well. The War ...
MOLLY
Dave, guess who's here. Lieutenant Jack Scott.
JACK
Hello Dave, how ya doing?

DAVE (blank)
Cigarette.
JACK
Cigarette? Yeah, I have my Lucky Strikes. What's your brand?
DAVE
Cigarette.
JACK
It's good to be back in the States, Dave. The War took a
toll on us all.
MOLLY
You're looking good, Jack. I'm sorry Dave isn't feeling a
hundred percent today.
JACK
Oh that's all right.
KAY (kissing Dave on the cheek)
Hi Daddy.

He doesn't respond at all.

MOLLY
Let's go out on the porch, shall we. Dave, I made some fresh
coffee?
DAVE
Cigarette.
KAY goes out on the front porch.

CUT:

EXT. - BACK AT HE SEA

GAIA and RHEA sitting in the shade, as if they've just seen

the scene in Flagstaff.
RHEA
My God. Who was that?
GAIA
In Heaven?

VOICEOVERS of KAY, and MOLLY:

MOLLY (voiceover)
They called it a "lobotomy", Jack? I never heard of it
before. They told me it would be perfectly safe. I didn't
know.
KAY (v.o.)
It wasn't you fault, Molly.

RHEA
You did it to Ouros didn't you? Father Sky. Everyone knows
the story. Castrated God! And I'm supposed to trust you?!
I'm supposed to ... we're all taught the stories, yeah.
Osiris butchered up too, by his wife Isis, and her lover the
brother Set, or Seth in the Bible. We all know the stories.
And they're true aren't they? You talk about the science of
religion?
GAIA
At every stage in its development the liturgy somehow formed
a coherent whole with its own inner logic.

RHEA
Somehow? And my Son had to be murdered in my womb for
some ... some ... initiation rites of primitive peoples?
GAIA
All that can be demonstrated is that among archaic peoples
there are myths and rites based on the belief that plant
nourishment and procreation - which are seen to be closely
related - first came into being through the violent death
of a divine being.
RHEA
My Son?
GAIA
The original myth, I should like to intercalate, speaks
rather of an apparent death, which resulted in the
dissemination and procreation of life, but in the imitation
of the myth, in the cult, this seeming death is reflected in
actual sacrifices.
RHEA
Sacrifices? Like that poor man? And I just got divorced,
how's that for a sacrifice? I'm the laughing stock of my
town. Teenage girls point their fingers at me on the street
and laugh. My mother kicked me out of our house!
GAIA
I'm sorry. You have a greater marriage task.
RHEA
How?
GAIA
Plato wrote in Phaedrus that "Spirits" were made to appear
at Eleusis, in the Eleusinian Mysteries. The Greek
playwrights also suggested it, in Oedipus at Colonus and
The Birds and Prometheus Bound. Herodotus wrote that many
citizens of Athens underwent the highest degree of

initation: springing from the perplexity of the soul, such

as you are experiencing, and not only of woman's conscious
mind. They are the most sacred Mysteries which hold the
whole human race together.
RHEA (cynical)
Great.
GAIA
Rhea, my Daughter, you must go into the Underworld to
restore your son back to life.
RHEA
How? I'll do it.
GAIA
You already know how.
RHEA
Blessedness.
GAIA
It was achieved through participation in a rite. We have to
restore that rite, no less. At Roswell. Yes, an inequality
was created between the initiate and the profane, a division
here and now, by virtue of which one group is blessed while
the others go to their death in imperfection and
uncertainty. The end of existence has taken on two faces.
RHEA(getting up)
Let's go.
GAIA
My six daughters of the Muses will help us. There they are,
swimming nakedly on the beach. Silly brats.
RHEA
I thought there were nine?

GAIA
Three months are still needed to grow in a goddess's womb,
yes.

Down the beach 6 Muses which we saw in Act 4 are swimming

and running happily, full-grown young women.

CUT:

EXT. - DAY - FLAGSTAFF

THE CHURCH

JACK and KAY are just coming out of the Church on to the
street, with FATHER EDDIE. He is handing Jack several thick
church brochures.

EDDIE
These pamphlets will help you to understand, Jack.
JACK
Thank you, Father.
EDDIE
The Catholic Church requires the non-Faithful to promise
their children will be raised as Catholics, in order to
allow a sanctified marriage.
JACK
I understand. Our children will be baptized Catholics, and
are required to follow all the Sacraments?

KAY
Including going to Mass every Sunday and Holy-days.
EDDIE
Yes. Oh, good morning Doctor Slipher.

DOC, who we saw before at the Lowell Observatory, is walking

by on the street, with a young woman, VERA - of course all
of them in 1945 fashions.
DOC
Morning, Father. Oh hello Kathleen, and Lieutenant, remember
me?
JACK
I certainly do. good morning.
DOC
And this is our new graduate student, Vera Rubin, who's
studying galactic light.
VERA
And darkness. Good morning.
They all shake hands and exchange greetings.
EDDIE
God's galactic lights, I hope?
VERA
Well, we Jews have a slightly different view than you do.
DOC
Actually, Vera comes to us from Vassar College for a
sabbatical at the Lowell Observatory, which has led us to
think a lot about what Fritz Zwicky has suggested that large
amounts of "dark matter" might exist.

EDDIE
Dark matter?
VERA
We think there is a growing consensus that most of the
matter in our Universe is nonluminous.
JACK
Really? You mean all that black space out there?
VERA
In-betwen the tiny amount of light from stars, yes,
Lieutenant.
KAY
Fascinating.
VERA
I'm working on my master's thesis to study the motion of
numerous individual stars in galaxies by observing light of
a specific frequency that is emitted by hydrogen atoms.
EDDIE
Well, you'll have to excuse me, I have an appointment
inside. Have a good trip Kay, and let me know when you talk
to the Base Chaplain at Roswell for Jack's cathechism
lessons, if he has any questions for me I'll be glad to
answer. Good morning.
KAY
Good morning Father, and thank you.

Eddie goes back inside.

DOC

Are you leaving us, Kathleen?

KAY
We're getting married, Doctor Slipher. Yes.
DOC
Oh, congratulations. When is the happy day?
KAY
Oh, I'm afraid not for a few months, until Jack completes
his Catholic Bible lessons, which are required for a nonCatholic to marry into the Church.
DOC
Oh, is that right?
JACK
We're flying out this afternoon, on a bi-plane I borrowed. I
have to report back for duty tomorrow.
DOC
My goodness, sounds like a grand adventure.
KAY
Yes, I can hardly wait. I've never been in an airplane.
JACK
But ... may I ask you Vera ... what do you mean by black
matter?
VERA
Good question. We're not sure what we mean.
DOC
And a lot of our colleagues don't agree about it all.
They've been rather rude in fact. About like their contempt
for Doctor Lowell.
VERA

Lieutenant, my measurements, and Dr. Zwicky's, suggest that

groups. or clusters, of galaxies might be rotating around a
previously unrecognized central point within each cluster,
not just expanding outward as was believed. To explain this
motion, a huge quantity of mass would have to be present to
keep the galaxies in their orbits.
KAY
Galaxies?
VERA
In fact, I have found that the quantity of mass needed to
explain the motion was greater than the total mass of the
stars within the galaxies.
JACK
The mathematics don't add up.
VERA
No. Exactly. The stars were simply not numerous enough to
explain my observations, and I had to conclude that some
sort of invisible matter must also be present.
KAY
Black matter?
DOC
Pure darkness. Absolute blackness. We have long thought 95%
of the Universe was an empty black Void, but now we suspect
there is something there.
VERA
Something very very mysterious. I don't think it has any
gravity, nor is it made of atoms.
JACK
That's impossible.
VERA

But it's there.

JACK
No atomic weight or gravity. How can that be? Is Einstein
wrong?
DOC
I don't know, Lieutenant. But I think Dr. Einstein also
himself is questioning it, exploring the mathematics, with
his frustrating 'General Field Theory'. He may be on the
track of it, though.
KAY
What do you mean?
VERA
Well, Kathleen, women are not even allowed into the hallowed
precincts of the American Astronomical Society, so I can't
even present my experiments to them for discussion and
analysis.
KAY
You're not even allowed -DOC
No, that's why Lowell Observatory has invited her here to do
some work and talk to us further. Her calculations look very
accurate to me.
VERA
Flagstaff has been very gracious to me. It must be the timehonored tradition Doctor Lowell set up for scientific
exploration.
JACK
What are you working on now?
VERA
Well, I suspect the Andromeda Nebula's rotation might be a

ripe area for the spectroscopic survey of emission regions.

KAY
Oh, you lost me!
VERA
I've lost myself too, Kathleen, don't feel bad.
JACK
Really, fascinating, terrific, I must say. I'm constantly
amazed at the people and ideas coming out of this quaint
little town. But I'm afraid we have a plane to catch.
DOC
Oh certainly, and we have the Clark telescope reserved for
this afternoon. Good luck Kathleen, Jack.
KAY
Thank you. We'll follow your career and ideas closely, Vera.
VERA
And we'll follow yours too. Very nice to meet you.

They all go their separate ways on the sidewalk.

CUT:

ROSWELL - DAY - EL CAPITAN MOUNTAIN

GAIA and RHEA are sitting on the Clearing where we saw

before, in front of a big CAVE OPENING.
GAIA
Sophokles wrote, "Thrice blessed are those among men who,

after beholding these rites, go down to Hades. Only for them

is there life; all the rest will suffer an evil lot."
RHEA
It's coming back to me,
studied as a child in
beholding this, enters
knows the end of life

slowly. I loved the Pindar quote we

Athens: "Blessed is he who, after
upon the way beneath the earth: he
and its beginning given by Zeus!"
GAIA

Krinogoras of Lesbos; also, the Roman Cicero wrote in his

treatise On the Laws about Eleusis: "We have been given a
reason not only to live in joy but also to die with better
hope."
RHEA
Jack Scott is Zeus, you say?
GAIA
He went through his own apotheosis with the atomic
thunderbolts.
RHEA
And we are back, now, in Roswell?
GAIA
As the new Sacred Precinct, since Libya and Greece are
overrun with cement plants and war depots, over the hallowed
ruins of Eleusis and Leptis Magna.
RHEA
And Abydos in Egypt.
GAIA
Isokrates wrote: "Participation in the Eleusinian Mysteries
offered a guarantee of life without fear of death, of
confidence in the face of death."
RHEA

They formed a bond uniting the whole human race, like it had
the whole Martian race; and this was the need for a bulwark
against death.
GAIA
Then the Jewish-Christians came along and destroyed it all,
wiped out the temples and priestesses of Eleusis and Delphi,
Dodona and Siwa Ammon. Rhea, the collapse of our Mysteries
led to millenia of the savage "Dark Ages", where we still
are. Our "Cult of the Dead" needs to be revived and
restored, right here on this sacred mountain slope of the
ancient Apaches and Pueblo Mayans. We don't need an
elbaorate marble temple, or any buildings at all. That's not
how it all started, countless Ages ago. We will announce
ourselves in dramatic, extraterrestrial fashion very soon,
just as soon as Zeus and Persephone arrive, and are married;
and you can go in the cave of Plouton, right here, and
rescue your son Dionysos!

CUT:

DAY - IN THE AIR - FLYING

An old Two-winged Bi-Plane floating slowly and gracefully

over Flagstaff, and around the Sacred Mountain.
JACK in the rear seat, Kay in the front, with old helmets
on, roaring along in the wind on a clear beautiful day.
KAY (shouting)
It does, it does look like Mars from up here!
JACK
Yeah! Especially around Sedona! Those red cliffs1
They keep flying, east, over the vast desert.
THEN:

KAY
Where are we now?
JACK (pointing)
Los Alamos!
More flying.
THEN:
Circling around EL CAPITAN, and into ROSWELL airport,
sunset.
KAY
Wonderful!
JACK
Roswell!

CUT:
INT. - NIGHT - O'BRIEN HOME, FLAGSTAFF
MOLLY and DAVE are sitting in the living room. She has the
local newspaper.
MOLLY
Oh, here it is, Dave. On the 'Flagstaff Social, Club and
Church News' of the Coconino Sun, April 26, 1946: "MISS
KATHLEEN O'BRIEN AND LT. W. JACK SCOTT WED IN NEW MEXICO Word was received here early this week of the marriage of
Miss Kathleen O'Brien, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Dave
O'Brien, and Lt. W. J. Scott, which took place Thursday
afternoon, April 18, at 3 o'clock at the Army Air Base
chapel in Roswell, New Mexico with the Catholic chaplain
officiating. The couple returned to Roswell Monday, after
spending a short honeymoon trip at the Ruidoso summer
resort, and will make their home there for the time being.
The bride has been living in Roswell the past several
months, after graduating last spring from St. Joseph's

School of nursing at Phoenix. She is a graduate of Flagstaff

High School and has a host of friends here."

DAVE gets up and goes out on the porch, and proudly waves
his hand to the sky.
DAVE
Kathleen!

CUT:

INT. - DAY - ROSWELL AAF, OFFICER'S CLUB

KAY in a white nurse's uniform, is having lunch at a table

with JACK, TIBBETS, BOB LEWIS, and FEREBEE in their
uniforms; in a crowded busy lunch room of the Officer's
Club, noisy with talking and dishes, etc.
BOB
Did you hear who the new C.O. of the 509th is going to be?
Butch Blanchard!
TIBBETS (laughing)
You've got to be kidding?
BOB
No, there he is over there, with the new Intel Officer Major
Jesse Marcel, and that kid who looks like he's in high
school is the new Public Relations guy, Lieutenant Walter
Haut I think.

They look over at another table, with BLANCHARD, MARCEL, and

HAUT also having lunch.

FEREBEE
Jesus Christ, this is the post-War future?
KAY
What's funny, Colonel?
TIBBETS
Oh my god, Kay, tell 'em the story of Blanchard, Jack.
JACK
No way, Colonel, I'm going to have to work under him.
BOB
Unbelievable.
TIBBETS
It was about a year ago, Kay, on Tinian, before I took off
in the Enola Gay for Hiroshima. Colonel Blanchard was
General LeMay's Operations Officer, and they still felt
strongly that a "regular" crew, a "known quantity" from one
of the more battle-hardened groups, should fly the mission.
LeMay told me he wanted to send Butch up on a training ride
with me and my crew just to satisfy the requirement that we
knew what we were doing.
BOB
So we took him up for a spin, Kay, later that day.
KAY
I'm starting to have an idea what that means.
TIBBETS
I took my time over the pre-flight checks. Blanchard was
keenly watching us and listening to each instruction and
every response of the crew. Lewis was strapped in the copilot's seat, where Jack usually is when he flies with me.
Van Kirk was in the navigator's table, Ferebee in the

bombardier's position, Duzenbury was at the engineer's

panel, Nelson at the radio, Shumard and Stiborik in the
blister turrets and Caron in the rear turret.
KAY
Was that the same crew you flew over Hiroshima?
BOB
Yep.
FEREBEE
In the bomb-bay was a single blockbuster filled with high
explosives, and the fuel tanks carried enough for the
roundtrip to the nearby island of Rota and back to Tinian.
JACK
Rota was still crawling with Jap soldiers who hadn't
surrendered.
FEREBEE
Paul only gave us a few hours' notice of the flight.
BOB
But he warned us that Blanchard would be looking for the
slightest excuse to trip us up. When Paul taxied out to the
end of the huge airstrip and awaited clearance to take-off,
and he gunned it, just as the wheels were about to leave the
ground, he feathered an engine!
The men all laugh uproariously.
KAY
What does that mean?
JACK
Many of the Tinian crashes on take-off happened because an
engine failed at that critical moment. We saw some bad ones.
BOB

Paul fought the yawning movement and brought the bomber back
on course and began deftly to coax it in the air.
TIBBETS
I like that "deftly" part.
BOB
Then he ordered a second engine to be cut! On the same side!
FEREBEE
Jesus!
JACK
And so, on two engines, they slowly began to climb, carrying
a five-ton bomb.
BOB
Banking the B-29, dipping the wing with the silent engines
towards Tinian, Paul offered Blanchard to enjoy the
excellent view of what was the world's largest operational
airfield.
TIBBETS
I could see that Blanchard however was not interested in
sight-seeing; his eyes were glued on the two propellers
gently windmilling in the air.

The men are roaring with laughter; Blanchard looks over at

them, andthey point at him, and laugh more.
BLANCHARD (shoots them the finger)
Fucking pilots.
BOB
Paul winked at me, Kay, right up there, and he increased the
aircraft's bank until the bomber seemed to be standing on
one wing!

TIBBETS
Blanchard yelled, "Okay, you motherfuckers, I'm satisfied
with engine performance. Let's head for Rota."
BOB
We levelled off and at full power roared over to the island.
Ferebee plopped the bomb in a bull's-eye, and then, without
warning Blanchard, plunged that bird into a death-defying
155-degree nose dive and turn.
JACK
When that happens, Honey, the tail starts chattering and the
whole airplane judders like it's coming to pieces.
FEREBEE
And then, oh my god, some sort of inhuman strangled cry came
up from Blanchard. "What ... what's happening ..." And Paul
yells at him in a panic:
TIBBET
The damn tail is stalling on me!"
BOB
Blanchard screams like a little girl, "What, what'ya mean?"
TIBBETS
He was pinned down on the floor by centrifugal force, riding
a bone-shaker at full speed down a mountain track!
BOB
Crying like a baby!
TIBBETS
I shouted in the noise like hell falling apart, "This is the
only way I can make a tight turn. I've got to keep the tail
stalling and then I know I'm doing it right. Now you
wouldn't want me to do it any other way, would you?"
BOB

"Okay," the dumb fucker shouted on the floor, "that's

enough, I'm satisifed ..."
TIBBETS
"Oh no, we're not through yet!" Coming out of the 155 I
yanked the control column, sending us up into a sickening
stall. It hovered momentarily on its tail, then slid back,
turned and began to spin towards the ground.
KAY
My God.
TIBBETS
"For chrissake, you're going to kill us!"
BOB
Paul continued the dive. And then judging the moment
perfectly brought us under control and headed back for
Tinian.
FEREBEE
We landed within thirty seconds of Van Kirk's calculation.
BOB
And now that candy-ass is going to be the Commanding Officer
of the world's only forward Nuclear Bomber Group.
KAY (getting up)
What a story. I have to get back to the hospital from lunch
break. Good afternoon, Gentlemen.
JACK
We're leaving for about a week, Honey, for maneuvers out in
the Pacific, at Bikini Atoll.
TIBBETS
Mrs. Scott. Grand to meet you. I'll be leaving for other
duties at Washington.

KAY
Sir.

She leaves for work as Jack and the others continue laughing
and order beers.

CUT:

ANCIENT GREECE - NIGHT

Processions of thousands of Athenian Greeks

The familiar Temple of the Parthenon on the Acropolis in

Athens is in the background, as, it seems, the entire City
is walking solemnly with torches, in simple white robes and
togas; with PRIESTS all along the way, and PRIESTESSES,
instructing them and explaining things.

PRIESTESS
Calmyly, please, on the Procession to Eleusis, brothers and
sisters.
PRIEST
It is mid-September, the 16th of Boedromion.
PRIESTESS
"Initiates into the sea!"
PRIEST
Bathe in the Illisos River before the myesis of your sacred
bonds with the goddesses of Eleusis!

People stop by the river to bathe, in the torch lights, and

they talk as they do so.
WOMAN
Nine days of fasting.
MAN
We Mystai are forbidden also to eat certain fishes. At the
Rheitoi, the place favored by the Eleusinians, salt water
flows into the Mediterranean Sea.
WOMAN
In the early period one of the goddesses herself sprinkled
the man Triptolemos whom she had chosen for initiation.
MAN
All of this is no secret. Tomorrow, the 17th, a sow will be
offered up to Demeter and Persephone, as a sacrifice to the
Ram on whose fleece we are to sit, emulating Her.
PRIESTESS
Yes, and on the 18th you return home and rest.
PRIEST
Then the ruler of the underworld will assume the form of the
god of healing, and show us a gently radiant, kindly face.
PRIESTESS
When Demeter and Persephone should receive their sow, and a
libation is offered to Dionysos and to the other gods. On
the 19th of Boedromion the first full day of the festival
begins, which we call Mysteria. All else is preparation, and
we will leave Athens by way of the potters' quarter and the
Sacred Gate.
PRIEST
And march along the Sacred Road to Eleusis, only a few miles
away.

WOMAN
May I ask you a question? On the 24th of September, then, is
that the "Holy Night"?
PRIESTESS
Yes.
PRIEST
But we cannot say, in strictest secrecy, what precisely are
the sacred objects that are being brought from Eleusis to
Athens right now. Silence is in force from the moment of
gathering.
MAN
Because uninitiated, unbelievers will scorn our rites?
PRIEST
Yes.
PRIESTESSES
Priestesses bear these holy objects on their heads in
baskets.
WOMAN
I have seen some pilgrims carrying a statue of the young god
thus invoked as "Iakchos!"
PRIEST
The alter ego of Dionysos, in quest of his first mother
Semele. The remainder, the second mother, is the Higher
Mystery and must not be discussed by us. Now, my fellows and
sisters, go home, fast, and pray, and prepare for the High
Procession on the 19th.
WOMAN
Thank you.
The Procession then turns back at the River, back to Athens,
singing and praying in the haunting torchligts.

On a hilltop above them, RHEA and HERMES watch the action.

HERMES
Beautiful.
RHEA (angrily)
What am I doing here?
HERMES
Simple - you are going to become Persephone and give birth
to Dionysos.
RHEA
Simple? Just like that? Hermes you are a clown.
HERMES
I know. Yeah, just like that. Well, there's some elaborate
Martian ceremonies to go through, and some unidentified
flying objects involved, and so on, but, yeah, that's
basically it.
RHEA
I hate your flippancy, Hermes.
HERMES
Most people do. But I get the job done. Who does Zeus send
when he wants a tough job done? Hermes. Who protects
Dionysos, who, by the way, is infinitely more flippant and
irresponsible and irreverent than me? Me.
RHEA
Comedy, at a time like this?
HERMES
Dionysos, at a time like this? Who else?
RHEA

So it's a drama, at one of his idiotic theatres?

HERMES
Not at all, M'Lady. This isn't fake, or a drug-induced
illusion. You think bigshots like Plato down there, in his
silly toga dress, could be fooled by talking statues or
theatrical tricks? No. No. It's real, that's for damn sure.
Real damn real. Too real. You think Athens could force a lot
of smart, rich white men to fall for these religious
ceremonies if it was all to make a few lucrative business
deals will fellow worshippers, bankers, and merchants, for
instance? They'd parade around in dresses as a joke? This
has been going on at the Autumn Equinox for thousands of
years, every year. No doubt about it.
RHEA
We'll see.
HERMES
Exactly. That's what it is. You hit the nail on the head.
RHEA
What? You're crazy.
HERMES
Seeing.
RHEA
Seeing? What are you talking about?
HERMES
What you see after you close your eyes. That's the secret.
The whole mystery. Shall I explain, as we wait for the big
revelation?
RHEA
No.
HERMES

Everybody's here - Hekate is the guardian of the gate at the

Sanctuary; with Artemis; Poseidon. It's the event of the
season in Olympus. Two altars in a large sacrificial hearth
stand at the temple.
RHEA
I don't believe it.
HERMES
There's a Grotto of Pluto, and the main Telesterion temple,
and -RHEA
An Omphalos navel I have heard, in the Plotounian Cave, like
the one at Delphi that Apollo sits on, or the Pythonness, or
whatever. I know. It's part of the cult.
HERMES
The entrance to the underworld, where we both have to go, as
our part in it.
RHEA
No. It's crazy. You're crazy.
HERMES
The navel is the bond between heaven and earth, Gramma; you
of all people should know that. Now stop acting stupid. The
Mystai will make their procession, progression, toward the
Telesterion, and on the 19th, great fire and smoke will
burst forth from it.
RHEA
Where's Gaia? Shouldn't she be the one dragging on about all
this exposition?
HERMES
She's busy.
RHEA

I still don't get what it means. Why pick on me?

HERMES
You're the one who's been bitching about the lost Child.
What did you expect? In the beginning, I was Thoth in Egypt,
okay? Now in modern times I'm a Martian Alien, big flippant
joke, right? They're going to try to laugh it off as a lot
of Flying Saucers. We prophets - inspired poets, that is know the future is only a memory of the past. It's all the
same. Only the people change.
RHEA
"Killer apes", Zeus calls them.
HERMES
Yes. Demonic enemies, many of them. So they want to call us
the daemonic enemies, and so on. Back to Eleusis, that's
what's important. Forget the ignorance of modern people.
Back in Greece, they still followed some of the interstellar
knowledge. Death was the key.
RHEA
The whole point?
HERMES
What else?
RHEA
Why do you say I am to become Persephone?
HERMES
Or Demeter, they're both the same. So are you. Motherhood,
you see? She is the ruler of the world, obviously.
RHEA
Obviously.
HERMES
The Queen of Death. But, ah ha, what does that mean? You

see, Mother Rhea, I think Persephone is the solution to the

abductions of Nyx and Erebus. The Healer of Death. Here's
how it works, and which we have revealed to the Eleusinian
Mysteries, if you can follow me.
RHEA
Please.
HERMES
Flowers grow out of hell. Demeter's daughter Core, who was
only named Persephone much later, picked one. She killed it,
you see? She brought in death to the world, but in a nice
way.
RHEA
Picking a flower?
HERMES
It kills it. Pluto got mad about it, in Hades, and rapt her
away. Not raped, but rapt.
RHEA
Rape is the abandonment of a woman, whom you have loved, as
Zeus loved me. He has turned sexual love into violence.
HERMES
But he didn't mean to. He loved you. He was just dishonest
and didn't believe you or trust you when the mystical
transmutation of bitterness and mortal death resulted in a
lost child and divorce.
RHEA
He broke the single greatest law of heaven and the universe
-- he violated his marriage vows.
HERMES
Yes, like Heracles, and he's been punished for it too, with
madness, and loss of control in his life. He was no longer
truly powerful. Heracles went into Hades and Hell too, just

as we have to, as friends of Zeus, who love him still, for

all his faults. He's trying to make amends for his crime,
Dear Lady, by marrying Demeter and restoring your child even if he doesn't consciously know it. He knows it as Zeus,
though, as a god who suspects his true power.
RHEA
Dishonest and untrusting and unfaithful, yes, you are right
about that. He simply doesn't like women. It's as simple as
that.
HERMES
He's sorry.
RHEA
I don't believe it. He has everything, you say - a new wife,
and renewed power, everything. The respect of mankind as
"God", I suppose, if we're to continue your symbolic
allegory of life and death. You're a clever novelist Hermes,
I suspect. Just an orator with plenty of rhetoric.
HERMES
Have you become so cynical, My Lady? I don't believe that.
RHEA
Enough.
HERMES
No, I'm just beginning. This is just the beginning. The
Eleusinian Mysteries will proceed, as always, and with your
participation, by order of the Necessities of Fate. My
little Brother needs a nurse, and a mother as powerful as
the two of you put together, and no less. Will you abandon
your Son?
RHEA (crying)
Don't say that to me! You are cruel. Do you know how alone I
have been?
HERMES

Then join us, in the resurrection of the birth of Dionysos

from a dead woman!

CUT:
BACK AT THE PROCESSION - NIGHT - EXT.
Title over: Holy Night, Eleusis, Greece
Thousands of people praying and singing.
In elaborate, beautiful Greek Temples of marble, with
torches burning everywhere in the night.

PRIESTESS
"Hades is the same as Dionysos!"
2nd PRIESTESS
"Hosia, the religious decorum that the mother had to observe
in the period of mourning after the rape, an act of
violence, an abduction to the realm of the dead!"

CUT:

INT. - NIGHT - AN ANCIENT PALACE

DEMETER, magnificent goddess, at a fireplace, with a 6-month

FETUS of DIONYSOS

DEMETER
In the fires of the Sun, my Son, I name you Dionysos, God of
the Nysa, the Sacred Mountain slopes, in the Immortalisation
Process! Burn into thy mothers Rhea and myself, myself and

my Daughter the Core of the Earth's Persephone!

She lays the FETUS in the fire!

BLACKOUT
CUT:
EXT. - OUTER SPACE
A black fireball explodes out of the SUN and shoots towards
EARTH far away.
It turns into the shape of a sleek, burning flying saucer,
and flies over the night skies of ROSWELL.
1947, people in the town, see the flashing object for a few
seconds; then it's gone.

CUT:
INT. - NIGHT

Fast back to Demeter and the BABY, which she takes out of
the fire. It's not burning in the usual sense, but it is
wiggling and crying a little - and glowing magically.

CUT:

ELEUSIS - NIGHT - EXT.

The thousands of Greeks are listening to the Priests and

Priestesses at the Telesterion Temple, amid burning torches
everywhere.

PRIESTESS
Hail, Demeter and Persephone, holy, sacred Mother and
Daughter!
PRIEST
Ye thoughtless, ignorant mortals, the profane, ye could not
understand, until She showed herself to you. Hence,
Demeter's Journey to Hades!
PRIESTESS
She awaits Zeus, to alter his decision, and restore her
daughter!
PRIEST
So that She, Great Persephone, the Daughter, can restore
Dionysos to the world!

Everyone shouts in unison: "God!"

CUT:
DEMETER take the BABY down into the CAVE beside the Temple;
and people only see FIRE going into and out of the Cave in
the side of the hill.
SHE and the BABY are spiralling across black empty Space and RHEA and HERMES are flying with them!
CUT BACK TO:
ELEUSIS
As all the People wait.
PRIESTESS
Be patient, my brothers and sisters.
PRIEST

The Ceremony is reaching its climax soon. It can be

explained, now, only to you, the most devout and pious
Initiates.
PRIESTESS
The Visio Beatifica will approach our open eyes very soon,
this night. You will see with your own eyes the birth of
new life from a dead mother!
PRIEST
First, THE LESSER MYSTERIES, and then ... THE GREAT
MYSTERIES.
PRIESTESS
Myesis and Epopteia.
PRIEST
The mysteries of spiritual life, which must begin on the
level of physical love, and which lead finally to the great
vision of the Ideas.
PRIESTESS
Myesis can be rendered by the Latin word initia,
"beginnings". Introduction into the secret. It comes from
the verb myo, and means nothing other than "to close", as
the eyes do after seeing. You close yourself after the
manner of a flower. But a second object is also possible,
which must be very close to the subject, your very own
possession. That which is shut up within itself.
PRIEST
Epopteia is the state of "having seen", that which was
attained in the Myesis.
PRIESTESS
These physical rites are a preparation for the Great
Mysteries. Behold! The High Priest - our Hierophant!

CUT:
INT. - NIGHT - GARDEN CITY, KANSAS

RHEA as a young woman asleep in her old ordinary life, and

bedroom in her home.
Black invisible shapes come into her room through the walls
and window, with only dim moonlight behind them, outlining
them in silhouette.

HIEROPHANT (voiceover)
Nyx and Erebus, and their children Aether and Day, and
grandchildren Thanatos and Hypnos, Death and Sleep, crept
into the Chaos created of Mother Gaia Earth, and stole away
the Divine Child of Mother Rhea!

RHEA is restlessly tossing in her sleep, as the 7

silhouettes stand ominously over her bed.
The half-formed FETUS - indistinct of identity - floats up
out of her Womb!

BLACKOUT!

EXT. - NIGHT - EL CAPITAN MOUNTAIN, ROSWELL

Shooting Stars like Flying Saucers suddenly circle all
around the skies.
DEMETER is there with HERMES, landing on the Mountain.
DEMETER
Hermes, dear Friend, the Impostors of Heaven, Usurpers of
black Night and Darkness, have stolen away Dionysos before
he has been able to grow to maturity.

HERMES
Dark Matter. Black Energy.
DEMETER
I'm afraid they have torn him to pieces.
HERMES
Like Osiris and Father Ouros, Uranus.
DEMETER
I will restore him in the fires of the Sun.
HERMES
Mothers Rhea and Demeter. You are to become Persephone, the
Queen of Death.
DEMETER
Gaia's jealousy has driven us to this.
HERMES
When Father Heaven didn't like the monsters she created on
Earth, he hurled her first-born, the Cyclops, into Tartarus
Hell: and it is they who have given Zeus the ultimate power
of the Thunderbolts, when he freed them from Her dark
Underworld.
DEMETER
False death.
HERMES
Dis-ease and insects in the imbalance. She has not learned
from Zeus of Mars.
DEMETER
Come, we must battle Nyx and Gaia to re-capture the poor
Baby, so I can lay him in the fires of the Sun! They will
have the 9 Furies with them, the 9 Muses.

HERMES
We will have Zeus on our side!
They fly up, turning into the Spaceships!

CUT:
ROSWELL AAF - INT. - BASE OPERATIONS ROOMS
MEN in Air Corps uniforms are watching the radar screens
intensely.
BLANCHARD, MARCEL, and HAUT are prominently watching.
BLANCHARD
What the hell ... ?
MARCEL
It doesn't make sense. The Objects are going at unbelievable
speed.
HAUT
And cutting back and forth at impossible angles.
BLANCHARD
Red Alert, all units!
Sirens start wailing outside and everyone else starts
running.
MARCEL (On a phone)
White Sands has activated their new German rockets.
HAUT
Yeah, there it is on the screen, they're trying to shoot
them down!
BLANCHARD
Bogies!

MARCEL
They're all over the sky! What is going on?
BLANCHARD
I'm calling Washington.
CUT:
EXT. - SPACE
The GODS are at War!
DEMETER crashes wildly into NYX holding a bundle - the BABY,
or what's left of him - NYX is invisible, but there; as are
her many COHORTS.
The visible Powers of HERMES and RHEA and their Battalions
of Ships are fighting them.
The SKY is full of flashing lights!

CUT:
NIGHT - EXT. - ELEUSIS
All the Initiates are watching the phenomenal display in the
Sky too.
HIEROPHANT
The Cista Mystica that the Great Goddess Demeter is sitting
on, and her priestesses are carrying in urns on their heads
in the Procession, contain the phallus and heart and brain
of the mutilated Great God! He has been torn into fourteen
pieces by Gaia and her Sisters of the Night and Darkness,
who want the power of Death!
PRIESTESS
But Persephone will not let them have him, her glorious Son!
HIEROPHANT
She will control Death as a good awakening!

CUT:
SPACE
ZEUS suddenly appears and hurls Atomic Thunderbolts at NYX
and GAIA in the midst of the great Aerial Battle!
LIGHT flashes like the SUN -- Like the Atomic Bomb!
SHIPS careen wildly out of control in every direction, as
the light clears a little, and many begin falling down to
Earth - to the ROSWELL area.
CUT:

INT. - DAY - A DELIVERY ROOM

KAY O'BRIEN is having a BABY, in the last throes of
Delivery! But we only see her, and not the Baby; or anyone
else. She screams in pain.

CUT:
ON THE GROUND - NIGHT
2 Ships split apart from One: one going in a fireball over
to Mt. El Capitan; and the other, a strange ball of bloody
tissue, heads for a crash-landing out in the desert.
In the back of a pickup truck, a couple are naked and making
love - when the fireball flashes over them and lands in the
same old spot on the Mountain we've seen before. The couple
look up crazily and the woman screams.
At the same time, in a very LONG SHOT, AERIAL A Cowboy and a Boy are watching a terrific THUNDERSTORM and
LIGHTNING, from their little ranch-house on the empty,
barren, prairie-desert, and they see the second Flying
Object bounce on the ground, roughly, and then land, out
there, in the roaring rain and wind. They are shocked and
amazed.

CUT:
AAF HQ, RADAR SHACK
BLANCHARD (on the phone)
I don't care if the President is asleep, we're under attack
out here! Wake up the whole fucking American Government, I
don't care!
MARCEL
Sir, some of the bleeps have disappeared from the screen.
BLANCHARD
What? We shot 'em down?
MARCEL
I don't know. Now they're all gone. It's empty.
HAUT
It's very strange.
BLANCHARD
Shut up. lieutenant. Hello! Yes, this is Roswell AAF,
Commanding Officer Colonel Blanchard. I need to talk to
Chief of Staff General Vandenburg, Secretary of War Stimson,
Secretary Forrestal, fucking Truman!
HAUT
They're just gone.
MARCEL
Somebody saw something. We're getting phone calls from
civilians all over the place.
HAUT
It's sure been in the papers too, for weeks, all over the
country.

BLANCHARD
Shut the fuck up, Lieutenant Haut! Hello? Hello? Is anybody
there? Jesus fucking Christ!
MARCEL
They have the new V-2 rockets over at White Sands, don't
they? Maybe it's them. The Nazi rocket scientists are
working over there now, aren't they?
HAUT
I don't know.
BLANCHARD (on the phone)
No, hell, are you shitting me? The Russians ... what ... ?
Jesus fucking God. Men, the Russians have exploded a
thermonuclear device over Siberia. We just picked it up on
our Mogul balloons. Radioactive fallout everywhere. The
high-altitude balloon sensors are specifically there to ...
what ... oh well, finally ... they woke up the dumb fucker
in the White House. Hello? Hello?
MARCEL
The world is falling apart.

CUT:

ELEUSIS - NIGHT
At the ANAKTORON opening in the Earth, in the center of the
Telesterion Temple, The HIEROPHANT proclaims, to the awed
silence of all the Initiates:
HIEROPHANT
Behold! Birth in Death and Fire!

PERSEPHONE rises out of the hole in the Temple, the Mighty

GODDESS herself!
Everyone sees her, in a concrete Visio Beatifica!
She floats gently in the Air, above the ground.

CUT:
DAWN - NEW MEXICO PRAIRIE
The COWBOY (MAC BRAZEL, 40) and his SON (VERNON BRAZEL, 12)
ride their horses over to the place where the OBJECT has
landed. It is a very strange Thing, like Red TISSUE, smoking
from its flight, on the empty prairie. No one else is
around, or any buildings anywhere.
MAC gets off his horse and touches it, and picks up a piece
that fell off it, along with a little other Debris around.
MAC
It's like, I don't know what, Vernon. Tissue. Flesh. Hard
and pliable as metal, but ... not ... It's like the
afterbirth, the placenta, I see when a cow or a horse gives
birth.
VERNON
What is it, Dad?

No answer. They stare for a while, and up at the sky, which

is clearing from last night's storm.

FADE:

DAWN - EL CAPITAN

The 2 LOVERS we saw before, dressed now, crawl up a wooded

rise to look at the FIRE still burning where the SHIP

landed.
They stare in shock and amazement at:

HERMES and DIONYSOS - a magnificently handsome and muscled

Man, young about 20, completely naked, standing on the
ground in front of the burning, glowing SPACESHIP hovering
off the ground a foot or two, and a ramp leading up to a
doorway; where the two GODS are staring all around at the
Earth.
Then they look at the SUN just coming up, and smile at it,
and each other, happy, safe.
MUSIC
SLOW FADE OUT:

END