FOR THE GOOD FIGHT

by
JR Kambak

Based on a True Story

JR Kambak
8612 Lodestone Circle
Elk Grove, CA 95624
Tel. +01.916.230.4320
zentoro@fastmail.co.uk
WGA Registered
 “FOR THE GOOD FIGHT”

FADE IN:

EXT. PARIS - NIGHT

SUPER: Paris Winter 1957

Through a pair of binoculars focused on a sidewalk corner

pool of lamp light.

MERIAN C. COOPER (62) walks into view wearing a winter long

coat and hat. Brisk pace. Checks to see if he’s being
followed. He’s not.

Enters the Cafe de la Paix.

INSERT: Binoculars focus on a Christmas wreath hanging in the

cafe’s front window.

INT. CAFE DE LA PAIX - CONTINUOUS

A few patrons are biding their time over dinner, drinks.

A Young Waiter is engaged serving them, notices Cooper enter.

Cooper, full-faced in candlelight dancing shadows, holds his

hat and coat, stands at a corner table where is seated...

MACIEJ SLOMCZYNSKI, (35) who remains in the darken shadows

for now. For the moment he stands, his face O.C.

SLOMCZYNSKI (O.C.)
I didn’t think you would come.

A formal handshake.

COOPER
I flew straight over once I got
word from the embassy. Aren’t you
being watched by the KGB?

SLOMCZYNSKI
Most likely. But it’s worth the
risk to see you.

The Young Waiter sets a bottle of wine on the table. Takes

Cooper’s coat and hat.

SLOMCZYNSKI (O.C.) (CONT’D)

I had help. Decoys.
 2.

COOPER
I don’t think I was followed.

Cooper produces a Havana cigar; expertly clips the end,

showing his burned scarred hands.

SLOMCZYNSKI (O.C.)
I see my contacts could be trusted.

Slomczynski’s slender hand, nicotine stained, strikes a

match; its flame flares.

COOPER
Mutual trust is the only thing
keeping the Soviets and American
from starting a nuclear war.

Cooper puffs the cigar as Slomczynski holds the flame to its

end.

Cooper exhales smoke that drifts lazily into a small cloud

hovering above the table.

COOPER (CONT’D)
How did you convince...

SLOMCZYNSKI (O.C.)
The Kremlin wants proof of French
support for the Polish-Bolshevik
War of 1920. There was a movement
in Paris.

COOPER
I always feared you’d be swept up
in Stalin’s purges.

SLOMCZYNSKI
I wasn’t. I’m a literature scholar
now.

COOPER
You should set the Kremlin straight
with something substantial like
what that Polish poet wrote in his
cri de coeur.

SLOMCZYNSKI (O.C.)
Mickiewicz; “let us love one
another.”
 3.

COOPER
In a century filled with war, it
sounds foolish... but we must still
fight to keep that love alive.

Slomczynski pours wine.

SLOMCZYNSKI
I’m translating Shakespeare.

COOPER
Into Polish?

SLOMCZYNSKI (O.C.)
Polish.

COOPER
It is a first.

SLOMCZYNSKI (O.C.)
If I’m not censored by the Union of
Soviet Writers.

COOPER
Poland should give you a medal.

SLOMCZYNSKI (O.C.)
I don’t deserve any medals. I’ve
never been a soldier.

Hints of cigar smoke escape from the corners of Cooper’s

mouth. They sip wine.

SLOMCZYNSKI (O.C.) (CONT’D)

A Nazi concentration inmate, yes,
but not a soldier like yourself.

This is news to Cooper. He is visibly shaken for a moment.

Cooper strokes the side of his whiskered face. Contemplating
the odds.

COOPER
How did you survive?

SLOMCZYNSKI (O.C.)
I escaped. But let’s not talk
about me. I want to know the
truth, about your involvement with
the Polish-Bolshevik War of 1920;
the formation of the 7th Kosciuszko
Squadron. You had no blood ties to
Poland.
 4.

COOPER
Many speculate. We’d beaten the
Kaiser. Next, in my mind, was the
Bolsheviks.

SLOMCZYNSKI (O.C.)
Did you write about it?

COOPER
Whenever I tried, my pen faltered.

SLOMCZYNSKI (O.C.)
No book?

Slomczynski’s legs are crossed in a gentleman fashion. A

well-worn shoe taps, impatiently.

COOPER
One. But I pulled it off the
shelves.

A couple from another table burst into momentary laughter.

SLOMCZYNSKI (O.C.)
Ironic, isn’t it. A Poland you
help liberate eventually fell under
Soviet rule.

Cooper strokes his chin, digging beneath the surface of his

memories. Drinks some wine to temper a welling anger.

COOPER
Only because of the Yalta Treaty.
Giving Stalin Eastern Europe was
the same as giving the devil
Christmas presents.

SLOMCZYNSKI (O.C.)
The Warsaw Pact Alliance.

Cooper is noticeably irritated.

COOPER
Stalin’s abortion of democracy... a
hangover with a headache for the
world. I suspect you must watch
what you say, even in Paris.

Slomczynski lays a wallet sized journal and chrome pen on the

table. Neatly, side by side.

SLOMCZYNSKI (O.C.)
Or even what I write.
 5.

Cooper searches the cafe. No one looks suspicious.

COOPER
I think our spies took the night
off.

SLOMCZYNSKI (O.C.)
Which gives you the chance to tell
me your version of the 7th
Squadron.

Cooper searches for a place to start. It’s a memory mixed

with vivid emotions that shows in his face.

Then, his eyes land on the cafe Christmas wreath - a biplane

decoration suspended in the middle; he draws a deep breath.

COOPER
It was the first Christmas after
the Armistice. Paris, was filled
with bright lights, reckless
romance and drunken gaiety, at
least by those who had survived the
Western Front in one piece.

Exhaling a puff of smoke, Cooper leans back, arms across his

chest.

COOPER (CONT’D)
I left the Red Cross hospital in
Neuilly and spent all my months of
back pay at one wild party in
Montmartre. It was there I learned
about two missing-in-action
American pilots.

Another drag off the cigar. Leans forward to take another

sip of wine. Then, another, leaving the glass dry.

Wine flushes his cheeks. He looks fortified.

EXT. WESTERN FRONT - EARLY MORNING

Crossing the shattered earth of war’s debris, Cooper

(spitfire enthusiasm, 25) in an aviator uniform, slogs
through the winter landscape.

COOPER (V.O.)
The next day I took a train to the
Front to find the bodies of the two
Lieutenants.
 6.

Cooper stands by the twisted, charred fragments of wood and

bits of wing fabric, splintered props, and scorched engine
blocks in a ghastly heap.

INSERT FLASHBACK:

Forty-eight biplanes, twelve are “Hat-In-The-Ring” Sopwith

Camels, the rest are Germany’s red and white swastika painted
triplane “Flying Circus.”

An aerial dogfight to the death, high above the embattled

Western Front, swooping through billowy white clouds.

They buzz, barrel roll; bursts of machine gun fire, fuselages

trailing smoke.

Frantic manoeuvres at the controls by the aviators in their

cockpits, while firing their double barrel machine guns.

A German Fokker makes a bead on two SPAD S. VII climbing

vertical, side by side.

The Fokker swoops in fast, firing its machine guns with

deadly accuracy.

One Sopwith Camel is riddled with bullets; pilot collapses

against the controls; smoke and fire spews out along the
fuselage and cockpit; spins to earth in a trail of black
smoke.

The other Sopwith Camel stalls out in mid air; slips

sideways, plunging to earth in an out-of-control corkscrew
nosedive through the other plane’s smoke trail.

END FLASHBACK:

Cooper pulls back a tarpaulin against an oak tree’s trunk,

revealing two mutilated military uniformed corpses, slumped
together like rag dolls. Eyes open, reflecting the sunrise
on the eastern horizon.

INT. CAFE DE LA PAIX

COOPER
They had less than a week’s flight
training.

Cooper takes a long drag off his cigar. Rolls it between his
lips. Exhales.
 7.

COOPER (CONT’D)
One father lost his only son, the
other a mother lost her only boy.
It was Christmas morning when I
buried them.

INSERT FLASHBACK:

Cooper plants the second makeshift crucifix on a shallow

grave.

He stares off to the morning sun in the east.

END FLASHBACK:

SLOMCZYNSKI (O.C.)
After that... you were looking for
more adventure in Eastern Europe?

Puffing his cigar. Edgy.

COOPER
Adventure? There was no adventure
in the vast borderlands between
Russia and Germany at that time.
It was a godless territorial civil
war. At least five wars raged in
succession since the armistice.

SLOMCZYNSKI (O.C.)
But the Battle for Warsaw was the
most decisive in turning back the
invading Bolsheviks?

Cooper regains his composure.

COOPER
It began as a border dispute in the
void of the Armistice. Political
factions in a school yard scuffle;
escalating into murderous
reprisals.

Slomczynski writes in his journal. WE SEE its Polish.

Cooper’s blue eyes are lit in a dagger of yellow light.

COOPER (CONT’D)
When the Armistice was signed,
Poland regained its independence
after a hundred and twenty five
years of the Central Power’s
occupation.
 8.

SLOMCZYNSKI (O.C.)
At the same time, Lenin’s
revolution took control of Russia.

Cooper nods in agreement.

COOPER
Two infant regimes locked in a
political imbroglio that spun out
of control. The flash point has at
Brest, but in 1919, the worse of
the fighting was in southern
Poland, once claimed as Austria’s
Galicia. It was here that the
Ukrainian and Bolsheviks laid
siege.

SLOMCZYNSKI (O.C.)
How did you convince the Polish
ministry to enlist as an American
solider?

COOPER
Because of the military service of
two Polish patriots in the American
Revolutionary War.

SLOMCZYNSKI (O.C.)
Casimir Pulaski and Thaddeus
Kosciusko.

COOPER
This is what I wrote to Poland’s
head of state, Marshall Pilsudski,
offering my services to fight for
Poland’s freedom.

SLOMCZYNSKI (O.C.)
And he accepted this?

COOPER
Ha! Quite the contrary. Marshall
Pilsudski accused me of exploiting
the war for my own profit.

SLOMCZYNSKI (O.C.)
And the American government didn’t
want to get involved.

COOPER
Not exactly.
(MORE)
 9.
COOPER (CONT'D)
President Hoover, passed a
Congressional initiative of one
hundred million dollars, forming
the American Relief Administration.
That was my ticket to...

EXT. LWOW - WINTER - ESTABLISHING

Aerial of a shelled out city under sporadic artillery

bombardment.

COOPER (V.O.)
Lwow, setting up the distribution
center inside the Potocki Palace.

SUPER: Lwow, Poland Winter 1919

Among the city’s ruins Cooper negotiates his way through the
rubble, toward the Potocki Palace.

Cooper’s INTERPRETER, (25) timidly follows as bombs explode

against nearby buildings.

Distant spit-fire machine gun blasts.

Disheveled civilians run for cover in darken shelled out

buildings.

Cooper and Interpreter pass an old woman and young girl

desperately tugging at the stiff leg of a dead dog buried
under the a pile of rumble.

INT. POTOCKI PALACE - CONTINUOUS

Cooper stands behind a small wooden desk; once a palatial

room now covered in gray debris; filled from floor to ceiling
of boxed provisions, stamped American Relief Administration.

A handful of Polish volunteers, some attentively taking

notes.

Through Cooper’s Interpreter;

COOPER
I want announcements of food
distribution placed in bold print
in your newspaper and posters in
every public place.

Cooper waits for the Interpreter to finish.

 10.

COOPER (CONT’D)
And, you reporters, hire
detectives. I want the names of
anyone stealing this food for
speculation and profit.

Then, with a “God as my witness” glare:

COOPER (CONT’D)
They will be publicly branded as
thieves and murderers of their own
children.

INT. CAFE DE LA PAIX

A couple, preparing to leave the cafe, distracts Cooper for a

moment.

He notices the woman, slender and graceful. Her male

companion helps her with her large fur coat.

Cooper ponders for a moment. His attention shifts back to

Slomczynski.

COOPER
Morale is to the Physical as Three
to One. Those are the words of
Admiral Nelson that always inspired
me to keep my courage up.

SLOMCZYNSKI (O.C.)
Your strategy in war for Poland’s
independence?

COOPER
In war, only the simple plan can
succeed. Morale is the conquering
factor. More than anything else,
food brought morale to the people
of Lwow to fight back.

EXT. OUTSKIRTS OF LWOW - OVERCAST DAY

A group of meanly-armed Polish BOY SCOUTS, sleepy eyed, stand

guard in a shallow, mist-covered trench by a dirt road.

Through a thick hedge close by, a Red Army CAVALRY detachment

swoops down upon them.

The Boys, scramble to fight back but are hacked to death,

with the Russian’s sabers.
 11.

COOPER (V.O.)
When I heard news of the Polish
boy’s deaths, I went to the front
lines.

OUTSKIRTS OF LWOW - DAWN

Five thousand old men, boys, women and girls huddled in a

long ill-made dug out trench that stretches off into the
distance.

COOPER (V.O.) (CONT’D)

Across a vast field, the formable
Red Army, allied by blood thirsty
Ukrainians who had just been routed
out of the city by...
(beat)
Thousands of armed Polish citizens,
with pitch forks, muskets, rifles,
machine guns, and rocks, facing
certain death and not one broke the
line in surrender.

Cooper and his Interpreter slosh through the trench's muddy

ice crusted water; stepping over frozen corpses; seeing the
deathly pale faces gaunt from starvation.

Cooper reels from the stench of a pile of half-frozen

corpses.

Cooper stares at the women and girls wearing heavy coated

uniforms, crouched against the muddy trench in dirty snow,
shivering. Some hold pitchforks.

Others exchange bullets, seeing if they’ll fit their carbine

chamber. Passing them on if they don’t.

The Interrupter talks to a Polish woman COMMANDANT, who

replies with excitement in Polish, then runs off.

INTERPRETER
Captain Cooper, there is an
American girl fighting with us.

The Commandant returns with NINA, (svelte, pearly-white, 22)

in a baggy Polish uniform, carbine in hand, a bandolier of
cartridges slung across her shoulders. On her blouse, a
medal for courage.

NINA
(smiling)
Oh, an American! I’m from Chicago.
You look like an officer.
 12.

Cooper’s astonished. They shake hands.

COOPER
I’m Captain Cooper, with the relief
effort. How did you get here?

NINA
I returned to see my grandparents
after the Armistice. Then, we were
attacked by the Bolsheviks and
Ukrainians, claiming this territory
as theirs.

Sporadic rat-tat-tat of Bolshevik machine gun fire peppers

the trench’s crest. Bullets zip overhead. They duck.

A deafening bomb explodes near the trench, raining muddy dirt

clods down on Cooper and the Girl.

COOPER
You should go back to Chicago.

Nina, distracted, stares back toward her position along the

trench wall, urgent to return.

NINA
And fight for the new freedom of
Poland in America?

COOPER
What’s your name?

The Commandant climbs the trench wall.

Nina, seeing this, heads back to her position.

NINA
Nina.

The Commandant blows her whistle, then yells, “For your

freedom and ours!”

Climbing the trench wall, Nina looks at Cooper.

NINA (CONT’D)
For your freedom and ours... and
for the good fight!

The civilian soldiers scramble up the muck-caked slippery

trench wall, fearlessly facing the Bolshevik’s heavy machine
gun fire.
 13.

One woman soldier swings up over the trench wall; suddenly

spun around, dropping stone dead near Cooper, a bullet
through her head, peacefully smiling, eyes open.

A girl takes a bullet in the gut, doubling up, crying out for
her “Mother” in agony while slipping back down into the
trench. Then, another collapses in mid-stride.

Hundreds charge; all recklessly shooting their rifles into

the Bolshevik’s barrage of machine gun fire and artillery
bombardment.

In the commotion, Nina bravely leads a small group straight

into the machine gun fire and exploding bombs.

She suffers a flesh wound to the leg. Drops to her knees,

raises her rifle and fires.

A bullet shatters her shoulder, knocking off her cap,

tussling her short brown hair, lifting her up backwards into
a smoldering bomb crater.

Cooper flinches to go to her aid. The Interpreter holds him

back.

INTERPRETER
You’re not an enlisted soldier.

Nina’s hand reaches into the air, digs into the carter’s rim.

Then, her head rises; dragging her rifle with her good arm,
staggering out of the crater in thick drifting smoke.

Cooper lunges for the dead woman’s rifle.

COOPER
To hell with that! I’m not letting
her die out there!

Cooper wrestles free; scrambles up over the trench,

disappearing in the thick battleground haze.

INT. CAFE DE LA PAIX

The Couple exit the cafe, arm-in-arm. The Young Waiter

clears their table.

Cooper taps a long ash from his cigar in an ashtray on the

table.
 14.

COOPER
There was a recruitment drive in
America for all Polish descendants
to sign on. At the same time,
members of the American
Expeditionary Force in Paris were
as eager to fight the Bolsheviks.

SLOMCZYNSKI (O.C.)
But the Spartacus movement in
Germany was encouraging European
sentiment for Lenin’s socialist
revolution in Russia.

COOPER
President Wilson declared any
American going to fight on behalf
of Poland did so on their own
accord.

EXT. RED BRICK HOUSE - POLAND - ESTABLISHING

Yellow light from the windows casts flickering shadows on the

huge snowdrifts outside, illuminating a gentle snow fall.

COOPER (V.O.)
Regardless, I enlisted in the
Polish army as an aviator and
returned to Lwow.

INT. RED BRICK HOUSE - CONTINUOUS

The room, cold and bare except for benches and crude wooden
tables, in a thick smoky haze.

Men, all hard in feature. Faces sweating and red in the

kerosene light; Turks, Germans, French, American, Ukraine all
converse, some in deep laughter, others shouting from
drunkenness in their native tongues.

A scraggly bearded American ex-MAJOR, (45) in a soiled

uniform boldly stands to attention. His left arm extends his
tin cup.

EX-MAJOR
A toast to war! Better them dead
today, so we can live tomorrow!

All CHEER, guzzling bottles of wine, except Cooper who moves

toward the door with his back to us.
 15.

EXT. RED BRICK HOUSE - MOMENT LATER

Cooper stands in a snow drift starring up at the thick

sparkling snowfall.

Lost in a solitary moment, he lets the snowflakes gently fall

on his cheeks, melting into tiny trickles down his face.

A snowflake falls on his cracked lips. He licks it slowly

away, then another, tasting its purity, relishing the moment.

Steam rises from his face. Cooper breathes a deep sigh when
the drunkenness din bellows out from a door thrust open.

Two drunken Polish aviators stagger out, stumbling, falling

together into a snowdrift. From inside, a raucous chorus
sings:

DRUNKEN SOLDIERS (O.C.)

God rest you merry gentlemen, let
nothing you dismay, for Christ, our
lord and savior was born on
Christmas day...

Wrestling. Cursing and laughing the aviators pitch against

each other and go back inside, closing the door.

Muffling the singing that continues in mixed languages.

COOPER (V.O.)
The war raged on, both on the
ground and in the halls of
international politics. But as for
me, my mind was clear. There was
just one thing to do.

Cooper looks straight out toward the eastern horizon.

Dawn inches its way, illuminating an air field; two permanent

aerodromes and a compliment of Brandenburg and Offag 51’s
biplanes.

INT. AVIATOR’S BARRACKS - LWOW - DUSK

Super: Lwow, Lewandowka Flying Field, Spring 1919

Cooper, dressed in a Polish Infantry uniform, sits with a

battle weary Polish aviators at a wooden table. Stolid.

In the kerosene lantern flickering flame shadows, wounded

Polish soldiers lay on cots, attended to by Red Cross NURSES.
 16.

A tattered battle map is laid on their table. A bottle of

vodka is shared. Half eaten crusts of bread. Empty tins of
sardines.

The barrack’s door opens. LT. ALEKSANDER SENKOWSKI, (dashing

in aviator overalls, 26) storms in. Seeing Cooper, purposely
sits across from him, next to:

2ND LT. LUDWIK IDZIKOWSKI (husky, 25). Temperamental.

LUDWIK
You Americans send highly paid
advisors to watch from the
sidelines, but where are your
troops?

Senkowski reaches for Idzikowski’s wrist to calm him down.

ALEKSANDER
Ludwik, this man is not American
government. He brought food to our
people. Look around you, here’s
the Red Cross or our wounded would
all be dead.

LT. WLADYSLAW KONKOPKA, (bookish, 29) pours himself a drink.

Tosses it down. Pours another.

WLADYSLAW
But our escadrille is pieced
together like bandages on a
soldier’s wounds. We need new
machines. Parts.

Aleksander looks up. His eyes are tired, premature gray in

his wavy hair.

ALEKSANDER
No one saw this war coming. But we
can’t let the Bolsheviks break our
Miedzymoreze Federation. For the
first time, Poland has its
independence.

Ludwik grabs the bottle from Aleksander, taking a swig.

Glares at Cooper.

LUDWIK
If we can’t counterattack, then
Lenin will take Warsaw. Squashing
us like cockroaches.
 17.

Wladyslaw, in a fit of despair, takes a swig from the bottle

to soothe his nerves.

WLADYSLAW
You, Captain Cooper, weren’t you a
pilot in the World War? I heard,
you were captured by Germans.

COOPER
That’s right. Flew in the 96th
Bomber Squadron.

The Polish pilots fall silent, wanting to hear the story.

COOPER (CONT’D)
On a bombing mission to Dun-sur-
Meuse the Germans attacked us from
15,000 feet, three to one with the
odds in their favor. I crashed
landed, saving my observer who had
been shot up pretty bad.

LUDWIK
Why didn’t you return home after
the Armistice? Haven’t you had
enough of death?

Cooper glances at a Red Cross Nurse, her back to us,

attending to a heavily bandaged Polish aviator.

COOPER
(solemn)
While I was hospitalized I met
these Bolsheviks, full of
hypocritical double-talk, boasting
about their leonine federation.
Their cause for the proletariat,
and disgust for private enterprise.

LUDWIK
But your government accuses us the
imperialistic aggressor.

COOPER
Like me, they will stand and fight
once they see the truth.

WLADYSLAW
Spoken like a true Polish patriot.

Cooper is encouraged.
 18.

COOPER
The way I see it is, if Poland is
forced to surrender, the Soviet’s
will be turned loose on America.

The Red Cross nurse turns. It’s Nina and her right arm in a
sling cradles, Della, a Jack Russell puppy.

COOPER (CONT’D)
I want to recruit some veteran
American fighter pilots to bolster
your squadron. What’d think, boys?

The Polish Aviators search each other’s faces. None too

reassured by Cooper’s offer.

LUDWIK
It’s up to General Rozwadowski.

A puppy YELP O.C.

Nina appears next to the table with Della.

NINA
At least Della agrees.

Artillery bombardments pound O.S. The earth rumbles.

WLADYSLAW
But first you prove to us you are a
good pilot.

Nina puts her hand on Cooper’s shoulder. Cooper reaches up

and gently touches Nina’s hand.

COOPER
Tomorrow morning. At dawn.

We see behind them an illuminated Polish propaganda poster

that READS: “Fight the Bolsheviks.”

INT. CAFE DE LA PAIX

Cooper’s cigar, long glowing ash, half finished.

COOPER
You ever zoom an airplane?

SLOMCZYNSKI (O.C.)
Zoom?
 19.

COOPER
It was one hell of a white knuckled
way of getting airborne.

EXT. LWOW FLYING FIELD - DAY

Cooper, bundled up in a thick flight suit and scarf covering

his face, climbs into the cockpit of a single seater Offag 51
biplane.

A spectating group of Polish aviators stand outside the

aerodrome.

From the cockpit.

COOPER
Contact!

A ground crewman spins the propeller, leaping aside as it

sputters into a roar, stirring up snow.

Cooper expertly drives the biplane across the frozen field

into take-off position.

Pressing hard on the foot pedals, he opens up the throttle;

prop wash lashes snow off the tail dragger.

The Offag 51 roars down the narrow snow packed air strip.
Slipping to one side, skidding to the other on the icy
surface.

Cooper, in the cockpit, presses hard against the stick,

keeping the flaps down.

COOPER (V.O.) (CONT’D)

She fights like a bird to lift, but
you fight the urge, flaps down,
throttle wide open, racing down the
air strip.

At a hair’s breath before a thick woods...

Cooper pulls back on the stick hard, pointing the nose

straight up.

COOPER (V.O.) (CONT’D)

You go vertical, holding her up.
And most importantly you prove your
nerve.

Cooper’s cockpit is vertical. The airfield dwarfs.

 20.

Cooper’s Offag 51 pushes higher and higher through a white

puffy cloud.

Then, just as the biplane shutters, Cooper dips the stick

forward, leveling off.

FLYING FIELD - SAME TIME

Polish aviators, shielding their eyes, squinting toward the

overcast sky.

LUDWIK
He’s good!

INT. CAFE DE LA PAIX

Cooper’s hand demonstrates the biplane’s vertical flight

attitude.

COOPER
But, if you wait just a fraction of
a second too long to level her off
in a flight path...

His hand trembles.

COOPER (CONT’D)
The wings quiver, like this, as if
a sign of regret that it must be...

His hand slowly tilts to one side.

COOPER (CONT’D)
Like a bird struck in mid flight,
the biplane plunges nose first into
the ground.

Cooper’s hand smashes into the cafe’s red checkered table

cloth. His half full wine glass sloshes. The candlestick
wobbles.

COOPER (CONT’D)
That’s what killed one of those
boys at the Western Front. Not the
German Fokker, but that fraction of
a second of hesitation at the
stick.

In the candlelight, Slomczynski’s hand scribbles notes.

 21.

SLOMCZYNSKI (O.C.)
And, so you returned to Paris to
enlist your friends.

COOPER
To this very cafe.

EXT. CHAMP ELYSEES - PARIS - SUMMER DAY

A glistening yellow Electric Trolley whistle BLOWS.

SUPER: Paris, Summer 1919

The sign Cafe De La Paix hangs above...

A strolling accordion player moving through a melange of

pedestrians, uniformed men, honking horseless buggies and
horse drawn carts, passing by the Cafe de la Paix’s sidewalk
tables.

Cooper, in a pressed Polish uniform, is seated with MAJOR

CEDRIC E. FAUNT-LE-ROY, (steel-eyed boyish round face, 28);
CAPTAIN EDMOND C. CORSI, (barely a whisker stubble, 18), and
LT. KENNETH O. SHREWSBURY, (jaunty mustached with dark
eyebrows, 22).

All are dressed in civvies, and three sheets to the wind on

wine. A half finished chess game stands amid baguette
crumbs.

SHREWSBURY
An honest man won’t soil his hands
in foreign politics. There’s no
declaration of war.

COOPER
You’ve read the papers. Poland is
back on her heels. Polish
immigrants from America have
enlisted in General Jozef Haller’s
army. Even the French.

CORSI
But, I don’t get how we can enlist.
We’re still US military.

COOPER
The same way I did. You resign
your post.
 22.

SHREWSBURY
How in the hell will we be
deployed?

CORSI
And where are you gonna get our
planes? At a firesale?

Cooper searches their faces, revived by living comfortable.

FAUNT-LE-ROY
Coop’s right ‘bout Lenin going for
global domination. This Bolshevik
socialism is catching on all over
Europe.

SHREWSBURY
What about the language barrier? I
don’t speak Polish.

CORSI
Neither do I.

COOPER
The Polish squadron we’d be
assigned to speak German, French,
and some English.

They all fall silent, taking in the busy sights of Paris.

Peace feels good, but so uncomfortable with Cooper’s
proposal.

FAUNT-LE-ROY
Can we live with ourselves if
Poland looses and the Bolsheviks
take over Europe?

Shrewsbury, eyebrows furrowed, intensely looks across the

table at Cooper.

SHREWSBURY
That’s a big if.

Two in-vogue gorgeous French GIRLS pass in a grand way,

causing the men to crane their necks.

Close on the woman’s high heels is CAPTAIN ARTHUR H. KELLY

(kindhearted, 29) dressed in civvies, walking in long strides
behind the French girls... catches sight of Cooper.
 23.

KELLY
Cooper! Is it you! Cristalmighty, I
haven’t seen you since you were
peeing in a teapot at Neuilly.

On Kelly’s white front shirt is a hand drawn pair of woman’s

legs.

Cooper and Kelley reunited, embrace.

COOPER
Looks to me you got the right map
of Paris, Artie.

KELLY
Bombs away, Captain.

Kelly grabs a vacant chair from nearby table, elbowing his

way in among the others.

CORSI
(tipsy)
You’re just in time for Cooper’s
recruitment pitch.

A glint off of Cooper’s military cap beams into their faces.

KELLY
Really? Back from the eastern
front? Don’t suppose you need a
navigator?

COOPER
Can use all the help I can get.

Corsi drums his fingers, noticing the wine bottles are empty.

COOPER (CONT’D)
Escadrille Lafayette. We can do
the same thing for Poland.

Corsi hails a young, moonfaced, WAITER.

SHREWSBURY
Cedric, didn’t you just sign a
lucrative deal with Poland to be an
advisor?

Cooper stares at Faunt-Le-Roy, indifferent.

FAUNT-LE-ROY
Being an advisor keeps me on the
sidelines. I’m with Coop.
(MORE)
 24.
FAUNT-LE-ROY (CONT'D)
We need to fight on the frontlines
from the cockpit.

The Waiter arrives at the table.

WAITER
Pardon, monsieur.

CORSI
(to waiter)
More Champagne. Doesn’t he speak
French?
(to Cooper)
You got to see how these Paris
girls dance, prancing around the
room, kicking high with their
skirts fluffed up in front.

COOPER
I’d guess you’d rather be standing
in line waiting for the pony show
while those Reds make ground every
day for Paris.

YOUNG WAITER
(perfect English)
I think I will enlist, if you
don’t.

CRAWFORD
Wazzahell...?

Faunt-Le-Roy lights a cigarette.

FAUNT-LE-ROY
Damn straight. The waiter’s right.
A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta
do.

CORSI
Who the hell made the waiter a
general?

Cooper is quick to pull out some documents from his uniform

coat, and lays them out on the table.

COOPER
I got these from Poland’s Military
Affairs Ministry. They’re
contracts with all the privileges,
wages and ranks of the Polish Armed
Forces’ officers.

They each take a copy, mindfully engrossed.

 25.

The accordion player strolls past, playing a melodic French

love song. The Waiter appears with a magnum champagne
bottle.

FAUNT-LE-ROY
We best get Crawford, Clark and
Noble in on this.

SHREWSBURY
I still think we’re breaking
Entente's alliance.

COOPER
Damn, the politicians. They’re not
the ones doing the fighting.

The Waiter POPS the champagne cork, causing the aviators to

over react from combat jitters.

Then, they all break into hearty laughter.

Champagne is liberally poured.

Cooper raises his glass.

COOPER (CONT’D)
To the good fight?

Glasses raised, including the Waiter.

ALL
To the good fight!

EXT. RITZ HOTEL GARDENS - PARIS - DAY

Through a BELLOWS CAMERA LENS.

Coming into focus upside down, is the plush hotel’s garden. A

lavish gourmet layout with plenty of wine, bustling with
attentive waiters.

A Photographer anxiously sets up a bellows camera to take a

group portrait.

Polish Prime Minister IGNACY PADEREWSKI finishes playing a

classical music piece on a piano.

All APPLAUD, as Paderewski stands and politely bows, then

joins...
 26.

Polish General TADEUSZ ROZWADOWSKI; US military attache HARRY

HOWLAND; US Polish Ambassador KAZIMIERZ LUBOMIRSKI, Cooper
and Faunt-Le-Roy.

Coursing through the hotel gardens among other uniformed

dignitaries are Coris, Shrewsbury, and Kelly with;

LT. GEORGE M. CRAWFORD, (sparkling eyed, mustached, 23); LT.

CARL CLARK, (dimpled chin, square jawed, 23); and LT. EDWIN
NOBLE, (handsome ruggedness, 23), all spit-and-polish in
Polish aviator uniforms.

A waiter comes to US Polish Ambassador Kazimierz Lubomirski;

whispers to him.

LUBOMIRSKI
Excuse me, gentlemen.

All acknowledge, Lubomirski as he departs.

HOWLAND
You all retained your current
ranks, and Cedric will be the
commanding officer.

ROZWADOWSKI
Respectively, Major Faunt-Le-Roy
and Captain Cooper.

Faunt-Le-Roy and Cooper acknowledge Rozwadowski with a

salute.

HOWLAND
Certainly, your participation is in
the spirit of the American War of
Independence will win hearts and
minds back home.

COOPER
We felt it was the best way to
promote American support, Mr.
Howland. And again, our debt of
gratitude to you, General
Rozwadowski and Prime Minister
Paderewski.

PADEREWSKI
Nothing has touched me more than
your offer to fight for the Second
Republic of Poland.
 27.

FAUNT-LE-ROY
General Rozwadowski, when can we
expect to depart for Warsaw?

ROZWADOWSKI
Arrangements are being made for
Major Faunt-Le-Roy to take a
regular train. The rest of you
will have to travel incognito
across Germany on the Red Cross
train. Germany is allied with
Lenin, so we can’t risk you being
detained by German authorities.

PADEREWSKI
(to Cooper)
Marshall Pilsudski has extended an
invitation for you to have dinner
at his palace when you arrive in
Warsaw.

US Polish Ambassador Lubomirski approaches, holding a

telegram.

LUBOMIRSKI
I just received this telegram from
the Polish Military Affairs
Ministry that reads in part... the
American aviators will officially
be a part of the Polish 7th
Squadron, stop.

PHOTOGRAPHER
Please, gentlemen. Gather together
for the portrait.

MOMENT LATER

Through BELLOWS CAMERA LENS.

PHOTOGRAPHER (O.S.) (CONT’D)

One. Two. Three.

A white FLASH - DISSOLVES into a black and white posed group

portrait of the eight American aviators.

INT. MARSHALL PILSUDSKI’S HOME - BELVEDERE - NIGHT

The eight American aviators are seated at a long dining table

with two new Canadian aviators;
 28.

LT. EDMUND PIKE GRAVES, (mature, mustached, 28) LIEUTENANT

ELLIOT WILLIAM CHESS, (baby-faced, 20).

MARSHAL JOZEF PILSUDSKI, (stout-mustached face, bushy brow,

52) with a uniform barring dozens of medals is seated at one
end back stiff. Ruthless.

At his left, Chief of Polish Aviation, CAPTAIN STANISLAW

JASINSKI, (30) interpreter.

Faunt-Le-Roy is seated at the other end of a grandly set

dinner table.

MARSHALL PILSUDSKI
Poland can fight her own battles.
Paid mercenaries are not needed
here.

Jasinski interprets.

COOPER
But, Marshall Pilsudski, we have
already signed our enlistments into
the Polish military, at the same
wages. All we ask is to be sent
into battle.

MARSHALL PILSUDSKI
You will not be satisfied with
teaching our young airmen. We lack
equipment, planes, resources.

FAUNT-LE-ROY
We come to fight at the front,
Marshall Pilsudski, and not to
serve the rearguard.

Pilsudski, cold and indifferent.

MARSHALL PILSUDSKI
But none of you have Polish blood.

Jasinski hesitates. Pilsudski gestures to interpret. After

he’s finished, a palpable silence. The aviators search each
other’s faces at a loss for words.

GRAVES
Go on, Chesski. Show Marshall
Pilsudski what you got in your
pocket. He needs validation of our
intentions.

Chess is reluctant. Jasinski interprets.

 29.

Marshall Pilsudski nods to proceed.

CHESS
Oh, all right. No use being a
bloody bugger about it.

Chess takes a piece of folded up paper from his uniform

pocket.

CHESS (CONT’D)
I thought we’d need a squadron
emblem, so I drew one up on my way
here. The badge is the Cracow-
region’s peasant’s hat, cause we’re
fighting for the liberation of the
common people...

INSERT: Hand drawn Kosciuszko insignia.

CHESS (CONT’D)
So I added two scythes and crossed
them, see... superimposed on white
and red stripes for our American
mates, surrounded by thirteen
stars, representing the Thirteen
Colonies.

Pilsudski motions to have the paper passed to him.

Receiving it, Marshall Pilsudski doesn’t blink an eye,

scrutinizing the design.

MARSHALL PILSUDSKI
You have set the scythes in the
upright position for proper
meaning.

Jasinski interprets, pleased to see the design.

MARSHALL PILSUDSKI (CONT’D)

These are symbolic of the 1794 anti-
Russian uprising lead by General
Tadeusz Kosciuszko.

COOPER
Who fought along side our General
George Washington during the
American Revolutionary War.

Pilsudski, hearing the translation, softens, nodding to

Cooper.
 30.

Pilsudski motions to Jasinski for an aside whispered

conversation.

The others look at each other, wondering what’s being said.

CORSI
(whispered)
He’s not impressed.

SHREWSBURY
Damned to come all this way for
nothing.

FAUNT-LE-ROY
Keep it civil, boys. This is his
war.

Jasinski interprets as Pilsudski speaks.

MARSHALL PILSUDSKI
Lenin has pledged to water his
horses along Germany’s Rhine. Let
other’s play at throwing bouquets
to socialism or to anything they
like. I can’t, not in this present
atmosphere of a my people’s
plight... I will conquer with brute
force all that condemns humanity.

Pilsudski, weary eyed, stands. All others come to brisk

attention.

MARSHALL PILSUDSKI (CONT’D)

I have promised to realize this to
the Poland or I will perish in
doing so.

Marshall Pilsudski searches the faces of the men.

MARSHALL PILSUDSKI (CONT’D)

If you can make the same promise to
yourselves then at day break you
leave for Lwow’s airfield with
Lieutenant Ludomil Ryaski to
prepare you for your transition.

All glasses raised.

ALL
To the Rzeczpospolita!
 31.

EXT. LYCZAKOWSKI CEMETERY - LWOW - DAY

A massive funeral procession; standing room only. A giant

WREATH among hundreds is adorned with a shinny lacquered
wooden PROPELLER next to a viewing stand of a closed casket
draped in a Canadian Flag.

COOPER (V.O.)
Tragically, our first casualty was
Lieutenant Edmund Pike Graves, who
crashed during an the squadron’s
exhibition flight for the citizens
of Lwow.

The 7th Kosciuszko Fighter Squadron Aviators, somber, are

seated behind the lectern where stands...

FAUNT-LE-ROY
Lieutenant Graves volunteered to
serve with the 7th Kosciuszko
Fighter Squadron after he arrived
in Britain, inspired to fight for
Poland’s independence. We grieve
his untimely passing.

The Aviators stand at attention.

An Albatros DIII flies over the ceremonial grounds, dropping

a wreath on the airfield.

COOPER (V.O.)
But his death had a psychological
twist. The blood of a foreigner
was sown in Poland’s soil, this
welded us to their cause for
independence.

TAPS and a twenty-one gun salute fades into...

INT./EXT. LWOW AERODROME - DAY

The aerodrome doors are open, revealing a snow covered

airfield.

SUPER: Lwow, Winter 1919 - 1920

Huddled by the light of a kerosene lamp, amid their Albatros

DIII’s, Faunt-Le-Roy, Idzikowski, Konopka, Senkowski,
Orzechowski and the American aviators rubbing their hands to
stay warm.
 32.

FAUNT-LE-ROY
Men, Captain Orzechowski wants to
break up our squadron into two
units. Lieutenant Corsi will lead
the first flying unit. Lieutenant
Chess, 2nd Lieutenant Noble, 2nd
Lieutenant Idzikowski, Lieutenant
Weber.

Joining the briefing is LIEUTENANT HARMON CHADBOURN RORISON

(bright-eyed, shorter than the rest, 26).

FAUNT-LE-ROY (CONT’D)
Captain Cooper will lead the second
unit with Lieutenant Crawford,
Lieutenant Konopka, Captain Kelly
as observer... and our newly
assigned Lieutenant Harmon
Chadbourn Rorison.

Faunt-Le-Roy acknowledges Rorison’s presence.

FAUNT-LE-ROY (CONT’D)
Lieutenant Rorison comes with over
200 hours as a test pilot. Let’s
welcome him to the squadron since
he’s traveled all the way from
Seattle, Washington.

RORISON
Just call me, Little Rory.

AB LIB brief greetings from the group.

FAUNT-LE-ROY
Lt. Shrewsbury, Marshall Pilsudski
has requested your transfer to his
Supreme Command HQ as his personal
air defence.

AB LIB kudos.

FAUNT-LE-ROY (CONT’D)
OK, settle down. Cooper’s got
something to say.

INT. THEATRE - AMERICA

A black and white silent-newsreel MOVIE flickers on the

theatre’s screen through a cigarette haze.

Organ MUSIC.
 33.

TITLE: American Battlefront: Wings Over Poland -- America’s

Great War aviator’s volunteer to defend Poland against the
Bolsheviks. They are called, “The 7th Kosciuszko Fighter
Squadron.”

COOPER (V.O.)
We arrived at Lwow in late October,
facing a bitter winter that kept us
grounded most of the time. I found
a movie camera so I made a newsreel
to send back home to raise American
support.

SERIES OF SHOTS

1) Aviators and GROUND CREW assembled by their BIPLANES on a

snow covered airfield at attention. Makes for an impressive
sight.

COOPER (V.O.) (CONT’D)

The ground crew worked on the new
Albatros DIII’s as we conducted a
rigorous flight training
schedule...

2) Rorison in the cockpit with a group of Polish aviators

crowded around, as he reviews the controls.

3) Crawford, smoking a pipe, walking Della, along a snow

covered forest trail.

COOPER (V.O.) (CONT’D)

Our mascot, Della made sure we got
our exercise...

3) Faunt-Le-Roy, bundled up tight in his flight suit as he

climbs into this Albatros DIII’s cockpit giving a thumbs up.

4) Cooper coming in for a landing. Bounces recklessly high.

COOPER (V.O.) (CONT’D)

The Albatros DIII’s were new to me.
I crash landed my first plane,
after which the Polish pilots told
me to extinguish the engine upon
landing to avoid somersaulting.

5) Cooper stands next to an Albatros DIII, upside down.

6) Rayski and Faunt-Le-Roy standing next to Faunt-Le-Roy’s

Albatros DIII with close up on their squadron EMBLEM.
 34.

COOPER (V.O.) (CONT’D)

Lieutenant Rayski and Cedric posed
next to our squadron insignia for
more publicity photos.

7) Weber and Shrewsbury, smoking a pipe, intensely playing

chess in the aviator’s barracks.

COOPER (V.O.) (CONT’D)

Lieutenant Shrewsbury beat us all
at chess.

TITLE: Assigned to the Polish 6th Army, our brave American

war veterans have formed the Kosciuszko Squadron with a total
of 12 aviators, 31 skilled ground crew, and 11 German
Albatros Oef DIII flying machines.

COOPER (V.O.) (CONT’D)

We were even inspected by the
Polish high command, promising to
come back, but they never did.

8) Long PAN of the Lwow-Lewandowka aerodrome; three

staff/chase vehicles drive past ten Albatros biplanes lined
up with all the aviators and ground crew standing at
attention on the snow covered field.

TITLE: And they are not alone. The American Red Cross
provides aid and comfort to the brave aviators.

9) Red Cross Nurses serving hot soup to Polish aviators from

the train wagon canteen window.

COOPER (V.O.) (CONT’D)

The Red Cross nurses, opened the
canteen before the first dawn
patrol, not closing until the last
pilot returned at dusk.

10) All the squadron aviators horse-play, throwing snow-balls

with Red Cross Nurses in front of their roof-icicle-lined
barracks.

COOPER (V.O.) (CONT’D)

Nina, recovered from her wounds,
then wholeheartedly joined our Red
Cross squadron train detachment.

11) Nina, embracing Cooper’s hand.

 35.

EXT. HIGH ABOVE THE EASTERN FRONT - DAY

Faunt-Le-Roy, Cooper, Senkowski and Crawford, flying behind

Rorison in their Albatros DIII’s above thousands of marching
Polish infantry and cavalry headed east.

COOPER (V.O.)
Finally, in the spring of 1920 we
received the Ordre de Bataille,
directing us to attack along the
Podolski Front.

Swooping low, they buzz the Polish lines, receiving a hearty,

deafening CHEER. Battalion flags waving.

COOPER (V.O.) (CONT’D)

One of the first things we did was
establish a system of communication
by dropping orders from
headquarters to the troops on the
front lines.

From Cooper’s cockpit, he sees a large white sheet planted

amid the troops. Reaching down, he pulls out a canister,
swoops in low, dropping it.

The canister plummets in the air; landing on the white sheet.

A Polish soldier picks it up, opening the lid, taking out
documents.

EXT. WOLPYNEE TRAIN STATION

Bolshevik crimson flags flap above a train station. On a

loading platform, signed “Wolpynee”, a thick concentration of
Bolshevik infantry and cavalry.

A Bolshevik hears the drone of biplane engines. Looking up

into the sun...

The 7th Squadron circles high above. Then...

COOPER (V.O.)
The second was giving the Bolos a
generous welcome.

Swooping in low, Faunt-Le-Roy, Cooper, Crawford, Shrewsbury,

Rorison and Clark make a strafing run. Spooked horses, rear
and bolt.

Hundreds of Bolshevik troops haphazardly fire their carbines

in panicked defense.
 36.

From his cockpit, Rorison drops a “little mice” bomb; a

direct hit on the train’s locomotive exploding into a ball of
fire.

In minutes, the train station is littered with dead and

wounded Bolsheviks and horses. The train station is engulfed
in flames.

Crawford, while making a strafing run, his machine guns jam

allowing Bolshevik soldier’s a clear shot.

Bullets pepper his wings and fuselage as he banks hard to

gain altitude, barely being shot down.

Faunt-Le-Roy, noticing Crawford’s predicament, signals to

return to their airfield.

EXT. BESSONEAU MOBILE HANGER BASE - DAY

Faunt-Le-Roy climbs out of his biplane, as the others come

running over in jubilation of their successful air strike.

AB LIB accolades. Running toward us...

KELLY
Major Faunt-Le-Roy! Great news
from HQ!

They all stare at Kelly, arriving out-of-breath.

FAUNT-LE-ROY
What is it, Captain Kelly?

KELLY
You remember those Ansaldo’s the
Polish didn’t want anymore?

FAUNT-LE-ROY
They changed their minds?

KELLY
You bet. You’ve been ordered to
pick four pilots to return to
Warsaw and ferry five of them back
here.

AB LIB cheer.

FAUNT-LE-ROY
Captain Cooper, you’re acting
squadron commander until I get
back.
 37.

They turn to notice Crawford standing dumbstruck by his

Albatros DIII.

CRAWFORD
Hurry back, my machine guns are
toast.

EXT. UKRAINE - DAY

Thousands of Polish cavalry regiments cross a vast open

plain, unchallenged.

Some turn in the direction of the sun.

Four Albatros DIII’s appear as dots in the sky.

EXT. ALBATROS DIII COCKPIT

In the cockpit, Cooper flies a reconnaissance with Clark,

Konopka and Shrewsbury.

1) Above the city of Polonne, they see abandoned railway

cars.

2) Above Pulin, a smaller city, more abandoned railway cars,

horse drawn wagons, military positions.

3) The reconnaissance patrol, seeing Polish infantry taking

up positions at Polonne, land in a nearby field.

INT. POLISH MILITARY TENT - MOMENTS LATER

Cooper reports to a Polish officer. Clark, Konopka and

Shrewsbury, sit at nearby table, eating.

COOPER
Looks like we got the Bolo’s on the
run. They’ve abandoned their
positions.

POLISH OFFICER
Once you’ve eaten, you’re to
provide support for the cavalry
attack at Miropol.

EXT. ABOVE MIROPOL - LATER

Cooper, Clark, Konopka and Shrewsbury search the ground for

any troop movements. None are seen.
 38.

Cooper signals to Konopka and Shrewsbury to head back, Clark

and him pull off flying west.

EXT. RACZKI - LATER

Outside of the city, Cooper and Clark spot a Bolshevik troop

train, with machine gun nests.

Cooper makes the first run, strafing from the rear of the
train all along its length, silencing the machine guns.

Clark is next, making a low strafing run at the armored

locomotive, but doesn’t succeed in killing the engineers.

Clark, having returned to a safe altitude, sees Cooper dip

his wings, signaling Clark to follow him.

ANOTHER BOLSHEVIK TRAIN - LATER

Frantic activity from exposed Bolshevik troops on the train

wagons; Officer’s shouting orders.

Cranking a train car artillery cannon toward Cooper and

Clark.

Just as they open fire...

Cooper nose dives, coming in just a dozen meters off the

ground, strafing directly at the artillery installments,
knocking out the machine gun nests.

Dozens of Bolsheviks wounded or killed, fall off the train.

Clark follows, raking the train with a barrage of machine gun

fire, then drops a “little mice” bomb on the locomotive.

Missing, hitting a train wagon filled with munitions. A

massive explosion, sends the train wagons buckling up into
the air.

Cooper flies in low, surveying the damage; a completely

destroyed troop train with few survivors, staggering in a
daze.

Cooper signals to Clark flying off his wing to head back to

the airfield.
 39.

INT. BESSONEAU HANGER - POLONNE - EARLY DAWN

Worse for wear, Cooper, Noble, Clark, Konopka, Crawford in

oil soiled flight suits, listening to Shrewsbury pointing to
a topographical map on an Albatros DIII’s lower wing.

SHREWSBURY
The Red Army has been cut in half
at Koziatyn. Here. Heavy Red Army
troop movements have been reported
here and here. I estimate their
numbers to be six thousand.

Shrewsbury’s finger traces the troop movements on the map

that show Kiev in the near distance.

COOPER
With our air superiority those
numbers don’t concern me.

SHREWSBURY
The Polish 6th Army and the 7th
Calvary Brigade are moving toward
the city of Berdyczew.

Cooper sizes up the situation.

SHREWSBURY (CONT’D)
Marshall Pilsudski is demanding we
keep flying our sorties, in support
of the offensive.

COOPER
If the weather holds, we’ll give
‘em hell.

SHREWSBURY
And one more thing. Be on the look
out for Polish prisoners.

MOMENTS LATER

Cooper, Noble, Konopka, and Clark prepare for take off. A

ground crewman with signal flags, gives Cooper the “all
clear” for take off.

In a prop blast from an open throttle, Cooper’s Albatros DIII

roars down a muddy airfield.
 40.

EXT. ABOVE BERDYCZOW

Cooper, Noble, Konopka, and Clark flying in “V” formation

over the Piatek River bridge that leads into the city.

Polish heavy artillery is shelling the city center.

Heavy dark columns of black smoke rise reflected in the early

morning light, casting an eerie landscape below.

MOMENT LATER

Bolshevik dismounted calvary stare up in disbelief of the

fast approaching biplanes.

Panic. Horses are quickly mounted, but they buck and rear
from the sound of the Albatros DIII’s roaring engines.

Cooper, at lead point, spots a heavily armored Bolshevik

train, over a hundred cars long, leaving the city’s train
station.

Cooper, in the cockpit, pushes his stick forward, nose diving

directly toward the locomotive.

Reaches for his machine gun trigger.

In his iron sights, the locomotive, chugging away to gain

speed.

Cooper makes a direct hit on the locomotive engine

compartment with explosive ammunition, killing the Engineers.

Konopka closely follows, dropping a “little mice” bomb on the

locomotive.

Direct hit. Huge fiery explosion bellows into the air,

tossing the locomotive off the tracks. Troops flee from the
burning train wagons.

Noble, and Clark strafe, wounding or killing most of them,

while cavalry horses gallop off in panic.

MOMENT LATER

Bullets rip through Bolshevik train wagons, cutting down

soldiers helplessly caught on the train station platforms, as
an Albatros DIII just clears the train station roof, banking
hard and up to make another pass.

Cooper makes a pass, spotting Red Army soldiers guarding open

train wagons holding Polish prisoners.
 41.

He signals to the others of the discovery.

Noble, takes the strafing lead run, killing and wounding

Bolshevik guards on the platform.

Cooper, Konopka, and Clark follow one after the other, giving
the Polish prisoner’s covering fire; allowing them to exploit
the situation to their advantage.

A surge of hundreds of freed Polish prisoners pour out of the

train wagons.

Hand to hand combat ensues. Dead and wounded Bolshevik

soldiers liter the ground, trampled by the Polish prisoners.

Poles secure Bolshevik carbines and start a counteroffensive.

Noble strafes another steaming locomotive hitched to an

armored train, that’s just appeared from the cover of the
station’s roof.

A Bolshevik sand-bagged machine gun nest on the armor train

has a clear shot, riddling Noble’s plane with bullets; one
penetrates his cockpit.

In the cockpit, Noble grips his right elbow gushing with

blood.

Taking altitude, Noble looks over at Cooper, flying portside

and Clark flying starboard to him, encouraging him to hang
on.

Konopka, flies beneath, taking pot shots at remnants of the

Bolshevik infantry.

EXT. POLONNE - LATER

All have landed except for Noble, watching him approach the
air strip.

Noble falters at the controls, dangerously wavering on his

final landing approach.

NEXT MOMENT

Noble’s Albatros DIII touches down. Bounces.

Noble, in the cockpit, passes out. The engine still running,

drives the biplane in a out-of-control direction.

A chase vehicle races toward Noble’s biplane with Cooper on

the side rails.
 42.

Reaching the Albatros DIII, Cooper leaps onto the plane’s

wing and climbs over to the cockpit, shutting off the engine.

COOPER
Come on boys, Noble’s lost a lot of
blood.

Hauling Noble out of the cockpit, Cooper and ground crew put
him in the chase vehicle; racing over to the Red Cross field
hospital train wagon.

RED CROSS TRAIN WAGON - CONTINUOUS

Nina and two Red Cross nurses help put Noble on a stretcher.

COOPER (CONT’D)
Nina, his arm’s bad. I’d hate to
see him lose it.

Nina, inspects Noble’s shattered elbow. Noble, a brave face,

deathly pale, grits his teeth.

NINA
He’ll have to go to Warsaw for
surgery.

Their eyes lock, as the others take Noble into the hospital
train car.

COOPER
The guy deserves a medal for what
he did today. Freed a whole train
load of Polish prisoners. We got
the Bolo’s on the run.

Nina, her Red Cross uniform soiled and blood stained, lingers
at the thought...

NINA
Coop. Please be careful.

COOPER
Ah, don’t go soft on me, Nina.
Kiss me for good luck.

NINA
If it’s just for good luck...

Nina plants a wet kiss on Cooper’s lips. A tight embrace.

 43.

KELLY (O.C.)
Coop. Come on, we got another
sortie to fly. Plenty of time for
that later.

Cooper breaks off the embrace and runs back toward the
biplanes.

NINA
(whispered)
Or true love.

EXT. AIRFIELD - DAY

The distinctive drone of an Italian Ansaldo Balilla fighter

biplane sends the ground crew into a scurry of preparation
activity.

SUPER: Luck, Poland 1920

From Faunt-Le-Roy’s Italian Balilla Fighter cockpit, looking

at a muddy airstrip hastily built near the war torn city
limits.

Albatros DIII’s are parked; the taildraggers positioned on

empty fuel drums.

AIRFIELD - CONTINUOUS

Cooper, Clark, Konopka, Kelly, among other Polish aviators

crowd around anticipating their arrival.

COOPER
Our Ansaldo Balilla Fighters.
Look, there’s one.

Faunt-Le-Roy positions himself for a landing, engine

sputtering. Glides in for a perfect touch down.

WLADYSLAW
That’s got to be Cedric.

COOPER
And two more behind him. That’s
only three out of five.

In the cockpit, Chess makes a pass over the airfield.

As he banks, Faunt-Le-Roy, on the ground beneath him, taxis

into Chess’ blind side, parading the new Balilla, waving to
everyone.
 44.

On landing approach...

COOPER (CONT’D)
Cristalmighty, Cedric look out!

Chess doesn’t see Faunt-Le-Roy directly in his landing

approach.

Chess crashing into Faunt-Le-Roy’s tail section with his prop

and landing gear.

A cloud of smoke, biplane parts cascade into the air.

Chase vehicles arrive at the debris strewn crash site.

Faunt-Le-Roy climbs out of his cockpit, dusting himself off.

Notices that Chess’ biplane prop whacked off his fuselage a
few inches from the cockpit.

Rorison, in the cockpit of the other Ansaldo Balilla, buzzes

over head surveying the crash site.

COOPER (CONT’D)
Cedric, you ok?

FAUNT-LE-ROY
Worse for wear. Damn, shame. Who
hit me?

KELLY
Looks like Chesski.

Amid the smoke and busted up planes emerges Chess, staggering

in a daze, a walking miracle.

FAUNT-LE-ROY
A bit of bad luck, eh, Chesski?

Kelly leads Chess off to a chase vehicle with the others

while Cooper walks with Faunt-Le-Roy.

FAUNT-LE-ROY (CONT'D)
We started with five, lost two on
the way and now two more. Damn.
Well, at least we got spare parts
for the last good plane that Little
Rory just landed.

Della comes running, barking with excitement, jumping up into

Faunt-Le-Roy’s arms.
 45.

FAUNT-LE-ROY (CONT’D)
There’s my favorite girl. Had ya
worried, uh Della?

On the airstrip, Rorison makes a perfect landing.

COOPER
Where the hell is Crawford and
Senkowski?

FAUNT-LE-ROY
On a transport train. Should be
here tonight. No time to lose,
Coop, the Polish army is nearing
Kiev. We have to move our airfield
to Baila Cerkiew, 50 clicks south-
west of Kiev to provide air
support.

EXT. BAILA CERKIEW AIRFIELD - DAY

Polish INFANTRY and CALVARY are scattered about the perimeter

of a grassy clearing, when Faunt-Le-Roy brings his Albatros
DIII in for a landing.

SUPER: Baila Cerkiew, Ukraine Spring 1920

Faunt-Le-Roy inspects the airfield with a a group of Polish

OFFICERS.

POLISH OFFICER
With your squadron positioned here,
Major Faunt-Le-Roy, you can fly
sorties to the Dnieper River, where
the Bolsheviks are receiving troop
reinforcements from ships.

FAUNT-LE-ROY
Ground’s solid enough for an
airstrip. Get a wire off to my
squadron to send all our ground
crew and equipment by train to
here. The pilots will ferry their
machines directly, so we can start
our air assaults.
 46.

EXT. HIGH ABOVE THE DNIEPER RIVER - DAY

Crawford flying solo in the Ansaldo Balilla Fighter, breaks

through a white puffy cloud.

COOPER (V.O.)
We dominated the air, so by now we
flew most of their sorties solo.

Below Crawford seven Russian ships, docked at the Czerksay

port.

On closer reconnaissance, Crawford sees three of the ships

unloading troops.

Crawford thrusts the joy stick forward.

A steep dive. Then, pulling up with a few hundred feet off

the river’s surface...

Crawford’s dual machine gun sights targeting the closest

ship; his trigger finger squeezes back, letting go a barrage
of machine gun fire.

Exploding bullets pepper the side of the ship; mayhem breaks

out on deck and the dock crowded with troops and horses.

Crawford banks hard to port, swinging around; plummets in a

dive that swoops in sight of the second ship.

Machine gun fire sprays its deck causing Bolshevik soldiers

to run in a panic, off the deck into the river...

The Ansaldo Balilla pulls up into a arcing loop and comes

down on another ship. This time racking the pilot house with
machine gun fire.

INT. RUSSIAN PILOT HOUSE - SAME TIME

The Captain, Helmsman and two Crew are mortally wounded as

bullets explode off the cabin’s walls, shattering the
windows, splintering the wooden helm, shattering the
compass.

ANSALDO BALILLA COCKPIT - CONTINUOUS

Crawford peers over the side of his cockpit to see...

The ship bursts into flames around the smoke stack;

bellowing thick black columns of smoke.
 47.

Seeing the ship on fire, Crawford banks, leveling off at

fifty feet from the river’s surface.

At full throttle, he flies just a hair’s breath above the

river’s surface.

Sporadic anti-aircraft fire explodes about him.

Crawford takes a deadeye bead through his machine gun iron

sights with the ship growing larger and larger.

Shrapnel peppers the Balilla’s fabric wings.

CRAWFORD
Don’t fail me now, sweetheart.

Crawford’s trigger FINGER lets loose machine gun fire that

riddles the ship’s deck; killing sailors manning fire hoses.

The ship explodes, split in half, gushing a horrific arching

fiery ball of smoke and flames.

The Ansaldo Balilla banks hard to starboard, climbing back up

into the clouds.

MOMENTS LATER

Crawford spots a Bolshevik military train snaking through a

forest clearing.

He makes another strafing run, directly at the engineer’s

compartment with a full blast of machine gun fire.

An Engineer falls out, dead. Another hangs limp, through the

side window.

In the cockpit, Crawford shakes his fist for victory when...

His prop sputters.

The fuel gauge reads Empty.

Crawford hits it with his fist. Needle doesn’t budge. Engine

coughs. Prop stops.

MOMENTS LATER

Landed in a field, Crawford unlocks his machine gun from the

cockpit, tossing it hard against a rock on the ground to
damage the firing mechanism.

Then, shrugging with indifference...

 48.

CRAWFORD (CONT’D)
Sorry ole, girl. Can’t let the
Bolsheviks have you.

He takes out his lighter, and sets the plane on fire. Runs
toward a nearby forest.

EXT. DYMIRKI - SAME TIME

A Bolshevik artillery posted near one of Kiev’s bridgehead,

is firing at advancing Polish infantry and cavalry on the
opposite river bank.

In the sky, Cooper, Coris, Clark, Shrewsbury, Faunt-Le-Roy,

Rorison, and Weber fly among dozens of the Polish Breguet
Squadron biplanes;

1) Attacking and silencing a artillery post as Polish

Infantry and Cavalry rush across the bridge, Bolshevik
soldiers jump into the river in a panic.

2) Strafing retreating Bolshevik Infantry on the outskirts of

Kiev causing heavy casualties.

3) Attacking and destroying three ships and a monitor,

steaming down the Dnieper River.

4) Attacking a Bolshevik troop train that explodes in flames.

5) Aerial bombing of a pontoon river bridge filled with

retreating Bolsheviks, exploding.

EXT. CITY STREETS - UKRAINE - LATER

SUPER: Kiev Ukraine May 8 1920

The 1st Legionary-Division of the Polish Infantry and Cavalry

and armored motor transports parade down main street to a
bewildered citizenry. Some cheer. Others beg.

COOPER (V.O.)
Poland passed victorious through
the Golden Gates of Kiev in two and
a half centuries, but for the
people, it had been the fifteenth
change of regime in three years.

Polish soldiers carry flowers in the muzzles of their

carbines. Waving.
 49.

COOPER (V.O.) (CONT’D)

So, there wasn’t much fanfare from
the people.

Above, seven Balillas of the Kosciuszko Squadron fly overhead

in a “V” formation.

EXT. KIEV AIRFIELD - LATER

Faunt-Le-Roy, Cooper, Clark, Corsi, Weber, Senkowski and

Rorison gather beside their parked Balilla’s.

FAUNT-LE-ROY
I’ve received orders for our
squadron to be joined with Poland’s
V Wing squadron near Kiev.

Looking about them, beleaguered city residents have gathered

on the perimeter of the airfield, some holding things to
sell. Fine art paintings. Gold vases. Antiques.

FAUNT-LE-ROY (CONT’D)
Captain Cooper, your unit will go
to Post Wolynski joining the 3rd
and 16th Polish flight squadrons.
Best you operate search-and-destroy
operations from here, Coop.

INT. CAFE DE LA PAIX

Slomczynski’s hand scribbles notes. Pauses to take a sip of

wine. A drag off his cigarette, put back in a nearby ashtray
filled with butts.

COOPER
Poland’s 6th Army split the
Bolshevik’s lines in two, cutting
off communications, but we didn’t
trap them, causing Poland to
flounder in the void of its
blitzkrieg advancement into the
Ukraine.

SLOMCZYNSKI (O.C.)
The Red Army had surrendered Kiev.

COOPER
But Poland was now seen as being
imperialistic.
(MORE)
 50.
COOPER (CONT'D)
While we stayed in Kiev, helping
the people restore their lives,
Pilsudski was being accused by
Western critics of enforcing
polonization in the Ukraine.

EXT. OUTSIDE KIEV - NIGHT

A massive expeditionary force of Bolshevik Infantry and

Cavalry, motor-columns of light armor, set up a vast flank.

COOPER (V.O.)
In just ten days, the Red Army’s
counteroffensive started. And
along with it came the Konarmiya.
Bolshevik General Semyon Budionny’s
blood thirsty Cossacks.

EXT. BOLSHEVIK CAMP - NIGHT

Illuminated in the burning camp fires are hundreds of

tethered horses, some stomping their hooves, others whinny, a
grunt; vapor rises from their snouts.

Among them walks, GENERAL SEMYON BUDIONNY, (brutish, thick

hand bar mustache, 36) in a long Red Army military uniform
overcoat, chest dressed with medals and colorful ribbons.

BUDIONNY
Yes, yes, my fine comrades.
Tomorrow you will carry the
Konarmiya to plough up the whole of
Poland. We will be clattering
through the squares of Paris before
the summer is out.

EXT. KIEV - DAY

Thick black smoke columns fill the city skyline.

COOPER (V.O.)
Budionny’s Cossacks broke through
the Polish-Ukraine front on June
5th. Five days later, the Polish
armies were in retreat.

Pouring into the shelled city we see the Konarmiya

(Cossacks); in Cherkeska coats, Bashlyks and Astrakhan hats,
armed with their shaskas and kindjals.
 51.

COOPER (V.O.) (CONT’D)

Our squadron became the rearguard,
protecting our forces’ immediate
retreat.

Polish soldiers, ragged and wounded, some barefooted, hastily

retreat from the western side of the city.

In an open field, Polish aviators torch damaged biplanes.

EXT./INT. KIEV HOPSITAL - SAME TIME

The Cossacks, riding their horses through the entrance,

assault a hospital staff, with deadly force.

INT. HOSPITAL HALLWAY

The Cossacks swiftly cut down doctors and nurses with their
shaskas riding into a...

Recovery ward, slashing to death bedridden Polish soldiers.

EXT. CLOUDS - DAY

Cooper and Crawford fly wing to wing, in heavy turbulence.

Crawford, from his cockpit, signals he’s going lower.

Breaking through the overcast sky, Crawford spots a small

Cossack unit riding at a trot along an open road that leads
toward a thick forest canopy.

Crawford dives to make a strafing pass.

Cooper holds his altitude, observing through broken cloud

cover.

The lead Cossack, whips his horse to go faster as Crawford’s

biplane quickly approaches. The other Cossacks follow suit.

Through Crawford’s iron gun sight on the last Cossack; he

slips his finger into the trigger loop.

Suddenly, a hail of bullets rip through his biplane’s wings.

From Cooper’s cockpit, puffs of gun smoke drift from the

treeline.

Ambushed, Crawford quickly pulls up for altitude, his fuel

tank spewing gasoline like a wide open water faucet.
 52.

Cooper, from his cockpit, descends to make a strafing run at

the forest canopy; dozens of Bolsheviks fall from the trees.

Reaching up, Crawford struggles to turn the switch over to

his top wing tank. Engine starts to misfire; sputters.

Cooper banks and ascends up over the forest canopy toward the
east. The cloud cover has broken open.

A massive dust cloud catches his attention.

Banking for a closer look, Cooper sees 20,000 blowing Cossack

cloaks streaming in the wind, shaskas's on their belts
shining in the sun, carbines strapped on their backs.

Behind the Cossacks, a Horse-Drawn convoy numbering in the

hundreds; many of the carts are equipped with tachanki; a
mobile machine gun nest.

Advancing at a full gallop.

COOPER
Sweet mother of Jesus!

Cooper barrel rolls into position and strafe the trees.

Wounded Bolsheviks drop out of the trees.

Crawford noses down then up and banks hard to siphon the fuel
into the engine.

Cooper still draws heavy fire from the Bolsheviks; bullets

whizzing past his head; ripping through the biplane fabric;
some of which starts to tear back.

Crawford’s engine fires up, gushing a huge bluish smoke

trail. Roars to life. Pulling the nose up for altitude just
in time.

Joining up with Cooper portside, they both fly into the

setting sun.

EXT. AIRFIELD - LATER

Cooper leaps out of his Balilla even before the prop stops,
yelling orders at the ground crew.

COOPER
Cossacks headed straight for us!
Start packing the train!

Senkowski comes running up.

 53.

SENKOWSKI
Wazzahell, Captain Cooper?

COOPER
Over twenty thousand Cossacks are
less than ten miles away.

SENKOWSKI
Where the hell are we going?

COOPER
Back to Lwow.

EXT. AIRFIELD

Flurry of activity. Dozens of ground crew feverishly work at

dismantling tents and the biplanes, loading onto the squadron
train, with the 7th Squadron’s train locomotive’s broiler
stoked to go.

EXT. SQUADRON TRAIN - TRAVELING

Speeding locomotive through a war torn landscape.

COOPER (V.O.)
We got over confident, never
expecting Budionny’s assault from
the south.

INT. SQUADRON TRAIN - SAME TIME

Cooper and Nina in each other arms, riding in the canteen

train car, leaning up against a stack of boxed medical
provisions.

COOPER
The Cossacks have broken through
the Polish line at Zytomierz.

Nina nuzzles, kissing Cooper on the neck.

NINA
The nurses are afraid we’ll be
surrounded.

Cooper responds with a gentle, lingering kiss.

COOPER
A brave face will keep their morale
up.
 54.

Nina wraps her arms around Cooper. He pulls her in tight.

NINA
For your freedom and ours.

COOPER
For the good fight.

NINA
I got word about Lieutenant Noble.

COOPER
Let’s hear it.

NINA
He’s in Paris, recuperating from
surgery. His arm was saved.

COOPER
The guy deserves a medal. I’ll have
to get a wire off to Cedric as soon
as we get to...

EXT. ALBATROS DIII - DAY

Faunt-Le-Roy, in the cockpit, flies high above a forest and

winding train tracks.

In the far distance, Bolshevik infantry are planting mines on

a railway.

Taking a slow banking turn, Faunt-Le-Roy notices two thousand

Cossacks taking up positions in the forest.

On another high banking turn, Faunt-Le-Roy sees the 7th

Squadron train snaking along the tracks in the opposite
direction, headed straight their way.

MOMENT LATER

Faunt-Le-Roy makes desperate manoeuvres to get the attention

of the locomotive engineer.

INT./EXT. RED CROSS HOSPITAL TRAIN CAR - SAME TIME

The biplanes roaring ENGINE alerts...

COOPER
Wazzahell...
 55.

Cooper sticks his head out of the train wagon’s high window,
peering up to see...

Faunt-Le-Roy’s Balilla just clearing the train. The Number

One clearly seen on the fuselage.

COOPER (CONT’D)
Cristalmighty, Nina, it’s Cedric.
He’s trying to stop the train.

EXT. SQUADRON TRAIN - RED CROSS CAR

Cooper makes his way from one train car to another; a

perilous jump across the train car couplers.

EXT. SQUADRON TRAIN - LOCOMOTIVE

The locomotive iron WHEELS slam into reverse. Horrific steel-

on-steel squealing; smoke and steam gushing.

Cooper peers out of the locomotive compartment to see...

Faunt-Le-Roy landing on a small patch of clearing near the

train tracks.

COOPER
The man’s got guts.

Cooper jumps out of the locomotive; runs to Faunt-Le-Roy.

Cooper stands next to Faunt-Le-Roy’s Balilla with the engine

still running.

COOPER (CONT’D)
Speak of the devil, I was just
saying I had to send you a wire...

FAUNT-LE-ROY
Coop, the Bolos mined the tracks up
ahead, worse yet, there’s about two
thousand Cossacks laying in ambush.

COOPER
Damn the luck. I’ll get the word
back to our battalion commander.

FAUNT-LE-ROY
The Bolsheviks have over the Polish
rearguard in the north, headed
straight for Warsaw. It’s up to
us, Coop, to hold the south.
 56.

COOPER
We’ll regroup at Lwow.

FAUNT-LE-ROY
See ya, there. Tell, the commander
I’ll give ‘em air support to rout
those Cossacks out of the forest as
long as I’ve got fuel to spare.

Faunt-Le-Roy rev’s up his biplane’s engine, turning the

taildragger around to take off.

Cooper runs back to the train, shouting to an awaiting

battalion Commander on the train.

COOPER
Cedric, you just gave me an idea.

Pelting RAIN.

EXT. LWOW - OVERCAST DAY

A dreary rain pours down on the Lewandowka airfield.

A mix of vintage and new Biplanes; Polish Breguet 14’s,

Albatros Oef DIII’s, Spad VIII’s, Handley Page Bombers; all
bearing various Polish flight squadron insignia.

INT. TRAIN WAGON BARRACKS - CONTINUOUS

The rain leaks through the train wagon’s roof on...

A beaten up hand-crank portable phonograph playing a

classical recording by Polish pianist Paderewski.

Shrewsbury lies on a cot, his chest and head heavily

bandaged.

Rorison lies next to Shrewsbury, his upper leg bandaged.

Nina and two other Red Cross nurses attend to their needs;
taking temperatures, checking bloodied bandages, offering
drinks of water.

Kelly, Crawford, Clark, Cooper, Corsi, Senkowski and Faunt-Le-

Roy are seated around a table. Wearing ground crew soiled
overalls. A stove in the corner brews a pot of hot water.

FAUNT-LE-ROY
Budionny’s Cossacks are out
flanking the Polish infantry.
(MORE)
 57.
FAUNT-LE-ROY (CONT'D)
Whole battalions are being cut to
pieces up north.

KELLY
Cristalmighty, this fog and rain is
making it impossible to fly
sorties.

CRAWFORD
Letting the Cossacks have the
advantage to break through our
front lines.

COOPER
The war isn’t over yet, boys. Don’t
forget what Marshall Pilsudski
promised.

CORSI
But I don’t think he planned on
half our ground crew being sick
with typhus.

KELLY
American editorials think Warsaw
will fall to the Bolsheviks.

FAUNT-LE-ROY
I don’t suppose it’ll get those
Brit’s off their tushes if we sent
them that Russian Pravda newspaper
article...

RORISON
Yea, who was that writer?

SHREWSBURY (O.C.)
Nicholas Bukharin.

Hearing Shrewsbury, Cooper gets up and walks over to his cot.

FAUNT-LE-ROY
It was Lenin’s new slogan, “Prepare
for war with Poland, right up to
London and Paris.”

Cooper is seated on the edge of Shrewsbury’s cot.

COOPER
Take it easy Shrewsbury. You got a
ticket home. You too, Little Rory.
 58.

RORISON
Hate to let you down. I still got
a lot of fight in me.

Shrewsbury painfully is digging for something under his

blanket.

SHREWSBURY
Thought you’d need this.

Shrewsbury produces a white king chess piece, placing it in

Cooper’s hand.

SHREWSBURY (CONT’D)
To checkmate Budionny’s Cossacks.

The wagon car sliding door is thrust open. LT. JERZY WEBER,
(boyish, 25) is soaking wet. Out of breath. Holding a
telegram.

WEBER
Maj. Faunt-Le-Roy and Captain
Cooper. A dispatch from Warsaw.

They all stare into each other’s eyes, thinking the worse.

The phonograph record scratches over and over. Someone takes

the phonograph needle off.

FAUNT-LE-ROY
Let’s hear it, Lieutenant Weber.

Dripping wet, Weber stands at attention, holding out the

telegram in front of him.

WEBER
You are to report immediately to
General Gustaw Macewicz, Head of
Department III of Air Navigation at
the Supreme Command Headquarters in
Warsaw.

INT. SUPREME HQ COMMAND - WARSAW

Amid a flurry of military personnel, Faunt-Le-Roy and Cooper,

both in battle weary soiled uniforms, briskly follow a Polish
Corporal ATTACHE down a crowded hallway and through a doorway
that leads to the...

WAR ROOM - CONTINUOUS

 59.

GENERAL GUSTAW MACEWICZ, (barrel chested, 60) with his top

brass adjunct military advisors pouring over a huge strategy-
making table map of the Eastern European battle fronts.

ATTACHE
Maj. Faunt-Le-Roy and Deputy
Captain Cooper of the 7th Polish-
American Flight Squadron, reporting
as ordered, General Macewicz.

General Macewicz looks up from the map.

GENERAL MACEWICZ
Thank you, corporal. Major Faunt-Le-
Roy. Deputy Captain Cooper,
welcome. Marshal Pilsudski extends
his greetings and is sorry he
couldn’t make it personally.

Suspicious of the others, General Macewicz motions for Faunt-

Le-Roy and Cooper to follow him into a private adjoining
room.

ADJOINING ROOM - CONTINUOUS

MACEWICZ
Public opinion has been divided by
political debate. Some are
plotting to oust Marshall
Pilsudski. In the meantime, Red
Army General Tukhachevsky is
mounting a full-scale assault on
Warsaw.

COOPER
We ought to remind the Allied
Supreme Command that Marshall
Pilsudski is fighting for
democratic independence. The
Bolsheviks are fighting for global
totalitarian rule.

MACEWICZ
Britain’s Prime Minister has said
if Russia can crush Poland, she can
do whatever she likes.

COOPER
Then the internal political
situation in Britain...
 60.

MACEWICZ
Is in as much chaos as we are
fighting the Red Army’s advance
from the north.

FAUNT-LE-ROY
What about a truce?

MACEWICZ
They refuse to negotiate. I’m
afraid if we don’t stop Lenin in
Warsaw, political rhetoric will
never reclaim our independence.

COOPER
What about reinforcements from
France?

MACEWICZ
I received this from Paris,
yesterday.

General Macewicz pulls a newspaper clipping from his

uniform’s breast coat pocket. Hands it to Cooper.

COOPER
(to Faunt-Le-Roy)
It’s from the French socialist
newspaper L’Humanite. “Not a man,
not a soul, not a shell for
reactionary and capitalist Poland.
Long live the Russian Revolution.
Long live the Workman’s
International.”

MACEWICZ
Hungry has offered us 30,000
troops, but the Czechoslovakian
government won’t allow them to pass
through their country on train
transports.
(beat)
Fortunately, the Italian’s have
provided more Ansaldo Balilla
machines.

Faunt-Le-Roy is contemplative.

FAUNT-LE-ROY
We need a decisive blow.

MACEWICZ
Which is why you’re here.
 61.

COOPER
We’re listening General.

MACEWICZ
I’m reorganizing the air force into
a new wing consisting of the 7th,
9th and 21st Squadrons. Major
Faunt-Le-Roy, you are being
promoted as commander of this new
wing and head of the 2nd Army
aviation component.
(beat)
Deputy Captain Cooper, you will
take command of the 7th Kosciuszko
Fighter Squadron. Both of you will
provide air support to General
Sikorski assigned to surround
Budionny’s Cossacks near Zamosc.

Cooper stands silent, preoccupied.

COOPER
Cedric and I have an idea for a new
tactic to put an end to these
Cossack ambushes.

Faunt-Le-Roy catches Macewicz’s eye.

MACEWICZ
Let’s hear it.

COOPER
We send up a single reconnaissance
at daybreak. The pilot
reconnoiter’s the enemy positions
and then returns to the air base...

FAUNT-LE-ROY
(catching on)
To debrief the rest of the pilots,
and...

COOPER
They organize a joint effort sortie
instead of flying solo.

FAUNT-LE-ROY
On the first attack, we drop a
bomb, scattering them in
disorganization.
 62.

COOPER
Then, we make strafing runs, firing
from 300 meters, as fast and low as
we dare, from the column’s rear
toward the front frightening the
Cossack’s horses with engines
roaring loud and low.

MACEWICZ
It’s a masterful plan.

FAUNT-LE-ROY
Coop, when you get back to Lwow,
move the 7th to Holoby where the
21st is stationed to give General
Sikorski continuous air support.

COOPER
Consider it done.

MACEWICZ
Captain Cooper, there’s one more
thing you need to know.

COOPER
Let’s have it, General.

MACEWICZ
As you know, you all have a price
on your head, but Stalin has up the
reward for Captain Cooper.

COOPER
How much?

MACEWICZ
Half a million gold rubles.

EXT. LWOW AERODROME - DAYBREAK

The 7th Flight Squadron Ground Crew load a Polish ARMOR CAR
on to a flatbed train car...

SUPER: Lwow Poland July 20, 1920

The 7th Kosciuszko Flight Squadron’s horse drawn convoy is

lined up.

All remaining 7th Kosciuszko Flight Squadron Aviators are in

the cockpits of their new Ansaldo Balilla’s; engines running.

One by one they take off.

 63.

Cooper and Nina stand beside his Ansaldo A-1 Balilla.

COOPER
I’ll see you at Holoby, Nina.

NINA
(holding Della)
I am afraid, Coop.

COOPER
You afraid, with a medal for
courage under enemy fire?

NINA
Spit and polish uniforms don’t
chase away the evil in this world.
Best to fly out of uniform.

Nina hands Cooper a sweater, who puts it on over his flight

suit. The name tag reads: CORPORAL FRANK MOSHER.

COOPER
Promise to wait for me.

NINA
Promise.

Cooper climbs into his new Ansaldo Balilla; #5 stenciled over

a faded ‘A 10725’ with the 7th Kosciuszko Squadron’s emblem.
Next to it ‘16.5’ is stenciled.

COOPER
Contact!

A Ground Crewman primes the propeller.

Ignition. A sputter, then the engine roars to life; a burst

of bluish exhaust smoke; tire chocks are pulled away.

Nina stands holding Della beneath her Red Cross coat braving
the prop wash as Cooper waves to her.

MOMENTS LATER

Cooper’s Ansaldo Balilla roars down the grassy airstrip;

zooms up, leveling out, dipping the wings.

The sun’s rays break over the horizon casting a yellowish

halo around Cooper’s Balilla.
 64.

EXT. SOMEWHERE BETWEEN LUCK AND ROWNE - LATER

Cooper’s Ansaldo Balilla flies through puffy white clouds.

Spotting Budenny’s Cossacks regrouping for a major assault on

Polish infantry marching along a dirt road, Cooper dives for
a low-level strafing run.

Budionny sees Cooper’s biplane and orders immediate defense.

Cossacks on horseback taking up their rifles. Armored

machine gun car swivels into position. Bolshevik infantry
rush to take cover in a nearby woods.

From Cooper’s cockpit, swooping low, machine guns blazing;

cutting down Cossacks on rearing horses.

All hell breaks loose on Cooper. Bullets hail from all

directions, ripping the Ansaldo Balilla’s fabric to shreds.

Some of the biplane’s guy wires are severed. Wing fabric

tears off.

The biplane’s engine is hit. Oil splatters into Cooper’s

face.

Smoke bellows from the exhaust filling the cockpit. Flames

lick the fuselage.

COOPER
Damn the luck.

Cooper banks hard trying to keep altitude, seeking a safe

distance to land in a field out of sight of the Cossacks.

Budionny frantically orders Cossacks in hot pursuit.

FARM FIELD

A burning Ansaldo Balilla has crash landed upside down.

Cooper, unconscious, awakens a few yards from the Balilla.

He’s complete surrounded by blood-thirsty Cossacks; carbines

aimed. Shaskas's drawn.

A couple of Cossacks strip Cooper of his sweater, boots and

flight suit, down to his long johns.

Cooper is forced down to his knees, his arms tied behind his
back.
 65.

Over him stands a shaskas wielding Cossack, preparing to chop

his head off when...

COOPER (CONT’D)
(in broken German)
I’m Corporal Frank Mosher. Look at
my sweater. I’m an NCO. Not a
fighter pilot.

A Cossack inspects the sweater’s name tag and obviously can’t

read it.

General Budionny’s STAFF CAR roars up. Cossack rides up to

Budionny.

COSSACK
(Russian)
He claims to be an NCO, drafted
into service, and lost his way on a
reconnaissance flight.

General Budionny inspects Cooper’s hands.

BUDIONNY
He has hands of a proletariat, not
a capitalist pig. Send him to
interrogation.

DIRT ROAD - LATER

In the blistering heat, Cooper, bare footed, runs between a

small unit of Cossacks; forced to keep up with a noose about
his neck; at a canter pace.

EXT. HOLODY AIRFIELD - SUNSET

Amid the line-up of biplanes, Nina, holding Della under her

Red Cross coat, desperately scans the dusk skyline.

Kelly and Faunt-Le-Roy approach.

FAUNT-LE-ROY
No word from Polish intelligence.

KELLY
If I know Coop, he’s alive. He can
get himself out of any jam.

Nina’s eyes well up. A lone tear streams down her cheek.
Della snuggles up and licks it before it drops off her chin.
 66.

FAUNT-LE-ROY
Once we get word, Nina, you’ll be
the first to know.

Faunt-Le-Roy puts a comforting arm around Nina, arm-in-arm,

walking her back to the Red Cross Hospital Train Car.

MOMENT LATER

Nina sullenly walks up the wooden ramp steps that leads into
a Red Cross Hospital train wagon. She sets Della down, going
inside.

Della runs back to Faunt-Le-Roy, standing next to Kelly.

KELLY
There goes one tough woman, Cedric.
She deserves a medal.

FAUNT-LE-ROY
She already got her’s fighting for
Lwow’s defense.

KELLY
Ya, don’t say.

FAUNT-LE-ROY
Coop told me you qualified for your
wings back at Lwow. Could use you
as a fighter pilot.

KELLY
Hate to crash a machine, sir.

FAUNT-LE-ROY
Fair enough. Tomorrow I’m sending
you up with 2nd Stanislaw
Skarzynski in a new NVG CV, two
seater. You’ll be accompanied by
Capt. Stefan Ciecierski, just
posted to the 7th Squadron. He’ll
fly a SE5a fighter to give you
cover.

Faunt-Le-Roy, in a solemn mood, leaves Kelly who stares off

at the crimson sunset behind the treetop horizon.

KELLY
Hang in there, Coop. We’re all
praying for ya.
 67.

INT. BASEMENT CELLAR - SOMEWHERE BEHIND BOLSHEVIK LINES

Cooper, stripped to the waist, arms tied behind his back,

feet to the chair’s legs.

His face beaten to a pulp. His head hangs unconscious; gets a

bucket full of ice water splash in the face.

Cooper, coming into focus sees...

COMMANDER SEMEN TIMOSHENKO, (red-faced, 40) holding a bottle

of vodka, and IZAAK BABEL, (bespectacled, disheveled, 27)
journalist for the Krasniy Kavalerist newspaper and Cooper’s
interpreter.

BABEL
(German)
Corporal Mosher, Commander Semen
Timoshenko is growing impatient.
For the last time how is it that
you were flying a new Italian
Ansaldo Balilla if you are merely
an NCO? Strafing our troops?

COOPER
(spitting blood; German)
I was ferrying the machine, that’s
all they tell me.

TIMOSHENKO
(Russian)
Our friend is hard of hearing.

Babel sighs.

BABEL
(Russian)
He hears us perfectly. Maybe he
will agree to train our own pilots.

Commander Timoshenko pounders. Slugs down a shot of vodka.

Reaches for his revolver, stuck between his pants belt.
Stands, loading the chamber. Walks behind Cooper.

BABEL (CONT’D)
(German)
For your life, Corporal Mosher,
cooperate.

COOPER
(German)
Shot you socialist coward.
(MORE)
 68.
COOPER (CONT'D)
My life is worthless for nothing
less than Poland’s independence.

Timoshenko, incited, menacingly brushes the revolver’s barrel

against Cooper’s cheek.

TIMOSHENKO
(Russian)
As I said, Babel, this pig is hard
of hearing.

Babel can’t believe what he’s seeing. Timoshenko puts the

revolver’s barrel against Cooper’s head.

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

The gun’s chamber percussions blast next to Cooper’s ear.

Cooper recoils sideways to the floor, still tied in the

chair. Blood trickles out his ear. Powder burns rake the
side of his face and hair. Unconscious.

Babel is ashen faced.

TIMOSHENKO (CONT’D)
(Russian)
You see, I told you, he’s hard of
hearing.
(to Babel)
You will write that we captured a
Polish pilot in the Krasniy
Kavalerist for the morale of our
troops.

Returning to this chair, Timoshenko takes a swig from the

bottle.

TIMOSHENKO (CONT’D)
(Russian)
Send him to Rowne for the train to
Moscow. Stalin can deal with him.

EXT. A BOLSHEVIK CALVARY UNIT - DAY

Full-fledge air assault by Polish aviator CAPT. CIECIERSKI,

(25) and 2ND LT. SKARZYNSKI, (27) with Capt. Kelly as
observer, flying through the middle of a burning village.

The Bolsheviks have the advantage of cover from the

buildings.

Bolshevik sniper’s taking aim from various building’s

windows.
 69.

A Bolshevik machine gun nest perched in the church steeple

sprays Ciecierski’s SE5a as he makes a pass.

Knocking out his engine, Ciecierski is forced to land in a

nearby field.

Skarzynski makes a pass as Capt. Kelly, in the back cockpit,

fires his machine gun.

At Cossacks riding out to Capt. Ciecierski, while flying

past...

A Bolshevik sniper gets a clear shot at Skarzynski in the

cockpit.

Skarzynski is shot in the head and slumps over the stick.

A fatal nose dive with the earth quickly approaching...

Kelly kisses his Christian crucifix.

KELLY
See ya in Heaven, boys.

Crashing a stones throw from Ciecierski’s piled up biplane.

Ciecierski, running across the field, is unmercifully cut

down by pursuing Cossack’s with their shaskas.

EXT. BALILLA COCKPIT - DAY

Faunt-Le-Roy, flying over a forest, suddenly is assaulted by

a mass of Bolshevik rifle fire coming from a thick grove of
trees.

Bullets splinter the biplane’s frame. Fabric is punctured.

The main fuel tank is pierced, gushing out fuel along the
fuselage.

Faunt-Le-Roy is wounded in his left leg.

In a desperate manoeuver, Faunt-Le-Roy makes his escape,

redirecting toward...

EXT. LWOW AERODROME - LATER

Crawford and Corsi, in flight suits, prepare to climb aboard

their Ansaldo Balilla’s fighters.
 70.

CORSI
Wazzahell, Crawford. We gotta get
even for Kelly.

CRAWFORD
You follow my lead, Corsi. I don’t
want any of your barnstorming
heroics. We can’t afford to lose
another plane.

The comment hits Corsi’s raw nerve.

CORSI
Why you... you stick to your
business and I’ll stick to mine.
Cristalmighty, ever since Coop
disappeared the whole squadron’s
going to hell.

They hear the approach of a biplane. It’s Faunt-Le-Roy, his

Balilla trailing a thick smoke trail.

MOMENT LATER

Corsi and Crawford are helping Faunt-Le-Roy out of his

cockpit.

FAUNT-LE-ROY
Damn ambush.

Seeing that the bullet grazed his lower leg, Faunt-Le-Roy

waves them off.

FAUNT-LE-ROY (CONT’D)
You boys get in the air, we can’t
let up for a minute. I’ll be all
right.

Ground crew come to Faunt-Le-Roy’s assistance, as he hobbles

along toward the Red Cross train wagon.

EXT. SOMEWHERE IN RUSSIA - OVERCAST DAY

A Russian freight train jolts to a stop along a siding

platform.

SUPER: Somewhere in Russia

Peasant girls with brightly colored kerchiefs tied about

their heads come running out of the station house.
 71.

Then, the rest of the crowd that is mostly barefoot peasants,

some with heavy boots that don’t fit them. They’re shoved
and pushed aside by...

Scores of Red Army soldiers in different uniforms and

Cossacks, their shaskas dragging along the wooden platform.

Children rush in between selling scraps of food, amid the

noise and confusion of the train’s arrival.

One of the train wagon doors come into view.

INT./EXT. CATTLE CAR - CONTINUOUS

Cooper, his face badly bruised, seated on the edge in his

underwear and pleated jacket, slumped with his back against
the opening like a sack of potatoes.

Across from Cooper, a Mongolian-Slav, (slant-eyed, dull

faced, 40) sits on his duffle pack with a carbine across his
lap, guarding Cooper.

COOPER (V.O.)
I was transported on a regular
train for four days en route to
Moscow. I had no food. No water.

Cooper peers inside the train car to see a dozen civilians

clambering over each other; a one-legged sailor fighting for
a space; peasants roughly dressed laying on dirty straw
strewn across the train car floor.

Speaking to no one, Cooper blurts out:

COOPER (CONT’D)
Bah! You’re a yellow pig rat.

The Mongolian-Slav guard just shrugs his shoulders. He

doesn’t understand English. No one does.

COOPER (CONT’D)
If you’re going kill me, get on
with it. That’s all.

Passengers pile aboard in Cooper’s train car, jabbering in

Russian. Some with hacking coughs.
 72.

EXT. DEEP BLUE SKY - CUMULOUS CLOUDS

Crawford dives down upon a large group of Cossacks attacking

the Polish infantry, all locked in bitter hand-to-hand
combat.

Off to one flank, Polish cavalry charge in full-force across

an open field.

Cossack’s overwhelm them, engulfing the Polish troops;

bloodstained saber’s flashing; gut retching carnage as far as
the eye can see.

To even the score, Corsi comes in strafing the Cossack’s

rearguard; dangerously low, leaving a trail of dead Cossacks
and equine.

Crawford, seeing Corsi’s bravery, is challenged and makes the

same pass, but this time the Cossacks are regrouped and
ready.

Over a hundred carbines fire a volley directly at him.

Crawford’s fuselage spews gasoline out like a gusher.

Frantically, he struggles to switch his top fuel tank but

he’s too low and is forced to land in a waist-high wheat
field.

MOMENT LATER

Crawford is next to his plane, cussing a blue streak, trying

to crank up the magneto by spinning the prop.

Scores of shaskas wielding Cossacks race toward him from

across the vast wheat field.

When out of nowhere...

Corsi swoops in low, laying a barrage of machine gun fire

like he’s crop dusting, pulverizing the first row of charging
Cossacks, causing the second, third line to collapse over the
fallen horses.

CORSI
Eat my lead, you Bolo rats.

Crawford, spitting and cussing, jumps into the cockpit, pumps

the choke, throttle; flips the ignition switch. Prop
sputters.
 73.

Another wave of Cossacks, carbines leveled, firing as they

race towards Crawford.

Bullets zip past his head, ricochet off the machine gun, but
he’s too angry to notice.

Corsi, from his cockpit, makes another pass; a barnstorming

strafing run across the Cossack front lines, then banks over
Crawford, shouting...

CORSI (CONT’D)
Run for the woods!

Bullets spark off Crawford’s machine gun mount - punching

holes in his wings and fuselage.

He turns to see a horde of Cossacks closing fast, so he

climbs out of the cockpit and starts to run for the woods.

Corsi makes another pass, strafing the Cossacks; piling them

up in heaps.

CORSI (CONT’D)
Wazzahell?

The Balilla prop suddenly turns on its own, sputtering to

life.

Hearing the engine running, Crawford turns in disbelief.

CRAWFORD
Sweet mother of Jesus. It’s a
miracle.

He takes off at a full run through the wheat field as the

plane slowly rolls forward, spewing up wheat stalks in its
wake.

Corsi, looking down in disbelief as another wave of Cossacks

ride toward Crawford.

CORSI
This is for Captain Kelly.

Corsi banks hard strafing another wave of Cossacks, giving

Crawford time to climb into the Balilla.

Crawford manages to keep the Balilla from turning over as he

speeds to take off through the wheat field.

Then, hidden by the wheat crops, a drainage ditch.

 74.

Crawford bounces out of it then into a split rail fence, part

of which is lodged in his undercarriage as the Balilla goes
airborne.

INT./EXT. RUSSIAN TRAIN - STATION

The train starts to leave the siding platform when a YOUNG

GIRL (short brown hair, 20) runs along, jumping into Cooper’s
train car, helped by some Russian soldiers.

A couple of passengers question the Mongolian-Slav Guard

about Cooper.

MONGOLIAN-SLAV GUARD
Voiny Pleeny.

COOPER (V.O.)
Prisoner of war. I heard it over
and over during my trip, ringing in
my one good ear, unceasingly.
Voiny Pleeny.

TRAIN - TRAVELING

Cooper stares out at the passing landscape, indifferent to

his company, even the Young Girl, seated on a pile of straw a
few arm lengths away.

She looks at Cooper with pity, inching over to him, but the
Mongolian-Slav Guard threatens her with his carbine.

A couple of Red Army soldiers take interest.

Smiling back, she speaks in a soft soothing Russian voice to

the Mongolian-Slav Guard and soldiers. They laugh.

MONGOLIAN-SLAV GUARD
Da. Da.

She goes to Cooper’s side.

YOUNG GIRL
(French)
You speak no Russian?

COOPER
(French)
No, not a word.

Cooper tries to rise, but he’s to weak to move.

 75.

YOUNG GIRL
No, no, you poor war prisoner. I
will sit beside you.

COOPER (V.O.)
Her eyes were soft brown. She had
an air of breeding. Father dead,
mother dead, brother killed in the
revolution. Then, I catch typhus.

The Young Girl looks into her satchel, producing a cigarette.

A canteen of water.

Handing it to Cooper, one of the soldier’s strikes a match -

Cooper takes a long drag.

COOPER (V.O.) (CONT’D)

Oh, breath of life, how I smoked
those cigarettes. And for hours
she sat next to me, tended to my
cuts, gave me water to drink.

YOUNG GIRL
I work at government office for two
months. I am poor now. I have
only 40,000 rubles to spend on my
holiday in Moscow. You’ll see,
once I have milk, white bread and
sugar, my cheeks will be roses
again.

She squeezes Cooper’s bandaged hand, reassuringly.

INT. LWOW - LEWANDOWKA AERODROME - DAY

Faunt-Le-Roy is briefing over a hundred aviators with a huge

topographical map, suspended by ceiling strung wires behind
him.

FAUNT-LE-ROY
Men, I can’t emphasize it enough.
If Budionny’s Cossacks break
through and take Lwow, I’m afraid
we’ll be fighting this war in the
streets of Paris.

INT./EXT. RUSSIAN TRAIN

The train jolts to a stop next to a siding platform.

 76.

This time it’s a modern city and packed with fashionable

pedestrians and soldiers, all in a hurry.

The Young Girl comes over to a dozing Cooper, near the

sliding door entrance. Gently she awakens him.

YOUNG GIRL
I’m sorry, but this is my stop.

Cooper rises, groggy eyed. Bewildered.

YOUNG GIRL (CONT’D)

I have written you a little
message. It is a secret just for
you.

Other train car passengers are pushing their way past,

clambering out, tossing their belongs on the platform.

The Mongolian-Slav Guard remains, staring intently at Cooper,

the Young Girl, chewing on a loaf of dark bread.

YOUNG GIRL (CONT’D)

Promise you won’t open this until
I’m gone.

Cooper’s face shows mixed feelings. Then, takes the sealed

envelop upon her insistence.

COOPER
I promise.

YOUNG GIRL
Now, close your eyes.

She kisses Cooper upon his lips, lightly, lingering.

MOMENT LATER

Cooper anxiously stares out of the train car into the mass of
people on the platform. She’s gone.

COOPER (V.O.)
I sat for a long time, watching
roaches crawl up an down on the
opposite walls. Finally, when my
guard was distracted, I tore open
the envelope.

Cooper rips open the envelope to find, four 10,000 Ruble

bills.
 77.

COOPER (V.O.) (CONT’D)

She had given me the roses for her
cheeks.

EXT. OUTSIDE WARSAW - DAY

Polish General Sikorski’s 5th Army, supported by tanks,

armored cars, and artillery from two armored trains, advances
with blitzkrieg-like strength upon the Bolshevik regiments
pushing them back across the Wkra River.

SUPER: The Miracle of Vistula

Along the frontlines melee, are Polish and Soviet soldiers

fighting with revolvers, daggers, and bare hands.

Shouts of “Urrah!” rise up from the battle ground.

The carnage is thick as the Red Army retreats. Masses of

mangled bodies and horses are strewn on the terrain.

Red Army soldiers, begging for mercy, are rounded up by

civilian soldiers. Some only carrying scythes as weapons.

Polish tanks burst through a Red Army troop line, chasing

down fleeing Red Army soldiers.

COOPER(V.O.)
There is little room for doubt, had
the Bolsheviks overcome Pilsudski’s
army, Bolshevism would have
penetrated the whole continent.

In the distance, Warsaw filled with bellowing columns of

black smoke, stands triumph.

Crowds on Warsaw’s streets wave captured Red Army flags,

lighting them on fire, stomp on them, cheering.

On the banks of the Nieman River, Marshall Pilsudski stands

with fellow Officers, watching across the river as Polish
regiments assault the Red Army.

MARSHALL PILSUDSKI
Run you bastard Tukhachevsky, all
the way back to Moscow.

The Red Army flees east from the rushing horde of Polish
infantry and cavalry; bayoneted rifles, roaring tanks and
civilians mixed in the front lines, Polish flags waving.
 78.

INT. RUSSIAN BARRACKS - DAY

In the darken shadows, a chorus of men with wet hacking

coughs. Most lay in their bunks, dying from typhus.

The door suddenly swings open. A blast of sunlight causes

rats to run for the dark.

Three shadowy figures stand; Russian Officers. Two are

wielding thick wooden clubs.

They menacingly stroll on the narrow isle between bunks.

RUSSIAN OFFICER #1
Number 4608. Come to attention you
pig rat!

Prisoner’s faces turn toward one lower bunk; an inmate slowly

rises.

A sullen Cooper, in a thick woolen pleated jacket and pants

with cap, half stands. The number 4608 is sown on the
jacket’s left side.

RUSSIAN OFFICER #2
Pig rat, Zeka! He said attention!

Cooper feebly bent over, coughing.

Impatient, the Russian Officer #2 swings his club hard into

Cooper’s gut, causing him to collapse to the floor with a
thud.

The third Russian Officer stands in the shadows.

RUSSIAN OFFICER #1
The chief political commissar of
the Red Army’s southwest front,
Joseph Stalin, wants to know about
Polish positions around Lwow.

From the shadows emerges, JOSEPH STALIN, (thick mustached,

foreboding, 31). Sinister.

STALIN
Enough. Bring him something to eat
first. Then to my quarters. Send
a message to Cheka Chief Director
Dzerzhinsky to be there as well.

The two Russian Officers drag a lifeless Cooper to his feet,

arm in arm, out of the barracks doorway.
 79.

INT. STALIN’S OFFICE - NIGHT

A fist comes down hard on Cooper’s face, already bloodied and

bruised.

COOPER (V.O.)
The fist belonged to Felix
Dzerzhinsky, head of the Russian
Secret Police, the KGB.

Another punch to Cooper’s face. Nose trickles blood.

COOPER (V.O.) (CONT’D)

I had wished I could have returned
the gesture.

FELIX EDMUNDOVICH DZERZHINSKY, (hawk beak nose, thick

untrimmed goatee, 22) that protrudes from a shallow cheeked
face. Sadistic sneer.

STALIN
I want to know the infantry,
calvary and air squadron strengths.

FELIX
(smiling)
Again?

COOPER
I am... Corporal Frank Mosher...
NCO...

Cooper faints.

STALIN
Like the rest of their scum, he’s
too sick with fever.

FELIX
Send him to the hospital ward to
recover.

STALIN
By then Budionny’s assault on Lwow
will be finished. Warsaw will be
my prize.

Stalin stands, stroking his thick black mustache, visually

inspecting Cooper.
 80.

STALIN (CONT’D)
A young man, with such burned
hands. He must have nerves of
steel to stand that kind of pain,
eh Felix?

Stalin stares at Felix. Felix’s eye twitches.

STALIN (CONT’D)
A proletariat. He’s only as useful
as a laboring pig rat... till he
starves to death.

EXT. RIVER BUG - NIGHT

Budenny’s 1st Calvary plunges into the River Bug under the
dark of night.

SUPER: River Bug, Budionny’s Cossack’s sneak attack on Lwow

EXT. LWOW - LEWANDOWKA AERODROME - DAYBREAK

Airfield’s tethered observation hot air balloon; its Polish

observer looking through a spyglass, suddenly drops it and
frantically blows a Call-To-Arms on his trumpet.

Dozens of aviators and ground crew are busy preparing to

launch their biplanes for a defensive attack.

Among them Faunt-Le-Roy, who runs into Corsi.

FAUNT-LE-ROY
Budionny’s Cossacks crossed the
River Bug last night. The 6th
Infantry Division is taking it
hard, being pushed back to us.

CORSI
Where’s Captain Crawford?

FAUNT-LE-ROY
Deathly ill. Shipped out to Paris.
You’ll have to take command until I
get the paper work through.

CORSI
Yes, sir.
 81.

FAUNT-LE-ROY
Get every damn thing that flies in
the air and don’t stop until I give
the order.

Faunt-Le-Roy runs to his Balilla biplane.

FAUNT-LE-ROY (CONT’D)
Harass the hell out of them!

INT. BOLSHEVIK TENT - NIGHT

Babel writes by lantern light at a wooden table.

BABEL (V.O.)
The battle is constant. I am
completely exhausted... The Poles
are defending themselves mainly by
air force action. Bombs falling
every 100 steps. To describe the
raid: so far, just as slowing
clatter of machine guns, panic in
the camps, nerves. They constantly
carry out flights, while Budionny’s
Konarmiya hide in the forests
surrounded by mortal danger.

SUPER IMPOSE - MONTAGE OF SHOTS:

1) 7th Squadron Biplanes strafing and bombing disorganized

Cossacks as they are attacked by the Polish infantry.

2) Polish aviators at the aerodrome giving their

reconnaissance reports of troops movements to military
telegraphers.

3) Ground crew hastily refueling Polish fighters. Patching

bullet riddled fuselages. Fixing broken struts with bailing
wire and chewing gum.

4) Ground crew loading huge bombs into biplane’s bottom

fuselage hatches. Among the biplanes; French Farmans,
Breguets, German A.E.G’s, Fokker D-7s, British D.H.-9s,
Bristol Fighters, and Brandenburgs.

5) Polish 3rd Air Force Dyon assault Cossack rear lines with
deadly force by constant bombing and strafing runs.

6) Budionny’s Cossacks retreat across the River Bug under a

barrage of Polish artillery fire; the Polish infantry and
calvary are right on their heels.
 82.

INT. RUSSIAN BARRACK PRISON - DAY

Cooper, feverish, lays on wooden plank bunk with a thin

blanket covering his shivering body. He struggles to rise up
on an elbow to peer out the window next to his bunk.

COOPER V.O.)
You can write the word hunger in
print, but the reader will never
know its hell.

EXT. RUSSIAN BARRACK PRISON - CONTINUOUS

The prison yard is filled with gaunt and feeble Polish

soldiers; some stagger aimless, others crawl in the mud.

Through the barbed wire fence, a populated Woman Barracks.

BARBED WIRE FENCE - CONTINUOUS

A doll-faced POLISH GIRL, (blue eyes, pigtails, 19) in a

dirty green sweater and an old torn oversized skirt waits for
the Guards not to notice.

Then, quickly she passes a loaf of black bread through the

fence, to a toothless OLD RUSSIAN PEASANT.

OLD RUSSIAN PEASANT

You have enough for yourself?

POLISH GIRL
I am never, never hungry.

INT. RUSSIAN BARRACK PRISON - MOMENTS LATER

The Old Russian Peasant, kneels beside a starving Polish

soldier, carefully feeding him tiny pieces of bread.

COOPER (V.O.)
Bread, the giver of life. Hope.
Heaven. And there was so little.

Then, he moves on to the next bunk, another prisoner too weak

from illness, and feeds him, breaking off tiny pieces of
bread.

MR. C (V.O.)
The Polish girl gave all she had,
till she died from starvation;
never a crumb for herself.
 83.

The Old Russian Peasant comes to Cooper, feeding him the last
bit of bread; the length of a thumb.

INT. AERODROME - NIGHT

Ground crew and mechanics work on damaged biplanes.

Blow torches glare. Sparks flying everywhere as

superstructures are repaired.

Engines, on chained blocks, torn apart.

New fabric glued in place over torn wings.

Double barrel machine guns are being cleaned and retested.

Aviators are huddled in one area, loading their own machine

gun bullet belts.

INT. RUSSIAN PRISON HOSPITAL - NIGHT

Cooper lies on a cot, moaning deliriously in a dimly lit

room, drifting in and out consciousness.

COOPER
Nina. Nina.

A HAND covers his mouth.

SSSHHHHHH O.C.

Cooper’s eyes open. A lucid moment; stares over to see the

hand belongs to MARGUERITE HARRISON, (deathly pale, 26), but
eyes as bright as gold, hiding under her blanket.

Cooper blinks unbelievingly.

HARRISON
Margaret Harrison. Reporter for
Associated Press.

Reassured Cooper won’t cry out, Harrison slowly takes her had
away.

HARRISON (CONT’D)
You were talking about a woman,
Nina... and a name... Merian
Cooper. Captain Cooper of the 7th
Squadron?

Cooper musters his strength.

 84.

COOPER
(dryly whispered)
Mosh...er. Frank, corporal.

Cooper gestures with his hand.

COOPER (CONT’D)
You. Who... you?

HARRISON
Hard of hearing? Margaret
Harrison. I’m with the Associated
Press. Was covering the civil war
when the Bolsheviks arrested me for
treason.
(beat)
I’m getting out. American Red
Cross in Latvia negotiated a deal.
You got any one you want me to
contact?

EXT. LWOW - LEWANDOWKA AERODROME - DAYBREAK

GENERAL WACLAW IWASZKIEWICZ, (50) commander of the 6th Polish

Army and his adjunct OFFICER climb out of his staff CAR...
stride across the airfield weaving through parked Biplanes,
headed directly to...

Faunt-Le-Roy, weary, is under his Balilla with a ground

crewman, packing the wheels with oil grease.

FAUNT-LE-ROY
Make sure to get the grease in
thick around the axle so the mud
won’t cake up and make me
somersault on landing.

The ground crewman nods, and takes a gob of oil grease from a
tin can, packing it on the axle.

IWASZKIEWICZ
Major Faunt-Le-Roy.

Faunt-Le-Roy, hearing his name comes, out from underneath the

biplane.

FAUNT-LE-ROY
(saluting)
General Iwaszkiewicz.
 85.

IWASZKIEWICZ
(while unrolling a map;
lays it against the
biplane fuselage)
Marshall Pilsudski has repulsed the
Red Army siege upon Warsaw,
attacking the Bolsheviks from the
Modlin fortress, pushing them back
to the Nieman River. Here.

FAUNT-LE-ROY
That ought to boast the men’s
morale, General.

IWASZKIEWICZ
But, Budionny is still threatening
to overrun Lwow with his four
divisions. How many working
machines you have?

FAUNT-LE-ROY
Nineteen, sir.

IWASZKIEWICZ
I’m giving you a direct order to
support Colonel Juliusz Rommel’s
cavalry brigades to attack
Budionny’s Cossacks at Komarow.

FAUNT-LE-ROY
Consider it done, sir.

The phrase catches General Iwaszkiewicz’s attention.

IWASZKIEWICZ
I almost forgot. We got a dispatch
from the American Red Cross bureau
in Latvia. Seems a journalist met
Captain Cooper in a prison camp
outside of Moscow.
(turning toward an Adjunct
Officer)
What was the name of that place?

ADJUNCT OFFICER
Aleksandrovski, sir.

IWASZKIEWICZ
Right. I’m sure if he’s got the
same courage as you, Major, he’ll
pull through.

Faunt-Le-Roy, revived, can barely hold back his enthusiasm.

 86.

FAUNT-LE-ROY
Will that be all, sir? We got a
full day of fighting ahead of us,
sir.

IWASZKIEWICZ
Snap to it, Major. Keep those
Cossacks on the run.

INT. POLISH MILITARY TELEGRAPH TENT - DAY

Tables filled with radio Morse code deciphering equipment,

and Polish radio Operators, headsets on, feverishly
transcribing intercepted wire transmissions.

RADIO OFFICER #1; With a decoded message in hand, rushes to

another table where Polish Officers are logging the reports.

OFFICER #1
Sir. I just intercepted a report
from one of our spies at Budionny’s
HQ.

Officer #1 hesitates unsure of what he’s about to say.

OFFICER #1 (CONT’D)
It’s reported that our aviators,
having run out of ammunition are
attacking the Cossacks with
their...

EXT. BATTLE FRONT - SAME TIME

A panicked group of Cossacks flee on their horses as an

Ansaldo Balilla with the 7th Kosciuszko Fighter Squadron
insignia comes swooping down so low...

The biplane’s landing carriage knocks dozens of Cossacks off

their horses.

INT. RUSSIAN 1ST CALVARY HQ TENT - SAME TIME

Budionny, frantic with rage, storms about the tent, tossing

maps and papers at his Officers.

Gets in the face of a Red Army Officer.

BUDIONNY
Send a dispatch to that traitor
General Trotsky. 100 men killed...
(MORE)
 87.
BUDIONNY (CONT'D)
100 horses killed or wounded. I’ll
be damned if I’m going to retreat
to reinforce General
Tukhaschevski’s army in the north.
It’s his own fault he lost Warsaw.

A 7th Squadron Biplane buzzes O.S.

Infuriated, Budionny doesn’t duck when a whistling bomb

falls. The other Officers clamber under the tables.

A bomb explosion peppers the tent with dirt clods; the

compression whips open the tent’s flaps. Infuriates Budionny.

BUDIONNY (CONT’D)
Send me anti-aircraft batteries,
and goddamn it -- I want my own
fighter squadron!

INT. POLISH MILITARY TELEGRAPH TENT - SAME TIME

Rain pattering on the tent. Polish RADIO OPERATOR #2

finishes decoding an intercepted dispatch... rushes to the
Commanding Officer.

RADIO OPERATOR #2
(to Officer)
Our spies report that the fighter
squadrons, alone, are pushing back
the Cossacks. Budionny is in a
state of panic.

The rain becomes a downpour.

EXT. RUSSIAN PRISON YARD - DUSK

Downpouring rain. Cooper limps, barefooted, across the muddy

yard. His gaze falls on the steps of one of the barracks.

A white-bearded, bald-headed, barefoot Man, sits soberly

whittling away at a piece of wood.

COOPER (V.O.)
I recognized him as the great
Kolchak General. He was whittling
a dinner spoon.

Cooper turns, laughing to himself, but he’s too fatigued and

drops to the ground in a heap.
 88.

Painfully, he gets himself up on all fours, then stands,

wavering, planting one foot in front of the other, directed
towards his barrack.

INT. BARRACKS - MOMENTS LATER

Stumbling inside, Cooper hears a Prisoner uttering bad

French.

On a bunk, the Prisoner reads, moving his fingers along the

yellow edges of a page, trying to pronounce each word with
great effort.

TIME CUT:

Cooper hobbles to his lower bunk. The book is under his arm.

Lying on his back, his eyes feast on the cover.

COOPER (V.O.)
Nana, par Emile Zola, was the book.
Even if it wasn’t in my native
tongue, I devoured it. If my
captives wanted to starve my
stomach, that I’d feed it with
words from books.

Cooper’s lips pronounce each word as if he’s chewing them for

nourishment; studies the pictures; life runs through his
veins.

Then, the barrack lights are shut off. Pitch black darkness.

In the darken shadows, Cooper still reads, muttering “French”

words to himself.

EXT. SOMEWHERE IN POLAND - DAYBREAK

General Budionny’s 1st Calvary march in a down pouring rain.

The Cossack’s Bolshevik infantry columns stretch to the far
horizon.

INT./EXT. STAFF CAR - CONTINUOUS

Budionny, stoned faced, hardly notices the passes artillery

pieces mired in the muddy road.

Orders his driver to stop. Sticks his head out, beckoning a

Red Army Officer on horseback to his car.
 89.

The Officer, saddled, salutes.

BUDIONNY
There will be no stopping until we
reach General Tukhachevsky’s units
outside of Zamosc.
(beat)
Pass on the order to shoot any
stragglers. Leave no Poles behind
to pray for the dead.

INT. AERODROME - WARSAW MOKOTOW AIRFIELD - NIGHT

Mechanics work on assembling new Royal Air Force SOPWITH 1F.

1 CAMEL FIGHTERS...

SUPER: Warsaw Mokotow Airfield August 1920

Arriving by staff car, Faunt-Le-Roy, Clark, Corsi, Rayski,

Chess pile out to view the new biplanes in the aerodrome.

FAUNT-LE-ROY
Looks like Canada decided to be on
the winning side.

CORSI
This is the new version... you can
tell by the tapered wings.

CLARK
Just remember these Big Pups are
front heavy; flies like a giant
gyroscope.

RAYSKI
Center of gravity is off. You need
to use the left rudder to make
banking turns.

FAUNT-LE-ROY
I recall the controls are a bit
sensitive, but for our purpose
they’re excellent low-flying
strafing machines for Marshall
Pilsudski’s assault at Zamosc
against Budenny.

A fully assembled SOPWITH CAMEL roars to life.

 90.

EXT. SOMEWHERE OUTSIDE OF ZAMOSC - DAYBREAK

A morning song BIRD sings. A Sopwith Camel zooms into view

as...

The Budionny’s Cossacks cross a land belt running through a

thick marshland.

Thick black columns of smoke drifts on the horizon.

Then, in the stillness of dawn, a barrage of heavy artillery

shells pummels the few hundred yards of no man’s land.

Red Army soldiers and Cossacks heckle by whistling and

banging their sabres to intimidate the outnumbered Polish
cavalry.

SUPER: The Battle of Kormarow

A Polish 9th Uhlan Cavalry OFFICER cries: “CHARGE!”

Leading out of a massive long trench hundreds of thousands of

infantry and cavalry with lances lowered, storm across the
open swamp...

A Red Army 6th Brigade OFFICER with saber drawn overhead,

“CHARGE!”

A Cossack brigade of hundreds of thousands, with lances

lowered, shaskas above their heads ride at full gallop.

Chess, Clark, Corsi, Rayski, and Faunt-Le-Roy fly in their

Sopwith Camel’s high above the thundering wake of the Polish
and Cossack cavalry charge that swarms below.

Faunt-Le-Roy signals from his cockpit to dive bomb the

Cossacks.

One by one, they swoop in low, dropping a bomb from their

cockpit a few meters above the charging Cossacks.

Massive explosions causes dozens of Cossacks to come crashing

down on their horses, breaking the momentum. Red Army
soldiers are disoriented, confused.

From the rear, Red Army tanks, horse-drawn artillery, and

motor armored cars with machine guns are rushing forward.

Another SOPWITH CAMEL bombing run by the 7th Squadron lets

loose a barrage of machine gun fire and bombs, killing dozens
of Cossacks and their horses.
 91.

The 7th Squadron attacks the rearguard; Red Army tanks are
blown up by bombing runs, artillery and armored vehicles take
direct hits, bursting into balls of flames.

Still, the massive cavalry charge is in play, each side

closing in fast when...

An observation Soviet Nieuport biplane lumbers above the

battle ground.

The Pilot is distracted by something in the direct sunlight.

Its Faunt-Le-Roy, firing his biplane’s machine guns.

The Soviet Nieuport is riddled with bullets and catches fire.

Crashes in no man’s land between the charging armies.

The brute strength of a full out gallop of the Polish Calvary

smashes into the same thrust of the galloping Cossacks.

A horrendous deafening collision of carbine, lance and

shaskas fighting; horses buckling to their bellies.

Making a low pass Faunt-Le-Roy’s sees bodies flung into the

air, others decapitated, lances run through dozens of
soldiers at a time. Human carnage litters the ground.

Rayski appears off of Faunt-Le-Roy’s wing; then, Corsi,

Clark, and Chess appear, wing to wing.

Faunt-Le-Roy signals for another strafing run.

One by one they dive into the thick smoky haze lingering over
the battlefield, strafing

Deafening artillery shells bursting all about the battle

ground and air.

The 7th Squadron continuously fire assault oncoming Cossacks

with their double-barrel machine guns in blazing bursts.

EXT. 1ST RED ARMY REARGUARD - MOMENTS LATER

Budionny stands along side his staff car, amid his Cossacks,
when from the sky...

A Sopwith Camel dives in low, firing its machine guns;

peppering the ground all around Budionny.

Other’s dive for cover.

 92.

Budionny draws his pistol, recklessly shooting at the Sopwith

Camel.

BUDIONNY
Damn you. Damn, you pigs.

Budionny, in a rage, aims his pistol at a cowering Officer by

the staff car’s wheel well; deliberately executing him.

BUDIONNY (CONT’D)
That’s for cowardice. Anyone else
want to be coward?

Then, the rushing sound of a thousand horses hooves pounding

the ground; coming closer.

Budionny is horror struck. It’s his own Cossacks, horse-

drawn machine gun carts and infantry withdrawing, bearing
down on his position.

ADJUNCT OFFICER
(racing up; out of breath)
General Budenny, we’ve been ordered
to regroup with the 6th Division
for a counterattack.

Budenny dangerously waves his smoking pistol at the Adjunct

Officer.

BUDIONNY
Regroup. A counterattack. Very,
well.

Budenny climbs into his staff car; driving off to keep up

with the retreating 6th Red Army.

EXT. AMERICAN RED CROSS HOSPITAL TRAIN - LATER

Snaking through battle-scarred terrain.

INT. RED CROSS HOSPITAL CAR - CONTINUOUS

Badly wounded Polish soldiers lay on cots. Nurses and a

Doctor attend to them. Among them is...

Nina comforting a mortally wounded CAPTAIN JOHN STANELY

MCCALLUM, (29) his name sewed on his torn and bloody flight
suit.

MCCALLUM
You can’t give up on Coop, Nina.
 93.

Nina dabs his bleeding forehead.

MCCALLUM (CONT’D)
Coop’s a swell guy, and I know as
long as he loves you, he ain’t
gonna let those commie reds get the
best of him.

NINA
Please, Captain McCallum... you
need to rest.

McCallum catches a breath... grabbing Nina by her sleeves...

MCCALLUM
You gotta promise me... you won’t
give up hope... none of us in the
7th Squadron believed for a moment
he was...

EXT. AMERICAN RED CROSS TRAIN - SAME TIME

From the locomotive Engineer’s cab; battle-beaten Cossacks

are seen crossing the tracks in the far distance. Engineer
yanks back the brake handle.

INT. RED CROSS HOSPITAL CAR

Nina dabs McCallum’s forehead with a bloody rag.

NINA
(holding back the tears)
I promise you Captain McCallum... I
promise with all my heart I won’t
give up on Coop.

MCCALLUM
That’s the spirit... got to...
keep... hope...

Life drains out of McCallum’s face. Nina closes his eyelids.

The train whistle frantically BLOWS. The train car

LURCHES...

Nina turns to see the panicked FACES of the others, then rubs
her stomach.
 94.

INT. PRISONER BARRACKS - DAY

Cooper, weak and thin, sweating from a fever, painfully tries

on a new pair of leather shoes from his top bunk. His feet
are horribly swollen.

COOPER
Well, boys, doesn’t look like we’re
doing any parade marching today.

Cooper eyes a new PRISONER, (well-groomed, 50) seated a few

bunks away, but shoeless.

The Prisoner has opened a personal package, holding a Havana

cigar.

COOPER (V.O.) (CONT’D)

I love a good cigar. It has the
air of Paradise.

Cooper gingerly gets down from his bunk. Painfully winces

when his feet touch the floor.

COOPER (V.O.) (CONT’D)

His name was Orlanorf Petrovich,
would you believe the richest man
in Southern Russia.

Approaching Petrovich, Cooper holds his black Russian boots,

inching closer, with Petrovich’s back to him.

COOPER (V.O.) (CONT’D)

Orlanorf’s feet were like a womans,
and I knew him to be Armenian,
therefore a trader.

EXT. BARRACKS - MOMENTS LATER

Cooper, barefoot, proudly strolls in the prison yard, puffing

on his Havana cigar. Orlanorf walks beside him, like a child
trying out his new boots.

EXT. LWOW - LEWANDOWKA AERODROME - DAY

The 7th Kosciuszko Squadron and Ground Crew stands at

attention in front of a handful of biplanes; Ansaldo Balilla,
Sopwith Camel, and Albatros DIII’s.

Maj. Faunt-Le-Roy formally addresses them.

 95.

FAUNT-LE-ROY
Budionny’s tail is between his
legs. Lenin is asking to negotiate
a peace.
(cheers; beat)
Marshall Pilsudski sends his
personal commendation to the 7th
Kosciusko Fighter Squadron for
saving Lwow.
(cheers; beat)
We take a moment to pay tribute to
our comrades in wings... who have
given their lives for the cause.
To the good fight.

ALL PILOTS
To the good fight. For your
freedom and ours.

A lone TRUMPET plays TAPS.

FAUNT-LE-ROY
(to himself)
And, Coop... wherever you are.

EXT. SOMEWHERE IN RUSSIA - WINTER - DAY

A PRISONER CATTLE CAR TRAIN steams through snowbank terrain.

A blinding white sleeting snowstorm.

INT. TRAIN CAR

Packed among the prisoners, Cooper, worse for wear, muscles

in between some haggardly men, trying to get a whiff of fresh
air from the cattle car’s sideboard cracks. Vapor breath.

COOPER (V.O.)
I was transferred to train detail.
Winter. Another day of bone aching
bitter cold.

A scarred face RUSSIAN prisoner.

RUSSIAN
Here’s a toast to Vovochka, and the
damn praporchiks.

COOPER
Sure, whatever you say, Ruskie.
 96.

From the crammed heap of bodies, a Polish prisoner, 2ND LT.

STANISLAW SOKOLOWKSI, (25) sticks his head up.

SOKOLOWSKI
You American?

COOPER
As red blooded as they come.

SOKOLOWSKI
I’m Stanislaw Sokolowski. Second
Lieutenant. Polish 5th Army.

COOPER
Cooper. Merian Cooper. But you
can call me Corporal Frank Mosher,
if ya don’t mind.

Another prisoner pipes up; CORPORAL JANUSZ ZALESKI, (29) from

the other side.

ZALESKI
I know who you are, the American
aviator with the 7th Air
Escadrille. I’m Corporal Zaleski.
Polish Calvary. Captured in Kiev.

Cooper shakes his hand.

COOPER
Ya know where they’re taking us?

SOKOLOWSKI
Outside of Moscow; from fence until
lunch.

ZALESKI
(to Cooper)
It’s an old Russian saying... he
means and unpleasant task... clear
railways from ice.

COOPER
You got any word on the war?

SOKOLOWSKI
Pilsudski pushed the Red’s all the
way back across the Curzon Line.
Last news I got there was an
armistice.

COOPER
Damn it boys, that’s great news.
 97.

ZALESKI
Too bad he can’t convince Lenin to
free us.

EXT. TRAIN TRACKS - DAY

Fierce snow blizzard. A long line of prisoners swinging pick

axes to break up the ice on the train rails.

Red Army Guards stand, bundled warm, with carbines over their
shoulders, and swords hung from their belts, standing knee
high in the snow drifts.

COOPER (V.O.)
The sleeting snow felt like a cold
steel knife against your skin, but
as I swung my axe I forgot about
the cold... I had figured out how
to beat the game...

Cooper, a thick matted scraggly beard filled with tiny beads

of ice, rhythmically swings his pick axe, biting into the
solid ice encrusted around the iron rail.

His hands bound in rags for gloves, his feet in burki fur-
lined boots.

COOPER (V.O.) (CONT’D)

Passages from books flashed to
mind. Down comes the axe, and I
bitterly recited...

Cooper, talks out loud, against the blizzard storm.

COOPER (CONT’D)
Soft arms clinging around your
neck.

Down comes the pick axe, digging into the ice; a thin crack.

COOPER (CONT’D)
Holding back, bah!

Another swing at the ice, a chunk breaks away. Rail exposed.

COOPER (CONT’D)
Talk about love when a man has his
work to do. Arrghh!

This time, Cooper whirls the pick up, loosely between his
hands, giving it a double twist, roaring aloud.
 98.

COOPER (CONT’D)
What a prison rat I am, playing the
romantic lover.

The pick axe hits the rail, a spark! The pick axe tip breaks
off.

ZALESKI
Sokolowski, I think the American
has lost his mind.

SOKOLOWSKI
Keep your mouth shut if you want to
live.

They both continue to swing their picks while Cooper stops,

squatting in the snow. Laughing a long laugh that can’t be
heard for the howling winds.

COOPER(V.O.)
It was a glorious game, sure as
sin.

And with one hand in stealth-like movements, Cooper sneaks

the axe tip into his baggy pleated wool pants.

Then, a Guard’s rifle butt slams hard into Cooper’s back.

EXT. TRAIN CAR - NIGHT

The prisoner’s train car is being filled with the workers,

some moaning, stiff from the cold, others with hacking
coughs.

Red Army Guards whip and yell, herding them inside.

Cooper manages to climb onto a tier, a wooden bunk.

COOPER (V.O.)
Eighty of us, unwashed bodies, lice
tormented, crammed into one train
car.

Cooper pulls a small bag from his quilted jacket.

COOPER (V.O.) (CONT’D)

But I had my Enchanted Sack.

Reaching to the sack, Cooper pulls out a book. Slowly, not

to disturb anyone, he slips down from this tier, to the
floor.
 99.

COOPER (V.O.) (CONT’D)

I’d lowered myself cautiously to
the floor and crept to where the
flickering lights of the big
Russian ovens danced across the
floor... the flames lit the pages
for me to read.

Cooper’s face engrossed in a book.

INT. CAFE DE LA PAIX

A cigar stub smolders in the ashtray, filled with cigarette

butts. In the shadows, Slomczynski writes, a cigarette glows
from his mouth.

COOPER
Four books. And sure as holy hell,
I read them over and over, each
time as if it were the first, to
catch a thought, idea, to let my
mind build upon passages.

SLOMCZYNSKI (O.C.)
And this is how you survived?

COOPER
No. That came next.

EXT. MONASTARY - DAY

Cooper, with Sokolowski and Zaleski, stand in the middle of a

huge monastary courtyard. Cordoned by high walls, a couple
long stone buildings, a chapel, and...

Ancient tombstones, mixed with fresh graves. A newly

constructed gallows off in one corner.

Cooper with a meager pack, a pan hung by a string on his

trousers, and his Enchanted Sack in hand. His gaze falls
upon a freshly constructed gallows in one far corner.

COOPER (V.O.)
In spring, eight of us were marched
across Moscow to a monastary.

In the courtyard, a barefoot Boy ladles a huge black kettle,

on top of a wood fire. A bell clangs.
 100.

In an instant, dozens of prisoners, then scores of mixed

nationalities, come running out of the buildings all carrying
one thing, a pot or pan.

Cooper stands in the long line, pan in hand. Behind Cooper...

HUNGARIAN PRISONER
Look!

From across the other side of the courtyard, a group of

turbaned Muslims approach.

Two old Men, (wrinkled brown faces, white long Mongolian

mustaches) and six Younger Men, (clean shaven) and one
teenaged Boy, taking their place in line, close to Cooper.

MOMENTS LATER

The eldest of the Muslim men, the Emir, approaches the

kettle, his hands grasping a batter tin with no handle.

COOPER (V.O.)
The eldest man, was a king, ruler
of Khiva, in the heart of Asia. An
Emir.

When the Emir holds out his pan, the Boy flips the ladle of
boiling hot soup that slashes on the Emir’s hands, scalding
them.

The Emir winces, but holds his chin firm, presses the tin
close to his chest and moves on.

INT. BIG STONE CELLAR - LATER

The last light of day filters through the iron bars of a

single window.

Cooper lies among dozens of ragged dirty prisoners, dozing.

Then, the chanting of a call to Muslim prayer in Arabic fills

the damp cellar, echoing off the walls.

Cooper rises to see in the dim light, off in one corner,

squatting on beautiful oriental rugs, all of the Muslim men
lead by the...

EMIR
(Arabic)
There is no God but Allah, and
Mohammed is his prophet.
 101.

The other Muslim men follow, bowing, chanting repetitively in

melodic Arabic voice.

Sokolowski and Zaleski edge over to Cooper, watching the

spectacle.

SOKOLOWSKI
Muslims. Lost the fight against
the Reds.

ZALESKI
I’ve heard our days are numbered
here. You saw the gallows in the
courtyard.

Cooper, looks around them. Cautiously, he produces the pick

axe tip, hidden in his book, “The New Machiavelli” by H. G.
Wells.

COOPER
The iron bars. These walls must be
hundreds of years old. If we can
dig them out...

Sokolowski and Zaleski nod in agreement.

INT. CAFE DE LA PAIX

Cooper lights another cigar.

COOPER
We didn’t stay idle, picking at the
iron bars late at night, one by
one, day after day, while the
Emir’s oriental blankets, their
trinkets all disappeared, bartered
for bread, for potatoes to keep
from starving.

Slomczynski’s hands are clenched, leaning on the table.

SLOMCZYNSKI (O.C.)
And you risked escape in Moscow?

COOPER
There was no time to waste. Every
day the Guards would come, call out
a name, order you to pack up your
things as if you were going
somewhere. But we knew, surely the
rope, the gallows noose was meant
for all of us.
 102.

SLOMCZYNSKI (O.C.)
Even the Muslims?

COOPER
All of them, but the boy remained
by the time we had fixed the bars.

Cooper falls silent. A painful memory. Eyes welled with

tears.

COOPER (V.O.) (CONT’D)

It was our last night in that hell
hole.

INT. MONASTARY CELLAR - NIGHT

Cooper, Sokolowski and Zaleski, crouch by the iron barred

window. Cooper motions for them to wait.

Cooper next to the Muslim Boy, shaking him.

COOPER
Time to go.

Muslim Boy refuses.

MUSLIM BOY
My father and uncles are dead.

Cooper, seeing Sokolowski removing one of the cellar window’s

iron bars, becomes impatient.

COOPER
I’m sure they would want you to go
on, to live.

Cooper starts to grab the Muslim boy’s arm, but he quickly

pushes Cooper’s hand away.

MUSLIM BOY
No. Go without me.

He wraps his hands around his neck, jerking his chin upwards.

COOPER
The rope is not meant for you.

Some prisoner’s are aroused.

Cooper hushes the Muslim Boy.

 103.

A long last look, then Cooper returns to Sokolowski and

Zaleski, freeing the last iron bar.

EXT. WOODS - NIGHT

Cooper, Sokolowski and Zaleski are running under a full moon

light through a thick wood into a clearing; smack dab into a
small Red Army Outpost.

Near the encampment, Cooper spots an observation balloon

tethered to a raised platform sentry guard post.

COOPER
Just the ticket home, boys.

Zaleski and Sokolowski look at each other in disbelief.

Cooper motions to Sokolowski and Zaleski to follow.

They scurry through tall grass, carefully making their way

around the perimeter of the encampment; sneaking up on...

A lone Sentry guarding the Balloon’s loading platform; tether

to a stake.

A rock comes down hard on the Sentry’s head, knocking him out
cold. Sokolowski catches the falling Sentry’s carbine just in
time.

Cooper, Sokolowski and Zaleski pull down the Balloon with all
their strength; heaving and pulling.

They climb into the basket from the platform.

Sokolowski is last and fumbles with the carbine that drops to

the ground, firing off a round that alerts the sleeping
soldiers.

BALLOON BASKET - CONTINUOUS

COOPER (CONT’D)
Damn the luck.

SOKOLOWSKI
I didn’t mean...

ZALESKI
Duck!

All crouched down in the basket.

 104.

Rifle shots ring out, bullets whizzing through the basket as

Cooper, taking a chance, rises up and unties the tethered
rope line.

The Balloon quickly ascends...

COOPER
If the wind’s right...

Another volley of carbine fire, wildly missing.

ZALESKI
You ever fly one of these things?

COOPER
Never. But, nothing to it.

SOKOLOWSKI
We’re doomed.

COOPER
You’re doomed down there.

They peer over the basket’s edge to see how quickly they’ve
gained altitude; carbine’s flare but the bullets can’t reach.

ZALESKI
(giving the finger)
Ah, ha! You commie bastards.
Thought you were smart enough for
Poland...

SOKOLOWSKI
Shut up. Look. Over there.
They’re getting into an armored
car.

They peer over the edge of the balloon’s basket.

COOPER
He’s right. Help me with these
sang bags, we got to catch a breeze
higher up.

They start tossing sandbags overboard, dropping into the dark

of night. Then, an anchor.

The Balloon quickly ascends into the moonlit night.

EXT. OVER A RUSSIAN VILLAGE - DAYBREAK

The Balloon drifts in the early morning light.

 105.

BALLOON BASKET - SAME TIME

Cooper is leaning out over the basket’s edge taking a piss.

Sokolowski and Zaleski doze.

Buttoning up his fly, Cooper turns about; his face falls pale
-- eyes bulge.

COOPER
Look out, boys. We’re gonna...

The Balloon Basket crashes into an Orthodox Russian Onion

shaped steeple.

A horrific crash startles the two Polish officer’s awake.

They scrambled to their feet as the basket’s floor is torn

open by the steeple’s spike.

Sokolowski falls through.

Cooper grabs him just in time, holding onto his jacket.

Zaleski, on the basket rails, dangerously balancing himself

when another part of the basket rips.

Cooper can barely hang onto Sokolowski.

COOPER (CONT’D)
Cristalmighty, Zaleski, help us!

Sokolowski is slipping out of his jacket -- screaming -- legs

kicking in the air.

COOPER (CONT’D)
Sokolowski! Quiet! You’ll wake
the whole...

Looking over his shoulder, Cooper sees Peasants coming out of

their huts.

A Peasant Man looks up in disbelief as the Balloon passes

overhead.

Sokolowski screaming, dangling.

The Peasant Man takes one look at the heavily damaged church
steeple; enrages him into action.

Cooper looking off to the distance -- a cloud of dust on the

road -- quickly approaching are the Armor Car and Bolshevik
Calvary.
 106.

COOPER (CONT’D)
Damn, the luck, they found us.

The Balloon is descending.

Sokolowski falls out his jacket, crashing through a village

hut’s roof.

Zaleski clambers up toward the balloon, blindly stepping on

Cooper who spots a horse corral.

Then, a river in the far distance, toward the west.

The Balloon crashes into a tree, deflating, knocking Zaleski

off the basket.

He crashes down through the tree branches, breaking his fall

to the ground.

Cooper throws out a rope from tied to the basket and slides
his way down.

ON THE GROUND - CONTINUOUS

A limping Sokolowski and a cursing Zaleski run after Cooper,

headed for a horse corral.

Peasants are giving chase, threatening with pitch forks and

axes.

Cooper unlocks the corral gate. Nervous horses scatter.

He catches one by the mane. Gets on its back. Digs in his

heels. The horse rears.

Cooper at a full gallop, rides up to Zaleski and Sokolowski,

hauling them up on the horse’s bareback just as a Peasant’s
pitch fork plunges into a fence post.

Cooper digs in his heels. The horse takes off at a full

gallop into the wide open fields.

In the dust cloud, an Armor Car comes to a halt at the end of

the road.

A squadron of Cossacks are in hot pursuit. Shaskas drawn

above their heads. Lances leveled. Carbines aimed.

ON HORSEBACK

Galloping at full speed.

 107.

SOKOLOWSKI
I hope you have a plan.

Bullets zip pass their heads.

ZALESKI
Because I’m on the rear...

Looking back over his shoulder.

ZALESKI (CONT’D)
And they have sabers...

COOPER
Hold on, boys... there’s a river
ahead...

SOKOLOWSKI
Great! I can’t swim.

COOPER
Don’t worry, we’ll cross on
horseback.

RIVER BANK

The horse stops dead in its tracks; tossing the three riders
over its head into the swift current.

Sokolowski splashes helplessly as Cooper swims to his aid;

wrestling with Sokolowski to keep his head above water.

Zaleski starts swimming toward the other side, but is pulled

away.

The Cossacks reach the river bank seeing it’s hopeless to

pursue them as they drift down river towards a raging...

RAPIDS

Surging white water submerges Cooper, Sokolowski and Zaleski

tossing them about in the surging waters.

Cooper still has Sokolowski by his shirt collar. Zaleski

makes it near to them when the roar of a...

WATERFALL

Tosses them over a cascading falls into a huge pool of deep

water that surges down between a steep rock white-water chute
into more white water rapids.
 108.

Plunging them head long into the vastness of the Russian

wilderness.

MOMENTS LATER

Along a sandy riverbank lay Cooper, Zaleski and Sokolowski,

passed out.

A rustic elderly VANKA, happens to come along’ poking them

with his gnarly walking stick.

VANKA
Hello? Hello? Travelers of the
river. Lost your boat?

Cooper rises up, taking in the unbelievable sight of a 17th

century clad peasant. Faints.

INT. PEASANT HUT - NIGHT

Cooper, Sokolowski and Zaleski are bundled in fur skins on

straw floor. By the fireplace Vanka sits with MANKA, (a
toothless hag) stirring the fireplace kettle.

MANKA
You bring home trouble. They are
not river men. Look at their
clothes. I’ve never seen such
filth.

VANKA
Now, now, Manka. You remember what
the hedgehog said?

MANKA
Refresh my memory, Vanka.

VANKA
Well, he said “If someone spilled
from somewhere, then that must mean
that something has poured into
somewhere else!”

Manka blankly stares at Vanka.

VANKA (CONT’D)
Don’t you see. If these three men
came here, than that means they
were cast out of somewhere else to
make room for three men there.
 109.

Manka nods in agreement. Vanka peers over at the Cooper,

Sokolowski and Zaleski.

VANKA (CONT’D)
In the morning, we will see what
they are about.

PEASANT HUT - MORNING

Cooper, Sokolowski, and Zaleski eat from bowls of goat milk

rice and chew slices of salted pork fat.

Manka busies herself, tending to a black kettle pot steaming

over the fireplace, while Vanka eavesdrops.

SOKOLOWSKI
What’d call one Russian?

ZALESKI
A drunk.

SOKOLOWSKI
Two Russians?

ZALESKI
A fight.

SOKOLOWSKI
Three Russians?

ZALESKI
Ah...

COOPER
A hardship wrapped in humor inside
a bottle of vodka.

Hearty laughter.

ZALESKI
So, an Estonian stands by a railway
track. Another Estonian passes by
on a handcar, pushing the pump up
and down. The first one asks: “Lis
iitt a llonngg wwavvyy ttoo
Ttallinn?”

SOKOLOWSKI
“Nnott ttoo llonngg.”

Cooper’s eyes light up.

 110.

COOPER
You boys gave me an idea.
Sokolowski can you translate for
me?

Sokolowski nods, as Cooper turns to Vanka.

COOPER (CONT’D)
How far is Latvia from here?

Sokolowski translates in Russian. Vanka ponders the

question, scratching his head.

VANKA
Manka, where is Latvia?

Manka, holding a huge wooden spoon stares back in disbelief

at Vanka. Shaking the spoon in Vanka’s face...

MANKA
You idiot, peasant. Latvia is just
over the horizon, toward the
setting sun. Past Novgorod.

EXT. PEASANT HUT - LATER

Cooper, Sokolowski, Zaleski and Vanka stand in front of the

hut, on the edge of a thick forest.

COOPER
Lithuania, Belarus and most of the
Ukraine is occupied by the
Bolsheviks, so my hunch is that
Latvia is neutral territory.
(beat)
Besides, there was a journalist in
my camp who said the American Red
Cross in Riga negotiated her
release.

Sokolowski and Zaleski exchange glances.

ZALESKI
I’m not sure we want to go that far
north. Our homeland is south.

SOKOLOWSKI
We speak good enough Russian to
make our way. Why don’t you come
with us?
 111.

COOPER
Either way, it’s six of one, half a
dozen of the other. Riga is my
best bet.

Vanka catches on; points off to one direction.

VANKA
Novgorod, this way.

COOPER
Better to stay away from the city
centers. I can follow along the
railroads and rivers, traveling at
night. The same goes for you boys.

They look at each other in agreement.

ZALESKI
Very well, comrade. We part, but I
hope you’ll look us up when you
return to Warsaw, someday.

SOKOLOWSKI
And bring new jokes with you.

COOPER
Consider it done.

All give each other a hearty hug good bye.

Cooper takes off on foot toward the west.

After a fair distance turns back and waves one more time to
Sokolowski, Zaleski and a kindly smiling Vanka, waving good
bye.

EXT. VILLAGE OF VITOSLAVLITSY - NIGHT

A moon-lit shadow moves stealth-like across a darken village

home. A train whistle blows in the distance.

The shadow moves toward the front of an old Orthodox Russian

church.

FATHER WALTER CISZEK, (goatee, 40) appears, strolling

outside, holding a LANTERN. A pistol in his hand.

CISZEK
Greetings, my son.

The shadow stops dead in its tracks. It’s Cooper.

 112.

CISZEK (CONT’D)
You look in need of nourishment.
Please follow me. You’re safe.

Cooper sees the pistol, that’s put back in its holster hung
on the belt rope of Ciszek’s black robe, next to a dangling
beaded crucifix rosy.

INT. CHURCH NAVE - LATER

A whiskered Cooper gobbles up bread, wine, and sausage.

Behind him is illuminated in the flickering candlelight
fantastically painted Biblical FRESCOS on the vaulted ceiling
walls.

Ciszek, sits, reading a thick Bible, slowly twirling one edge

of his handle-bar mustache. Without looking up;

CISZEK
If you like, Corporal Moser, I can
give you refuge in our monastery.

Cooper replies with his mouth full.

COOPER
I appreciate the offer, Father
Ciszek, but I’ve just escaped from
one.

Ciszek refills Cooper’s chalice with wine.

CISZEK
In Moscow?

COOPER
Vladykino. A monastary turned into
a prison.

CISZEK
Lenin’s abolition of religion.

Ciszek shifts, starring at the Frescos in the flickering

light.

CISZEK (CONT’D)
I fear these will be destroyed as
well, to bury Russia’s history.

Cooper glances at the century’s old beautifully painted

Frescos.
 113.

COOPER
No man in his right mind would
destroy these.

CISZEK
Power is the opium of the elite,
who determine what should be the
will of the people.

Cooper, finished with his meal, sits warming his hands near
the kerosene flame.

CISZEK (CONT’D)
I pray there are those whose life
holds a more noble cause; something
for the spirit, greater than all
the power in the world.

Cooper frowns with more pressing business.

COOPER
You said a peace treaty has been
signed in Riga?

CISZEK
An armistice, even if it is short
lived.

Ciszek studies Cooper’s fragile condition.

COOPER
How to get to Riga?

CISZEK
Follow the River Dvina. The Red
Army is thick with sentries along
the Baltic border. Find a guide to
smuggle you across.

Cooper stands, looking worse for wear.

COOPER
I best get going while it’s still
dark.

Ciszek slowly stands, placing a bookmark in his open Bible.

CISZEK
Wait. I have a wool sweater and
leather boots you can wear.

Ciszek disappears through an adjacent doorway.

 114.

While Cooper waits, he notices the bookmark is a blank

postcard.

EXT. CHURCH - MOMENTS LATER

Cooper, walking away from the church entrance, turns back to

Ciszek, standing with a lantern.

COOPER
What is the name of this village?

CISZEK
Vladykino.

INT. KAPLINSKI HOME - WARSAW - DAY

Poland’s cultural elite at a formal dinner party in honor of

the remaining American aviators of the 7th Kosciusko Fighter
Squadron.

A couple of dogs, including Della, romp through the mingling

Guests.

A grand piano plays classical music.

With drinks in hand, Corsi, Faunt-Le-Roy, Chess, Crawford and

Clark surround GENERAL STANISLAW HALLER, (bulldog military
verve, 50).

GENERAL HALLER
Marshall Pilsudski has awarded the
Virtuti Militari to all of the
America aviators.

FAUNT-LE-ROY
That’s humbling news, General
Haller, but we foreswore any
recognition.

GENERAL HALLER
You have no choice in the matter.
The proceedings will take place at
the Belvedere Palace.

MRS. KAPLINSKI, (startling gorgeous, 40) appears between the

American aviators, interrupting her conversation with Nina,
wearing a modest but plunging neckline ankle length velvet
dress.
 115.

MRS. KAPLINSKI
With such splendid news, it would
please me if you could all pose for
a photograph out on the patio.

The American aviators fall silent.

FAUNT-LE-ROY
Don’t be shy, boys. The Kaplinski’s
have been kind enough to give this
dinner in our honor.

CHESS
Just that, well, ya know.

Faunt-Le-Roy scoops up Della his arms.

FAUNT-LE-ROY
Shrewsbury and Rorison will receive
their commendations in Washington
D.C.

NINA
You wouldn’t want to let Coop down,
would ya?

EXT. HOUSE PATIO - CONTINUOUS

The American Aviators pose on the house’s patio steps for a

Photographer.

CORSI
Feels like we’ve done this before.

CRAWFORD
Yea, back at the Ritz Hotel in
Paris.

CLARK
Chins up, old boys. Put on a brave
face. We won the war.

CORSI
Too, bad, Coop isn’t here to reap
the benefit. Any word?

CLARK
An Austrian saw him... and that was
months ago. What was his name?
 116.

CORSI
Leopold Politzer. Contacted the
American Mission in Vienna.

A box camera FLASH.

Nina, in ear shot, perks up.

Nina approaches Faunt-Le-Roy on the patio steps.

NINA
Is it true?

Faunt-Le-Roy hedges. Reaches into his uniform coat pocket

pulling out a postcard. Hands it to Nina.

FAUNT-LE-ROY
I received this yesterday. Wanted
you to be the first to see it.

Nina studies the postcard with eager eyes, trembling smile.

NINA
Am well. Don’t worry. Corporal
Frank Mosher. Postmarked
Vladykino.

EXT. SWAMP - FULL MOON NIGHT

Cooper wading through swamp water up to his neck, follows a

Ruthenian SMUGGLER, (30).

The swamp’s muddy bottom sucks Cooper under. He struggles,

grabbing a low tree branch, pulling himself up. Gasps for
breath.

SMUGGLER
Quiet, or you’ll get us shot.

Cooper, wiping mud from eyes, continues to wade and swim with
his arms.

Finally, on dry shore.

SMUGGLER (CONT’D)
Latvia is just through these
mountains. Maybe fifty kilometers.
Not safe for me, so I say goodbye.

Cooper flashes, sensing something is not right.

 117.

COOPER
You promised to lead me right to
the border.

Smuggler laughs.

SMUGGLER
You’re no good to me.

The Smuggler rises, preparing to leave.

COOPER
You made a deal. I paid you.

SMUGGLER
Forty thousand rubles. Not enough
to risk my neck.

Cooper, enraged, reaches into his ragged, mud soaked pants

pocket; produces the pick axe tip.

Cooper has the Smuggler on the ground, pick axe tip at this
throat.

COOPER
Then, you’ll pay with your life.

The Smuggler, frantic eyed, thinks fast.

SMUGGLER
For your boots, I take you to Riga.

EXT. RIGA - DAYBREAK

Spring in full bloom.

A bearded, worse-for-wear Cooper looks down upon the city

center as the sunlight fills the streets. Electric trolleys.
Horse drawn carts. Pedestrians.

SUPER: Riga Latvia April 23, 1921

COOPER
(to himself)
Best to find the American Red Cross
headquarters.

Cooper’s bare feet walk amid well-shoed pedestrian traffic

on a city sidewalk, clearly avoiding him.
 118.

Cooper stands at a street corner in a soiled mud-caked woolen

sweater and baggy pants, ragged brimmed cap; a sight of utter
poverty.

Pedestrians react as if he was a filthy beggar.

He approaches someone, but they give him the cold shoulder.

COOPER (CONT’D)
This is gonna be harder than I
thought.

To another Pedestrian.

COOPER (CONT’D)
Hey, I’m an American. Captain
Cooper of Poland’s 7th Kosciusko
Fighter Squadron.

The word “Poland” catches a MAN’s attention from behind.

MAN
Poland. You are Polish?

Cooper is faint.

COOPER
That’s right. I mean no, I’m not
Polish. I’m American.

MAN
Ah, American. But you’re
clothes... are...

COOPER
Just tell me where the American Red
Cross is?

INT. AMERICAN RED CROSS OFFICE - RIGA - LATER

Cooper stands before a bespectacled Red Cross OFFICIAL,

(British accent, 30) seated at his polished desk, looking
dumbfounded.

OFFICIAL
Let me get this straight. You’re
Captain Merian C. Cooper?
 119.

COOPER
Absolutely. I was with the 7th
Kosciusko Flight Squadron until
July 13, 1920, when I was shot down
over enemy territory and captured
by the Cossacks.

OFFICIAL
We gave you up for dead. After
news arrived here last fall, we
haven’t... well, it’s a pleasure to
meet you Captain Cooper.

The Official rises to shake Cooper’s hand, then notices the

scars.

OFFICIAL (CONT’D)
Oh, my.

COOPER
Think nothing of it. Old war
wound. Hands still shake the same.

A hearty handshake.

COOPER (CONT’D)
Now about the business of getting
me reunited with my squadron.

OFFICIAL
Straight away, Captain Cooper.

COOPER
And one more thing. Do you know
where I can get a bath, shave and a
decent meal?

OFFICIAL
I think that would be up to one of
our nurses.

Cooper draws a blank face. The Official looks past Cooper,

toward the office doorway.

Cooper slowly turns to see Nina.

NINA
For your freedom and ours,
Lieutenant Colonel Cooper.

Cooper, choked with emotion, nearly collapses at the sight.

He steadies himself, leaning on the edge of the desk.
 120.

OFFICIAL
I’ll entrust your care to Nurse
Nina.

The Official tactfully leaves them alone, closing the office

door.

Nina steps toward Cooper, then rushes, seizing him with a

tight embrace, holding him as he wavers.

A tender kiss that sparks them into a feverish romantic

embrace. Tears streaming down their cheeks.

COOPER
I, I never imagined you’d find me.

NINA
When I got your postcard I decided
this would be the only place you
could come without being arrested.

COOPER
Lieutenant Colonel?

Nina; a quivering smile. Another embrace.

NINA
You’ve been promoted. Twice.

COOPER
Damn the luck. It doesn’t matter.
Only that you’re here.

Cooper kisses Nina’s tears.

COOPER (CONT’D)
Your tears, just like melted snow.

He’s faint from starvation, but bolsters his stamina with a

long gaze into Nina’s glistening eyes.

NINA
Please, Coop, don’t leave me again.
Promise.

COOPER
Promise.
 121.

EXT. BELVEDERE PALACE - WARSAW - DAY

Decoration Ceremony of the III Air Wing. The Aviators of the

7th Kosciusko Fighter Squadron at attention amid hundreds of
other Polish Aviators in the Palace Square.

Marshall Jozef Pilsudski, General Haller, General Macewicz,

Prime Minister Paderewski, Ambassador Lubomirski, General
Rozwadowski, and other top brass military OFFICERS standing
at the reviewing stand, behind the lectern as...

MARSHALL PILSUDSKI
Ladies and Gentlemen. Distinguished
guests. Aviators of the 7th
Kosciuszko Fighter Squadron. It
has now come time for us to honor
our Allies, who proved themselves
for valor and bravery in the face
of the enemy. The distinction
they are about to receive is our
country’s most coveted symbol of
heroism on the battlefield.
(beat)
From the winter of 1919 until
hostilities officially ended on
October 18, 1920, the 7th Polish
Air Escadrille Squadron, repulsed
Soviet General Budionny’s Cossacks,
over 300,000 strong in southern
Poland.
(beat)
I now call upon the following
American aviators that make up the
7th Kosciusko Air Escadrille to
step forward and receive the
Virtuti Militari.

Faunt-Le-Roy, Cooper, Crawford, Chess, Corsi, step forward

from the ranks as their names are called, in a straight line,
at full military dress.

Marshall Pilsudski and General Haller step down from the

reviewing stand. And Adjunct Officer follows, carrying boxes
of medals.

Snare drum ROLLS.

Marshall Pilsudski approaches the American aviators, and one-

by-one drapes the Virtuti Militari around their necks.

Snare drum STOPS.

 122.

Marshall Pilsudski steps back, and facing the American

aviators, gives a salute, which they immediately return.

Military fanfare blares as three BIPLANES fly overhead; one

pulling off alone.

INT. CAFE DE LA PAIX

A full-faced Old Waiter emerges from the back kitchen. Bent

but neatly attired, approaches with a steaming pitcher of
coffee, pastries and cups on a tray to Cooper and
Slomczynski’s table.

Silence falls between Cooper and Slomczynski as the Old

Waiter places the tray on their table.

COOPER
Merci.

The Old Waiter studies Cooper’s face. Smiles with

recognition.

OLD WAITER
Vous êtes bienvenu.

MOMENT LATER

Slomczynski pours coffee, revealed in the overcast light of

day. Lean faced, he wears a customary Soviet drab grey suit,
white shirt and tie.

SLOMCZYNSKI
What happened to the Muslim boy?

Cooper hesitates. Deep sigh. Dabs the cigar ashes on the

cafe floor.

COOPER
He refused to leave.

SLOMCZYNSKI
The reason?

COOPER
Maciej, my son... the reason, the
cause is what we die for.

Slomczynski stretches out his back. Rubs his face. Weary.

SLOMCZYNSKI
For the good fight? That’s what
you said.
 123.

COOPER
Of their noble causes, their deaths
were not certain. We risk our
lives and hope to win, to survive.
To live, avoiding death the best we
can.

SLOMCZYNSKI
And the Muslim Boy?

COOPER
He, like the civilians of Lwow who
gave their lives fighting, the
Polish girl in the prison who
starved herself so others would
live.

SLOMCZYNSKI
But you tried to save him. You
gave him a choice.

COOPER
No, Maciej, he gave me a choice.

SLOMCZYNSKI
To hang?

Cooper shakes his head no.

COOPER
I returned as a witness of the
terrifying fight, the only time
Poland lived in independence,
fighting against oppressed virtue
from all sides of its borders...
these are the things we die for.

The Slomczynski jots a few notes, then closes his journal.

Tucks the journal into his coat pocket, seeming to prepare to
leave.

SLOMCZYNSKI
I imagine our spies will be looking
for us, soon.

Cooper reaches into his coat pocket, digging for a moment.

Then, produces his Virtuti Militari medal.

He holds it out for Maciej to see.

COOPER
This is for you, not for me. Here.
 124.

Slomczynski hesitates.

The enameled golden Maltese cross shines in the table’s

dimming candlelight, held by a blue and black stripped
ribbon.

Cooper’s bridge to cross the gap made distant between them by

the Soviet Iron Curtain, is suspended, emboldened in the
pendant medal.

Slomczynski takes the medal by its ribbon, holding it up,

reading the words Virtuti Militari engraved on the front, in
the middle a circular emblem of Poland’s White Eagle crest.

Then, carefully Slomczynski lays it on his open palm.

SLOMCZYNSKI
The Virtuti Militari. For your
valor?

COOPER
No, for yours, Maciej.

SLOMCZYNSKI
But I’m no soldier. I don’t
deserve your medal.

COOPER
You deserve it more than me because
the Polish blood of your mother
runs through your veins.

SLOMCZYNSKI
I deserve nothing from you. It was
war, and then... the Soviets. At
least you got my mother out. I
never expected to see you or her.
That’s all. Now we bicker over a
medal.

Slomczynski gestures for Cooper to take it back. Cooper

refuses.

COOPER
Then, at least for... Maciej, if
not for me, for your mother, Nina.
She was too frail to come.

Slomczynski lays the medal down. Rubs his eyes, welled with
tears. To regain composure... he recites Shakespeare.
 125.

SLOMCZYNSKI
The better part of valor is
discretion. King Henry IV. Part I
Act V, Scene IV

A palpable tortuous desire between a father and son who never

knew each other, but have bonded in one night.

The two stare deep into each other’s eyes, searching the
years lost between them.

Maciej scrutinizes the medal, the emotional weight of the

offer and the consequence of taking it.

Tears stream down Maciej’s cheeks. Cooper’s eyes are welled

with tears.

SLOMCZYNSKI (CONT’D)
For the good fight?

COOPER
For the good fight.

Their hands meet in the middle of the table, clasped tightly.

SLOMCZYNSKI
Comrades.

COOPER
Comrades.

An eternal moment. Then...

Slomczynski slips the medal into his inside suit pocket.

SLOMCZYNSKI
And this is for you.

Slomczynski puts his journal in front of Cooper.

SLOMCZYNSKI (CONT’D)
Notes. In case you ever decide to
write a book.

Cooper, equally weighs the gift, then takes it and tucks it

away in his inside suit pocket.

The Old Waiter, arrives with their winter coats and hats.

COOPER
When I first met your mother at the
trenches outside Lwow...
(MORE)
 126.
COOPER (CONT'D)
She was so determined to win that
when they charged out upon an
assault on the Bolsheviks, she
cried... “For your freedom and
ours” Please pass the medal on to
your children. Someday, Poland
will have its independence again.

Cooper and Slomczynski help each other with their winter

coats. Cooper tosses a few francs on the table. They head
toward the door.

OLD WAITER
Joyeux Noel, messieurs.

The Waiter coughs. Cooper looks back. The Waiter salutes.

OLD WAITER (CONT’D)

Captain Cooper of the 7th
Kosciuszko Squadron.

Cooper smiles back. Salutes.

EXT. CAFE DE LA PAIX

Through a pair of binoculars peering through a window blind

from across the street upon...

EXT. PARIS - CONTINUOUS

Slomczynski and Cooper walk out of the cafe into a gentle

snowfall, arm-in-arm. They stroll to the street corner.
Embrace. Depart in opposite directions.

FADE OUT.

ROLL TEXT/PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHS:

The following American Aviators, were awarded Poland’s

highest military honor, the Virtuti Militari, for their
participation in the Polish-Bolshevik War from 1919 to 1921:

Major Cedric Errol Faunt-Le-Roy.

Lieutenant George Marter Crawford.

Lieutenant Carl H. Clark.

Lieutenant Kenneth O. Shrewsbury.

2nd Lieutenant Edwin Lawrence Noble.

 127.

Lieutenant Elliott William Chess.

Lieutenant Chadbourn Rorison.

Captain Edmund C. Corsi.

Captain Arthur H. Kelly, killed on July 20, 1920 as observer

with Polish aviator, Lieutenant Stanislaw Skarzynski, in the
village of Zwierowce.

Lieutenant Pike Graves, arrived in the 7th Kosciuszko Flight

Squadron October 12, 1919. On November 22, 1919, during
celebration of the first anniversary of liberation of Lwow,
he was killed while flying acrobatics in an Albatros Oef
DIII.

Captain John Stanley McCallum, an officer of the Canadian

Army, arrived with Lieutenant Iglis J. Maitland and
Lieutenant John Speaks on August 13, 1920. On August 31,
1920 he was killed near Lwow’s main railway station during
his first flight.

Deputy Captain Merian C. Cooper, the founder of the 7th Air

Escadrille Kosciuszko Fighter Squadron.

The 7th Kosciuszko Fighter Squadron went on to become the

303rd Kosciuszko Polish Fighter Squadron in the Battle of
Britain during World War II.

In remembrance of Nina...

FADE TO BLACK.

THE END

JR Kambak
Email: zentoro@fastmail.co.uk
WGA #1155608