(foreboding music)
(beeping)
- I have now established a geosynchronous orbit
over central Florida.
I'm sending fuel to the booster rockets,
and I will begin reentry into the earth's atmosphere
in approximately nine minutes.
- Kendrick Enterprises calling the Nautilus.
Steve, can you hear me?
This is Kendrick Enterprises calling the Nautilus.
This is Rod Kendrick calling the space shuttle Nautilus.
Are you out there, boy, pick up your phone.
Don't you know who this is?
I know you're out there, I can see you.
The boys at mission control
have hooked us up a satellite camera,
and you're looking fine.
Do you read me?
- Sure, I hear you.
You're the guy who writes the checks.
- Very funny, very funny.
Look, Steve.
A few minutes, we're gonna be landing this bird,
and then we're gonna give that NASA a run for its money.
- Well let's see if I can get this thing down first, huh?
- Look, Steve, I know it's very lonely out there
in the universe, but I want you to know
that here on Planet Earth, there's thousands of...
No, Steve, there are millions,
millions of people down here that are pulling for you.
- It's getting pretty cold up here.
Beginning to be worried there's something wrong
with the life support systems.
(banging)
What the hell was that?
(alarm blares)
I'll call you back later, I think somebody's at the door.
(hissing)
- Steve?
Steve, what's going on up there?
We lost you on the screen.
Looks like you headed in some kind of meteor field,
but where the hell it came from is anybody's guess.
Can you read me, Steve?
(alarm blares)
(suspenseful music)
Steve, can you read me?
What the hell is going on up there?
(glass shatters)
(rumbling)
This is Ground Control One to Nautilus, do you read me?
You are coming in too quickly.
- Mayday, mayday!
This is Nautilus calling Earth.
Something's infesting the ship!
Spores!
It's clogging the engines,
the life support system's shutting down.
- Steve, do you read me?
You are coming in too fast.
(beeping)
(groans)
Steve, we've lost you on the screen.
(screams)
(somber music)
(rumbling)
- Whoa, look, it's a shooting star.
- You should make a wish.
- Okay.
Hey, that was pretty close for a meteor, huh?
- Meteorite.
- Meteorite?
- Yes.
(chuckling)
No! - Meteorite?
- Yes.
When a meteor enters the earth's atmosphere,
it's known as a meteorite.
- [Judy] You are such a wise guy.
- It's a meteorite!
- [Judy] Well it was pretty damn close.
- You're serious. (laughing)
(ominous music)
(growling)
(suspenseful music)
(serene music)
(ominous music)
- It's an osprey nest.
- This is it, the great outdoors.
- You know what your father would say about this place.
Nice spot for a condo.
- Come on, Rich, just enjoy nature.
There's not a soul around for miles.
Doesn't it make you feel uninhibited?
- Damn it, Ann.
There's something in those trees over there.
- Really, how exciting.
- Look, we came here to see some wildlife.
I'm gonna go take a close look.
Here, you might learn something.
(foreboding music)
(growling)
- Rich, come here!
Rich, you gotta see this!
Richard!
Richard.
Hey, dick!
(suspenseful music)
Rich, get your skinny ass out here!
(roaring)
(screams)
(gentle music)
- Hang on right here, let me get that for you.
- Yeah, I seen you somewhere before.
You're that reporter lady on TV, ain't you?
- That's me.
Thanks.
- [Driver] Yep.
Well, if you're looking for a guide upriver,
you don't need to go looking for old Tom Hanning.
Hell, I'll guide you myself.
- Thanks anyway, but we want Tom Hanning.
How far in does he live?
- Old Tom Hanning, he's pretty far a piece back in there,
but if he's still around, we'll find him in there.
(engine rumbles)
Nobody really knows if old Tom is still alive,
and it's pretty rough country upriver.
You sure you wanna go there, little lady?
- [Kim] Oh, I'm sure, I'm very sure.
- [Reporter] Mr. Kendrick, how did the Nautilus disappear?
- [Female Reporter] What about survivors?
- Listen, I am at least as interested as all of you
in finding out what happened to my spaceship.
I appreciate your concern.
Unfortunately, I won't be answering any questions
at this moment.
However, I have a prepared statement.
We at Kendrick Corporation built
and launched the space shuttle Nautilus.
In part, we did this to show NASA how to operate
an efficient and cost-effective space program.
Tragically, all evidence suggests
that the Nautilus and its pilot burned up
upon reentry into Earth's atmosphere.
We've called off the rescue operation,
and we recommend that all the other agencies do the same.
- [Male Reporter] Mr. Kendrick, can't you give us
more information about what happened?
- [Female Reporter] Did the Nautilus go down
in the Caribbean?
- Tom!
Tom, damn.
Hey, Tom!
(grunts)
(tense music)
(chuckles)
- This is gonna shoot great.
It's so rustic.
- Yeah.
- [Frank] Hello?
Hello?
- Excuse me.
Can I help you?
- Good morning.
You must be Judy Lawson.
- That's right.
- I seem to have the advantage over you.
I know your name, but you don't know mine.
I'm Frank Norris.
These gentlemen are my associates.
This is Jack Reese, and behind Jack
are Mr. Denning and Mr. Carlson.
- Excuse me, I don't wanna be rude or anything,
but it's really early and I'm all wet.
- I can see that this is not a good time for you,
but really, my business is rather urgent.
Do you mind if I have a few moments of your day?
- Make yourself at home.
I assume you're looking for a trail guide.
Most people that come out here usually are.
- You're not at all what I expected.
I heard, I heard crazy old Tom Hanning
is supposed to be the toughest swamp guide in Florida.
Two-fisted gator wrestler, famous hunter.
I don't know if you can wrestle gators,
but you don't look like a day over 25,
and you sure as hell aren't old Tom Hanning.
- Well I am Tom Hanning,
but the man you're looking for is my father.
- Can I see him?
- Not in this lifetime.
He died last November.
But you know, he left everything to me,
even gave me my own gator-wrestling certificate.
You wanna see it?
- This is great.
The biggest story of my life gets thrown into my lap
and I have no swamp guide.
- I was raised here, I know this area as well as he did.
- And I'm paying for old Tom Hanning.
- Well like I said, he's dead, I'm alive.
- Wait, maybe we can still pull this out of the fire.
I'm Kim Masters, I'm a TV reporter,
and I've got some people with me,
and there's one of them I want you to meet.
He's an archeologist.
- Well you mentioned payment, didn't you?
- Yes.
- Lead on.
- Mr. Norris?
What you have to say is really interesting,
but you're gonna have to ask Tom about it.
- Thank you for your time, Judy, sorry for intruding.
Aren't we, Frank?
Next time we'll phone and save us all a lot of trouble.
- No, it's really no intrusion.
I'm sure Tom, he must be around here someplace.
And we don't even have a phone.
- I think you'd have a phone out here,
at least for emergencies.
- No, we have a radio for emergencies.
See, Tom, he's not really into modern conveniences.
We didn't even have a TV set until a few months ago.
That's 'cause I kept nagging him about it.
I like to watch the news sometimes,
although Tom, he calls it propaganda.
Hey, there you are.
Get over here, wise guy.
Were your ears burning, I was just talking about you.
- [Tom] Who else would you be talking about?
- No big ego problems here.
- Judy, this is Kim Masters, the TV star.
She and these distinguished scientists want old Tom Hanning
to take them out into our swamp,
but they're stuck with the kid instead,
and damn it, they're just no too happy about it.
- We're awfully sorry to have bothered you folks.
- Kim.
I told you this was a stupid idea.
We can find the damn thing with a helicopter flyover.
- No, because we probably can't see it from the air,
and you know I have to be on the scene when we find it.
- This boy scout isn't gonna help us find anything.
- Well what are you looking for?
- Well, it could be the single most important Amerin site
in North America.
We have reason to believe
that there's a large Seminole Indian burial ground
just waiting for us to excavate it.
Some of the artifacts may date back
as far back as the 14th century.
So you can understand why we, as archeologists,
are very excited and eager about getting to them.
- If all you wanna do is go in there, you don't need me.
Just start walking.
Only thing you need me for is when you wanna come back out.
It's always easy going in, but round trip is a bitch.
- I trust him.
He's lived here his whole life.
Besides, he's alive.
(growling)
(eerie music)
(sniffing)
- Cracker?
Cracker.
Come here, boy.
Where are you, you damn mutt?
Damn it to hell.
(foreboding music)
(growling)
(dog barks)
Damn dog, oughta use his ass for bait.
(dog yelps)
Cracker!
(ominous music)
Damn it, boy.
You eat when I tell you to eat,
and leave my damn traps alone.
Where are you, boy?
Cracker.
Cracker, boy.
What happened?
Oh, Cracker.
What the hell happened here?
What am I gonna do without you, Cracker, boy?
(snarling)
(man yelps)
(suspenseful music)
(screaming)
- Hey, I thought I had one left.
Listen to this, golden sponge cake with creamy filling.
You know, it's gonna be our last taste of civilization
for a long time.
Hey, we're both reasonably intelligent guys, right?
So how did we get scammed into this little trip?
- Double time and a half, and bonuses.
Kendrick's pays big bucks for field work.
Hell, boy, I'd carry you into the swamp
for that kind of money.
- Well, ours is not to reason why.
- Ours is but to do or die.
(gentle music)
- So these guys with the TV crew, or are they archeologists?
- Good question, Tom.
They work for me.
Grunts, you might say, or packhorses.
They're what Napoleon used to call cannon fodder.
Always willing to share in the spoils
of a successful expedition.
- Yeah, assuming you find anything.
(dramatic orchestral music)
(grunting)
- Hold it.
(growling)
- Denning?
Hey, Denning.
- Huh?
- Is there a problem here?
- Did you hear something?
- I hear a lot of things out here.
Can you try to be more specific?
(tense music)
(hissing)
(growling)
- I can't shake the feeling that we're being watched.
- We probably are.
Something's usually out here watching, waiting.
This swamp can kill you in more ways you'd think possible.
You step off this path, you'll find them.
Snakes, alligators, even quicksand.
The swamp's one living, breathing thing.
It's almost like a complete entity.
We're just fragments of it, just cells in an organism.
- Highly fanciful, but an interesting theory.
- Oh, it's not a theory, Frank, it's a feeling.
- Well I stepped off the path,
and I think I found something,
at least where something's been.
- What's going on here?
Thought we'd never catch up with you.
You guys machines or something?
- So what's the big discussion you guys are having?
- Are we lost already?
- No, Tom was just telling us that the hills have eyes.
- There're no hills out here, Frank,
it's as flat as a pancake.
(tense music)
(growling)
- Tom, what's the matter?
- My father used to bring me here.
It's different now.
Something strange about it.
Sorry, just set up camp, I'll figure it out.
(melancholy music)
(buzzing)
- I'm getting eaten alive out here.
- Judy's got one of these on her end.
I can't reach her now, so we must be out of range.
- Then we'll have to rely on Carlson's radio set
if we wanna contact Judy.
- Is that a problem?
- No, not if we have time to set up,
I just wanna be ready for emergencies.
- I see your point,
but what kind of emergency are you talking about?
What could possibly go wrong here?
(ominous music)
- [Steve] Sending fuel to booster rockets.
- Steve, I know it's very lonely out there in the universe.
(growling)
(alarm beeps)
- You walk just a few feet away from this fire
and you can't see your hand in front of your face.
Has anybody seen Denning lately?
- He's probably gathering more firewood.
(rustling)
(warbling)
(chuckles)
(growling)
(suspenseful music)
(grunts)
(groans)
- Well, I'm gonna look for Denning.
- It just so happens I've got some questions
for you, Professor.
You are a professor, aren't you, of archeology?
- What do you wanna know?
- Well, for starters, this expedition is looking
for a 14th century Seminole Indian burial mound,
am I correct?
- Essentially.
- Well see, that's the thing.
There were no Seminoles in Florida in the 14th century.
Arawaks lived here then.
Seminoles didn't come down from the reservations up north
until the 18th century.
They teach schoolkids that,
now how come you didn't know it, Professor?
You know something else?
This place was a swamp when the Spaniards got here
in the 1500s.
It was probably a swamp 100 years before that.
Now why would Indians, any Indians,
put a burial mound in a swamp?
- I see your point.
- I didn't believe your archeology story,
and I knew you'd go into the swamp no matter what I did.
See, I've got a vested interest
in seeing this place doesn't get trashed.
I live here.
So you either tell me what you're really doing out here,
or I'll get Judy on Carlson's radio set.
She'll contact the authorities so fast
it'll make your head spin.
(suspenseful music)
Shoot me, Frank, and you'll never get out of this swamp.
I got you in deep.
- Don't be an asshole, Frank.
Put the gun away.
- I don't want to, but I'll shoot you if I have to.
- No you won't, you left the safety on.
- Safety is on.
- Way to go, quick draw.
- [Carlson] Jesus Christ, somebody get here quick!
Help, help!
- Safety's off now, be careful.
(suspenseful music)
- I don't know.
He must've fallen, or something attacked him.
(ominous music)
- Nasty gash on the forehead.
Several lacerations on the chest, but they're not too deep.
As an archeologist, I may be full of crap,
but I do know my physiology.
No sign of concussion.
Should be all right to move him back to camp.
You just keep applying pressure to the forehead,
and be careful.
(groaning)
- [Denning] What the hell happened?
What the hell hit me?
(groans)
- [Carlson] Come on.
Watch for that hole.
Come on, come on.
(melancholy music)
- You're still waiting for an explanation.
- You don't miss a trick, do you, lady?
- Do you know who Rod Kendrick is?
- Should I?
- He's a power broker.
He's a very wealthy man.
- That's impressive, is this leading somewhere?
- Yeah, it is.
Mr. Kendrick was upset about NASA's waste,
so he decided to build and launch his own spaceship,
the Nautilus.
Kendrick's a real do-it-yourself kind of millionaire.
- That's great work when you can find it.
- The Nautilus ran into trouble on the way home.
- Crashed into the swamp.
- Right.
How did you know that?
- Judy and I saw something the other night.
It was like a shooting star falling from the sky.
Go on.
- Well, Kendrick's not too happy that his spaceship crashed,
so he sent Frank out here to find out what happened.
- What is Frank, some kind of doctor?
- Sort of, he's an exobiologist.
- That's weird.
- What do you mean?
- Well, an exobiologist is someone
who studies extraterrestrial life,
and he's checking into an American spaceship crash?
It's usually due to equipment failure.
- Or a pilot error.
- Yeah, but not alien lifeforms.
Does everyone in this swamp work for Kendrick?
- His reach is long, but it's not that long.
I work for myself.
- Well how'd you get the scoop?
- I cut a deal with Kendrick.
The official story is that the Nautilus burned up,
there's nothing left,
and Kendrick doesn't want anybody else out here
until his people find the ship first.
No military, no cops, nothing.
- So Kendrick usually gets what he wants?
He gets his ship, you get your story, then what?
- Frank screens all information I get,
and then when Kendrick gives him the okay, I run my story.
- That's censorship.
- Timing, don't be so naive, Tom.
This is a big story, the biggest I've ever covered.
- So Denning and Carlson, they work for you too?
- No, just Jack.
- Don't tell him a thing, Kim.
I wanna maintain an air of secrecy around here.
Besides, why should old Tom
be the only mystery man out here?
- Tom, meet my producer.
- Charmed.
Oh by the way, you'll be glad to know
that Denning is still alive, at least for now.
Frank said he's gonna be okay, he just can't be moved
from camp for a couple of days,
so Carlson's gonna stay here and watch over him.
- And the rest of us?
- The rest of us are gonna go on a spaceship hunt.
(foreboding music)
(birds squawk)
- Is it just me, or is this swamp physically changing?
Seems like every day it's radically different.
- Things grow quick out here.
- Which reminds me, how in the hell
are we gonna find this spaceship?
It's gonna be so overgrown by the time we get there
that we'll walk right over it.
It's probably a bird sanctuary by now.
How we gonna recognize?
(foreboding music)
(clicking)
- Well, I'm checking inside for survivors.
You coming?
- No, no, I get claustrophobic.
I'll just dig the fresh air.
- It's thick, almost spongy.
Orange color may be due to oxidation upon reentry
into the earth's atmosphere, or perhaps the heat of reentry.
- I don't give a damn about the color, Frank.
What is it?
- That's what I'm here to find out.
(sizzling)
So where's Hanning?
- He's inside, looking for the pilot.
- He's not there, and there is no sign of a body.
- Maybe the body's incinerated, then.
- Maybe.
It's hard to tell with this ground torn up like this.
However, I did see something that might look like tracks
leading away from here.
- Really?
Well I'll be sure to check that out when I have the chance.
But first, there's a few preliminaries
I like to take care of before I go crashing
into the cockpit, swamp boy.
Kim, you and Jack are free
to take any shots out here you want,
but for the time being, the cockpit's off limits.
- You remember when I said I found some tracks?
It's my guess something came through here,
from about the direction of the ship.
Something big.
- Oh, that's your guess?
You said it yourself, it's hard to tell
with the ground in this condition.
- Three, two, one.
Like Icarus in Greek mythology, who flew too near the sun,
only to plummet to Earth, so has Rod Kendrick's brainchild
met a similar fiery fate.
But questions remain, and only time will tell...
What the hell are you doing?
- [Jack] Thought I saw something moving
on the ground over there.
- I thought you said you knew what you were doing.
- I do.
Before I became a producer, I was a primo cameraman.
Let's begin again.
- From the beginning?
- [Jack] Well, wait a minute.
All right, we'll take the last bit from here.
It'll cut together, trust me.
- What last bit?
- [Jack] The question.
- But the question remains?
Okay.
Three, two, one.
But questions remain, and only time will tell the answers.
This is Kim Masters for Current Copy.
- Okay, that's it, cut.
Sheer poetry.
So where are fearless Frank and Tonto?
- Off gathering moss.
- How fitting.
You know, I've got some tape left in the camera.
How about if we shoot some dirty pictures?
- Then there would be incriminating evidence.
- Evidence of what?
- A crack news woman shouldn't be sleeping
with her producer.
- (chuckles) Who said anything about sleeping?
I'm not the least bit sleepy.
- And neither am I.
- Hello.
Let's stay away from this orange stuff, shall we?
- You're just all macho, aren't you?
(chuckles)
- [Jack] Well, come on, here.
Damn shirt.
Come on.
Well you know how I am with buttons, Kim.
- Need some help?
(sighs)
- You better watch yourself, lass.
I'm just a wild man in the great outdoors.
(crunching) (shouts)
- A little early, aren't you, Jack?
(suspenseful music)
(Jack screams)
- What the hell is going on here?
(grunting)
(foreboding music)
Stop, enough.
(gun fires) (creature yelps)
(grunting)
(screeches)
(shouting)
(screeches)
(groans)
Now what are we gonna do?
- Well first, we put his pants back on.
So how is he?
- I hate to move him,
but there's not much we can do for him out here.
He needs real medical attention.
- Yeah, well there's something I want you to see first.
(groans)
(ominous music)
And there's more of that inside.
Inside, Frank.
- [Frank] We really shouldn't stay
in here too long, you know.
- We won't, Frank.
This mold, or these spores, as you call them,
where does this stuff come from?
- [Frank] I really can't say.
- I'm not some fat ass bureaucrat
you can play games with, Frank.
Where do you think it comes from?
- Outer space.
I wish I could be more specific.
- This is a cockpit, isn't it?
- [Frank] Yeah.
- Do you notice anything unusual about this place?
- The spores are more concentrated here.
- It looks to me like this stuff came from outside the ship,
attacked the ship.
And now it's taken root,
and it's spreading throughout the swamp.
This shit is flourishing, Frank.
- Let's get out of here.
It's unlike any substance I've ever come across before.
It has unusually thick consistency, like cake.
- So you're surprised by its properties,
but you're not surprised it's out here, are you, Frank?
- No.
Based on the last transmissions from the Nautilus pilot,
Kendrick expected something alien.
That's why he sent me out here.
Aliens are my specialty.
- And so now this alien something has taken root
in the swamp, and it's growing.
- There's something else that's bothering me.
That creature that attacked us,
it was covered with these spores.
It's as if they're an agent
for rapid, uncontrolled mutation.
It's as if these spores had taken over that creature's mind.
- [Reporter] What information do you have
on a possible crash site?
- Listen, there is a very small chance,
and when I say small, I mean a very minute chance
that there may be part of the spaceship
someplace in Florida.
- [Reporter] Have you found the ship's flight recorder?
- No, we're not looking for any mysterious black box
that's going to answer all of our questions.
And I resent you think that I'm trying
to hide some of the information here.
You know that I am the kind of a fellow
that lays all of my cards on the table.
It's just that, it's just that I wanna explore
all possible angles of trying to find my spaceship.
Now don't you think, if I thought my spaceship,
the Nautilus, was laying in some swamp in Florida,
that I would be the first one to go down there
and check it out?
- [Reporter] What information do you expect to find
in the swamp? - Mr. Kendrick,
what about Steve Thomas, and where is your search team?
(melancholy music)
(static hissing)
(groaning)
- As soon as I get a hold of Carlson, all bets are off.
We're gonna have Judy notify the authorities,
the military for starters.
- Fair enough.
- Hey, that's my story you're talking about,
and Jack and I didn't risk our asses
to come all the way out here and throw it away.
I cut a deal with Kendrick.
- This is too big for Kendrick.
We have to drop this news blackout
and let people know about the danger.
- I just hope it's not too late.
Swamp's poisoned already.
It's worse than that.
It's possessed.
- This is an invasion, right?
Like the little green men?
- No.
It's little orange spores.
- [Tom] Carlson, come in, this is Tom Hanning,
can you read me?
Come in, Carlson.
- Carlson, radio!
Carlson, radio!
- [Tom] Carlson, this is Tom Hanning, do you read me?
- Carlson here, go ahead.
- [Tom] Carlson, listen, Jack Reese is injured.
You need to get in touch with Judy.
- Can do.
- [Tom] Listen closely, this is important.
(foreboding music)
Judy has to contact the authorities.
We've got mutations out here, a lot of bad things going on.
- Okay, gotcha.
I'll get Judy to notify somebody right away.
(growling)
(suspenseful music)
- What the hell was that?
What's going on?
What the hell is out there?
- Denning!
Denning!
(suspenseful music)
(shouts)
(gun fires)
- Carlson, Carlson, come in, this is Tom Hanning.
Do you read me? - That's coming from the camp,
you know it is! - Frank, we don't know
what we're up against.
I've never had military training,
but one thing a good soldier never does
is split his forces in hostile territory.
- We already made that mistake.
- And we're not gonna do it again.
- I don't like this at all.
Do you believe in vampires, Tom?
(sniffs)
- Supernatural beings that drain the blood of the living?
No, the only vampires ever known were people.
- Then explain the condition of these bodies to me.
- What do you mean?
- Mummified corpses, not a drop of blood,
a drop of fluid left in them.
- You're not joking.
- I wish I were.
- [Tom] What's that in his hand?
- Do you have a knife?
- I don't even wanna know what you're doing.
- Kim, go into my backpack
and get me one of those specimen jars, please.
Here, hold his hands steady while I get these last few.
(cracking)
With all this talk about the Nautilus,
it seems we forgot about the missing pilot.
- Yeah, people usually forget about the foot soldier.
What was the pilot's name?
- Thomas, Steve Thomas.
- Unless I'm mistaken,
Mr. Thomas has left us a calling card.
- Strange, Jack said the swamp changes from day to day.
It used to be so alive, but now it's like a ghost town.
We know what those spores do to small animals.
The big question is, what do they do to people, huh, Frank?
(foreboding music)
(sizzling)
- The spores, as I've come to call them,
are totally unlike anything I've ever encountered before.
Either this is the most molecularly-unstable life form
yet discovered, or,
or the drastic tissue changes observed are guided
by some unknown intelligence.
Also, there's the unusual presence of human blood.
(sizzling)
(ominous music)
Oh god.
(gurgling)
Oh my god.
(suspenseful music)
(foreboding music)
(gurgling)
(groans)
(shouts)
Careful, that's acid!
- Right, Frank.
(sizzling)
Better start a fire.
- This just keeps getting stranger.
- Burn this jacket and anything else
that might've gotten infected.
- More wood.
- That's enough, Frank.
- Jack, I didn't hear you come up.
(groans)
You don't look so well.
I think Frank should take a look at you.
(suspenseful music)
- Hey.
Where the hell is Jack?
(suspenseful music)
(screams)
(growls)
(grunting)
(wails)
(groans)
(ominous music)
- I feel like I could wash my hands for hours,
scrub them raw, and they'd still be contaminated.
Unclean.
- I can't help but feel
that there's some sort of guiding intelligence
behind everything that's happened so far,
and that somehow these spores are sentient.
- It's evil. - Not necessarily.
- Tell that to the dead men on the ground, Frank.
- We don't understand why this substance
behaves the way it does,
or what brings about these drastic mutations,
but where there's intelligence,
there's hope for communication, for understanding.
- So whatever killed Denning and Carlson
just needs a little understanding?
What do you wanna do, take it to lunch, Frank?
Ask it about its childhood, huh?
Go ahead, go ahead, it's still out there!
- I'm afraid I know too much about it already,
at least more than I wanted to know.
I had the time to run some tests
on that tentacle we found on Carlson.
This was before everything happened.
Whatever it was that killed Carlson had human DNA.
- Are you saying that thing is Steve Thomas?
- The pilot of the Nautilus.
And according to my tests, he's anemic.
- Denning and Carlson's bodies were drained of blood.
So Thomas sucked them dry for the red blood cells?
- Doesn't make any sense.
If you and I needed more red cells,
it wouldn't do us any good to drink blood.
Blood has no nutritive value.
- Yeah, but he's not completely human anymore,
either, is he?
We've lost a lot on this damn expedition,
we'll lose a lot more if we don't keep our heads.
Now I'm no exobiologist,
but there's something about alien intelligence I do know.
We won't find any common ground to connect with it.
- Why are we even discussing this?
This swamp is infested, it needs to be purged.
Why don't we just torch this whole damn place
and let it grow back pure?
- Are you suggesting that we nuke central Florida?
- Look, right now we've got one job,
to stay alive long enough to warn people about this.
And before we can tell anybody,
we've got a lot of miles to cover.
Right now, we're still too far out of range
to reach Judy on the handset,
so as soon as it's daylight, we hit the trail, okay?
(growling)
(ominous music)
- Steve, I know it's very lonely out there in the universe,
but I want you to know that here on Planet Earth,
there's thousands...
No, Steve, there are millions, millions of people down here
that are pulling for you.
Steve, what's going on up there?
We lost you on the screen.
Looks like you entered into some kind of meteor field,
but where the hell it came from is anybody's guess.
This is Ground Control One to Nautilus.
Steve, do you read me?
You are entering the atmosphere too quickly.
Steve, come in!
Do you read me?
You are coming in too fast!
- Well, the more light the better.
This fire needs more wood.
- Don't go too far.
- Are you kidding?
First twig I see, I'm stopping.
(growling)
Jesus!
(suspenseful music)
Right behind me, it's coming right in!
(roaring)
Here he comes.
(gun fires)
- It's not working.
No, it's not working!
Get out of here, go!
(roaring)
- Get the flashlights out, Frank.
- Jesus Christ.
(groans)
(buzzing)
- Steve!
Respond!
Steve, respond, we lost you on the screen!
- [Tom] Get out of here, go!
- (yelps) Jesus!
Just go, Christ.
- We got a reprieve, I don't know how long it'll last.
- This time it's not catching us unawares.
(growling)
- Okay, Tom, I'm just waiting for some kind of explanation.
(eerie music)
Okay, I'm just waiting, whenever you're ready,
you just fire away, you just let me know what's happening.
It's a hell of a time to give up smoking, damn it.
(roaring) (screams)
(suspenseful music)
- [Tom] Head for the treeline.
- Shit.
Oh god, we gotta get him out of there!
- Where are you, you son of a bitch?
(roaring)
- Tom dropped this before he went inside.
I think if anybody has a weapon
that can kill this monster, it's Tom.
- Hey, we could torch the thing.
- This thing was created in part
by reentry into the earth's atmosphere.
If that didn't cook it, then this thing isn't gonna do it.
- Why don't we just douse the thing with gasoline?
- 'Cause we don't even have any gasoline!
- There's one thing we haven't tried yet.
That thing used to be Steve Thomas, a human being.
(tense music)
(growling)
- It will never fly, Frank.
- Probably not, but I have to give him that chance.
- He didn't give us a chance!
(growling)
- Steve.
Steve Thomas.
(growling)
Steve, I'm sorry.
We didn't know.
(suspenseful music)
(roars)
(groans)
- Frank.
It's up to us now.
- Marsh gas.
- I thought Frank said that wouldn't work.
- The swamp is full of marsh gas.
It's a long shot, but it might work.
The gas is flammable.
(roars)
- Now!
- No, it has to get closer.
- Come on, you son of a bitch, come get us!
- Kim, get out of the way, damn it!
(roars)
(suspenseful music)
- Steve Thomas!
Suck on this!
(roars)
(dramatic orchestral music)
- You're damn right we're gonna launch another shuttle.
Look, I admit we made some mistakes with the last one,
and we're probably going to make some different mistakes
with the next one.
Now we learned some very valuable lessons
with the tragedy of the Nautilus.
It is a dark, dark universe out there,
and it is humanity's job to shed some light on it.
Humanity has been very good to me,
and this is my way of giving something back.
(dramatic orchestral music)