The Descent of the Murex

Synopsis

After signing up for a sunset submarine tour, KATE (17) - a bright sunflower of a girl recently arrived from Kansas to a Caribbean island - arrives at the dock where she meets the other passengers. BRITTANY (16), local goddess, ETHAN (18), quintessential surfer boy, and Neil (17), a nerd in an alien abduction tee shirt.

Once on board the ship they meet the CAPTAIN (40s) - a military stance and deep-water tan - and his crew. LISA (20s), is a fierce lioness in a faded bikini and MELVIN (60s), a crickety old man. The passengers climb down into the sub and the submarine pilot, JIMMY (40s) - a scruffy pilot - begins the descent. Jimmy turns on spooky music and begins his memorized tourist speech, a touch of malice beneath the fun.

Kate joins Jimmy in front of the three-foot viewing dome. He explains how the sub works, then asks her if she would like to drive. Minutes later the Murex rocks back and forth, then jolts violently before sinking 120' onto the sea floor. Jimmy suits up and swims out of the lockout to see if they're caught on something. He never returns.

Lisa descends and finds the sub damaged. Hatch dented, lock-out door left open and a long scratch across the dome. The captain decides to tow the sub into shallow water. Lisa descends again to attach the tow cable. As she ascends, she's unaware that she's being followed by an alien creature, but reaches the ship's ladder in the nick of time. They begin to raise the Murex, but the winched cable suddenly snaps.

The passengers wait. The sub creaks ominously. Neil tells scary alien abduction stories. Ethan shows them vivid scars from an encounter with a jellyfish. He tells them that his father hooked it out of the ocean, doused it with gasoline and set it on fire. The captain reassures the passengers that help is on the way. The ship's magnetometer detects a huge, round magnetic object directly underneath the Murex.

Meanwhile, down in the Murex, a large bioluminescent creature appears and splays itself across the dome. The temperature begins to rise inside the sub. Kate tells the others that Jimmy told her the lithium batteries in the sub only last seven to eight hours. They discuss swimming to the surface and Kate confesses that she can't swim. They lose phone contact with the ship. The ship's crew watches helplessly from above. Time is running out. The large object under the Murex slowly emerges from the sand and begins to rise with the tiny Murex on top of it.

Inside the Murex the dome shudders in its frame. Bioluminescent creatures swarm around the sub like fireflies signaling to one another. The sub's red strobe lights begin to flash twice per second and the external lights explode. As they rise toward the surface Ethan gives the girls instructions on how to breathe during the ascent. The dome falls away and the ocean bursts into the sub, hurling the teens out into the dark, churning water.

The ship's crew and people gathered on the beach watch as a glowing blue disk bursts out of the ocean into the low-lying clouds. Moments later the ship's crew hear Brittany and Ethan calling for help and rescue them. Kate - on the verge of drowning - is also rescued.

Two days later Kate walks on the beach with her eight year old brother. She watches him gather rocks and sea glass in a mason jar. Later, unable to sleep, Kate glances into her brother's bedroom and sees a tiny alien creature in the mason jar on his windowsill. She screws a lid onto the jar and carries it out to the beach where Ethan's voice echoes in her head: "My dad doused it with gasoline and then lit it on fire". After burning the creature out on the beach, she stands and brushes the sand off of her jeans. She turns for a parting look at the moonlit ocean and sees hundreds of the tiny creatures drifting in on the tide.