Arctic Blue

ARCTIC BLUE by Ross LaManna FADE IN: 1 EXT.BOREAL FOREST - ALASKA - (AERIAL SHOT) - DAY Flying.Not at the intangible height of a jet, but at spitting distance from the treetops.We're in central Alaska, the Big Lonely, just north of the Arctic Circle. A thick forest follows the contours of mountain foothills like a deep- pile carpet.Up at treeline the forest thins to tundra, a grassy scruff turning red and yellow with the coming of autumn. On the horizon, the hills rise to meet the Endicott Mountains, a great fortress wall of granite so sharp and jagged that snow cannot stick to its face.This is how all North America once looked -- raw, indomitable. Then, abruptly coming into the SCENE is a colossal etching across the landscape too deliberate to be of natural origin. Bisecting this country like a metallic ribbon -- or a scar, depending on your point of view -- is the 800-mile-long Trans-Alaskan Pipeline. Even the immensity of the pipeline is rendered insignificant by the vastness of the land.It goes on, and on, and on... DISSOLVE TO: A lone MAN walks along the Haul Road, a one-lane gravel trail running parallel to the pipeline.The weather turns sour -- rough wind and stinging snow cut across the man's path. DISSOLVE TO: The man is ERIC DESMOND, twenty-four, clean-shaven, determined.He's clearly out of place here, dressed in a business suit and a light, camel-hair topcoat.