What follows is supposedly an overall review of the first 62 pages of the
movie. Square has neither confirmed or denied if this is true, as
would be expected. I wouldn't buy into it too much, but if it's
anything like how the movie is going to be, it'll be awesome (like we had
any doubt ^_^).
--
"The
movie starts with a dream. A young woman stares at a barren landscape.
Something rumbles in the distance, quietly at first then building to a
deafening intensity. As the source of the sound rushes to overtake her, she
awakes. Her name is Aki (Ming-na), and she has been having this same dream
over and over as she orbits the Earth in her space shuttle. Though she does
not know what it means, she believes she can find the answer on the surface
of the planet...but she must save it first.
New York, Times Square. Aki searches amongst the rubble and trash of what
was once a great city. She carries a small scanner with her, and appears to
be scanning for something called "the sixth spirit." As she
focuses on her work, she is slowly surrounded by "grossly asymmetric
creatures, translucent, with enormous brains and tentacle arms." These
ghost-creatures are the Phantoms, and they are not friendly. Suddenly, a
blinding light comes from above, and the troop transport of the DEEP EYES
begins unloading its soldiers. They open fire on the Phantoms, vaporizing
them in bursts of electrical discharge. The Leader of the team attempts to
get Aki on the ship, but she looks at her scanner and runs away. Searching
through the ruined buildings, the DEEP EYES chase after her. She insists
that a life form exists in the city, and she will not leave until it is
found. And find it she does: a tiny weed growing in a crack. As she
transfers it to a container, Phantoms begin to rise from the floor and pass
through the walls all around. The soldiers fire desperately, but there are
just too many Phantoms. Another blinding light streams down; the transport
has found them again. They quickly climb out of the ruins and onto the
transport, just before the phantoms get them.
On the transport, the DEEP EYES remove their helmets. Neil (either Steve
Buscemi or Ving Rhames) is a wise-cracker, never takes anything seriously.
Jane (Peri Gilpin) is a gung-ho soldier who is a little defensive about her
gender (think Vasquez in Aliens). The third soldier is Ryan (either Buscemi
or Rhames), and is only slightly less sarcastic than Neil. The leader does
not remove his helmet at first, but when Aki confronts him, he reveals
himself to be Gray (Alec Baldwin). Aki obviously recognizes him, and is
rather shocked to see him.
At Barrier City (where an energy barrier keeps the phantoms out), it is
discovered during their entry security scan that Gray has come in contact
with a Phantom. That is all it takes to cause an infestation: one touch and
you're dead, as is everyone around you. Gray is locked inside a quarantine
tube as they pass into the city, but his friends bust him out and Aki straps
him to a nearby operating table (they keep emercengy rooms by the security
checkpoint to try to save infested people as they come in). Gray has less
than 3 minutes to live as Aki starts burning out the infestation with a
laser. Gray barely makes it.
When the excitement calms down, the security tech trys to scan Aki for
infestation, she looks aprehensive about this, but Dr. Sid (either James
Woods or Donald Sutherland) arrives and clears her through without a scan.
They go to a lab where they take the "spirit" from the plant and
fuse it with five other spirits. They display the energy pattern of the 6
spirits, and it almost matches another display: the energy pattern of a
Phantom spirit. This pleases them very much, and as Aki leaves, Sid tells
her to stay away from Gray, lest the become romantically involved. You get
the impression that were involved once before.
Aki dreams again, and this time the rumbling is revealed as two Phantom
armies hurling themselves at each other.
Council Hall. Day. General Hein (either Woods or Sutherland) is trying to
convince the council to use the Zeus, an enormous space energy-cannon, to
blast the Phantoms at their source: a meteor that crashed into the Earth in
2031. Sid stands and demostrates how the Zeus will indeed wipe-out the
Phantoms, but may also destroy the Gaia, the Earth's spirit. The council
laughs at the idea of the Earth having a spirit. Sid ignores them and
reveals his plan: by gathering spirits from Earth creatures, he is building
an energy that is the exact opposite of the Phantom's energy. This energy
can be used to "cancel out" the Phantoms. The council is
skeptical, but Aki bursts out that she has proof, that a terminally ill
patient has been able to contain the infection, though has not yet been
cured. She then reveals that her chest is encased in a metallic device.
Turning on a display, she reveals herself to be the terminally ill patient.
Her body is one giant infestation, but she is still alive due to the energy
produced by her mechanical chestplate. Gray, sitting in the back of the
room, shows no emotion.
Later that night, Aki continues her research from a gondola above the
barrier that covers New York. Gray shows up and decides to tag along, but
Aki ignores him. On the ground, Ryan and Niel try to create a romantic mood
by fiddling with some wires and stranding Aki and Gray over the city. Gray
brings up the past, how Aki disappeared without even saying goodbye, and Aki
tell him about how she was infected, and about the spirits she's gathered.
Gray gets all romantic, and they have a touching moment that is interrupted
by the sudden re-starting of the gondola.
Hein summons Gray to his office, and assigns the DEEP EYES the task of
watching Aki for aberrant behavior. He worries that the Phantoms are
controlling her mind. Gray, ever the good soldier, agrees.
Aki dreams of the battle again, but this time the battle suddenly stops and
all the aliens look towards her. She turns around and screams. Awake, she
decides that the infestation must be gaining the upper hand.
Aki, the DEEP EYES, and several other soldiers fly over an old battlefield
where human kind once fought the Phantoms. The land and quickly search for
the 7th spirit, which they discover is actually an energy pack on a dead
soldier. They grab it and try to leave, but the Phantoms have surrounded
them. They run like hell for the ship, and Aki passes out. As they try to
take off Neil realizes that the ship is being straddled by a giant
spider-like Phantom. He does some fancy flying all over the battlefield
(think: cool action sequence). Meanwhile, in the back of the ship, the
nameless soldiers turn on Gray and demand custody of Aki. She's dreaming
again, and this time she sees what terrified her last time: a wall of fire
sweeping over the alien battlefield. She awakes with the scream, and a
startled soldier shoots her. The DEEP EYES attack, but a soldier recovers
his gun. Just then, Neil flies the ship through the leg of a giant Phantom.
The ghostly leg passes through the cabin and right through the soldier, who
immediately stiffens and dies.
Back in Barrier City, Sid and Gray work to fuse the 7th spirit directly into
Aki to keep her alive. Gray enters Aki's dream and the two of them
experience the final fate of the alien planet. As the operation is finished,
Hein's men storm the room and arrest the DEEP EYES, Aki, and Sid. They have
already destroyed Sid's lab. Hein then shuts down a part of the barrier so
the Phantoms can invade some the city. He wants to pretend like the barrier
failed so the council will let him use Zeus. In prison, Aki reveals what the
meteor relly is, and what the Phantoms really are. You'll all have to see
the movie for that little secret! Hein and his men watch as Phantoms invade
one sector of the city. But wait! The Phantoms are now spreading outside of
that sector. They're spreading everywhere! As they frantically search for an
answer, they all suddenly stop and look up...at the huge overhead pipes
running through all the buildings in the city."
--
~FIN,KGRIZ
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