HOLD ON THE BLACK SCREEN.
A beat.
Then, in white lettering -
CAPTION:
November 19th, 2006. Ramadi, Iraq.
A Navy SEAL platoon takes sniper positions in support of a US Marines Operation.
The CAPTIONS disappear.
New CAPTION:
This film uses only their memories.
The CAPTION disappears.
Then CUT TO -
1 EXT. RAMADI/STREET - NIGHT 1
- a group of twenty-two soldiers.
They are walking down a street in the Iraqi city of RAMADI, Al Anbar Province, 75 miles west of Baghdad.
The soldiers are a mixture of -
- NAVY SEALS, TEAM 5: an elite Special Operations unit within the US Navy. NAVY SEALS are most famous with the public for the killing of Osama bin Laden, but much of their work is covert and unreported.
- MARINES: another fighting arm of the US Navy. Less elite than the SEALS, but highly trained, with a long history of front-line combat.
- IRAQI SCOUTS: local soldiers, placed with US military as part of a programme to train the Iraqi military in specialist US fighting tactics. They also act as interpreters.
The soldiers move in single file.
NOTE: ELLIOTT is on point.
They are alert.
Tense, scanning, weapons up.
No one talks.
They are entering an enemy stronghold - this section of RAMADI has been so dangerous to enter that the US military fully withdrew from area three months ago.
This is the first time since the withdrawal that any US military have returned.
We view this NIGHT SEQUENCE as the soldiers do: through NIGHT VISION GOGGLES.
The NVGs are pulled down from the helmets, over their eyes.
It makes the soldiers anonymous to us. Almost indistinguishable from one another.
It shows the world in shades of GREEN, BLACK, and WHITE.
Through the NVG vision, we can see little of the city.
A dusty road, litter-strewn.
Lined with concrete houses, mostly set back, behind high walls.
2 EXT. RAMADI/JUNCTION - NIGHT 2
The SOLDIERS reach a junction.
They split into groups.
OP-1, OP-2, and OP-3.
We stay with OP-1.
Ten men.
3 EXT. RAMADI/STREET - NIGHT 3
OP-1 approaches one of the houses on the street.
It is a two-storey concrete building, set back from the road, behind a six-foot wall and a metal GATE.
Between the gate and the building, there is a small DRIVEWAY, with a scrubby garden on one side.
At the end of the driveway, there is a second wall, with a strip of patterned air bricks to let a breeze through.
It creates a small covered COURTYARD around the front entrance.
On the second floor of the house, there is a BALCONY.
OP-1 stack up by the front wall.
Two of the soldiers are boosted over.
Moments later, they quietly open the metal gate.
As a group, OP-1 moves silently up the driveway.
Four of the soldiers keep their focus ahead - at the house.
The others cover all surrounding angles: rooftops, overlooking windows, their rear.
The four leading soldiers stack up by front door.
A beat.
A go-sign from the lead soldier - lifting the barrel of his gun, then dipping it.
Then -
- the front door is quietly opened.
The four-man entry team move inside the building.
4 INT. HOUSE/KITCHEN - NIGHT 4
Silence, caution, and stealth are still maintained.
The four-man entry team enter the room - a KITCHEN.
They sweep with their weapons.
Seconds later they are moving to the doorway that leads deeper into the house.
As this next doorway is breached -
- the rest of OP-1 are flooding into the kitchen.
5 INT. HOUSE/HALL - NIGHT 5
We follow the entry team into the next space.
A HALL, with two rooms to the left, and stairs leading up to the right.
6 INT. HOUSE/STAIRS - NIGHT 6
Two of the soldiers move up the stairs.
We stay with them.
We hear the sound of an IRAQI MAN suddenly calling out in alarm.
7 INT. HOUSE/UPSTAIRS MAIN ROOM - NIGHT 7
The top of the stairs opens into a room -
- where we glimpse an IRAQI family.
Jolted awake from sleep.
Waking into a nightmare.
A MAN and a WOMAN - emerging from their bedrooms.
They are actually a brother and sister.
The woman is widowed.
Behind her are her daughters - two young GIRLS, through the doorway of another room, aged seven and nine.
The MAN starts pleading.
The WOMAN starts screaming.
Then the two young GIRLS start screaming and crying.
We see their terrified faces in GREEN, BLACK, and WHITE.
ABRUPTLY -
CUT TO -
8 EXT. RAMADI - DAY 8
- morning over RAMADI.
An aerial view.
Now we can see the city.
A mass of concrete buildings, clustered along the banks of the Euphrates River.
9 EXT. HOUSE - DAY 9
We revisit the exterior of the two-storey concrete house that the soldiers have occupied.
Now in daylight.
The WALLS.
The GATE.
CUT TO -
10 EXT. HOUSE/DRIVEWAY - DAY 10
The DRIVEWAY.
Wide enough for one vehicle.
Long enough for two vehicles.
CUT TO -
11 EXT. HOUSE/COURTYARD - DAY 11
- the covered COURTYARD at the end of the driveway.
The high wall with air bricks.
The FRONT ENTRANCE of the house.
CUT TO -
12 EXT. HOUSE/BALCONY - DAY 12
- the BALCONY, wrapped around the front and side of the house.
On the balcony are four CLAYMORES.
Curved cases, containing directional explosive charges, set out along the balcony in a daisy chain.
There is also a ROVER III COMMS RECIEVER.
It looks like a white hockey puck sat on three stubby legs, and relays images from air support down to OP-1.
A cable runs from the ROVER III, back into the house, through a metal door, slightly ajar.
The houses either side are close enough that one could almost step from the roof of one house to the next.
CUT TO -
13 INT. HOUSE/DOWNSTAIRS BEDROOM - DAY 13
- the ground-floor bedroom, just off the main living area.
The IRAQI FAMILY are sitting together on the bed.
Keeping guard over the family is an IRAQI SCOUT - SIDAR.
SIDAR is 31.
He holds an Israeli-made AK-47 assault rifle.
SIDAR is smoking.
The MAN sits on the edge of the bed, looking at the ground.
The two young girls are lying in middle of the bed, calmer than we last saw them.
They are huddled up to their MOTHER, who is watching SIDAR.
SIDAR is ignoring them all.
Staring into space, concentrating on his cigarette.
He looks tense, but bored.
CUT TO -
14 INT. HOUSE/HALL - DAY 14
- an empty HALL, just outside the downstairs bedroom.
A flight of stairs leads up to the second floor.
At the end of the hall is the KITCHEN.
CUT TO -
15 INT. HOUSE/KITCHEN - DAY 15
- the kitchen.
The first room in the house that OP-1 entered.
In daylight, we can see that it contains a concrete shelf, built out of the wall.
On the shelf is a small propane stove, some pots and pans, and a small stack of mismatched plates.
The FRONT ENTRANCE, leading to the outside courtyard, is being covered by two soldiers.
The first is TOMMY.
TOMMY is 21. He's white.
A NAVY SEAL.
This is TOMMY'S first platoon. As someone young, and new to front-line operations, he is sometimes called 'Meat' - as in, fresh meat.
He's...
