EXT. FORWARD OPERATING BASE [UNDISCLOSED, PERSIAN GULF REGION] — FLIGHT LINE — PRE-DAWN (0445 LOCAL) — APRIL 3, 2026
ACTION
Black screen. White stencil text fades up: APRIL 3, 2026 | 0445 LOCAL FORWARD OPERATING BASE — PERSIAN GULF REGION OPERATION EPIC FURY Cut to picture. Pre-dawn blue. The flight line stretches under a bruised indigo sky — the horizon bleeds a hair-thin line of amber where the sun is still twenty minutes from breaking. Six F-15E Strike Eagles sit in hardened revetments, dark predatory silhouettes against sodium-amber ramp lights. Ground crews swarm the nearest aircraft — DUDE 44, tail code LN 91-0334. A weapons loader guides a GBU-31 JDAM onto the port wing pylon. A fuel hose thick as a man's arm pulses into the conformal tank. COLONEL MARCUS "RAZOR" HALE walks toward camera along the centerline of the taxiway, alone. Helmet bag in his left hand, kneeboard strapped to his right thigh. His face catches the sodium ramp glow — controlled, unhurried. Crow's feet deepen as he squints toward his jet. He stops at DUDE 44's intake. Places his palm flat on the cold titanium lip — holds it there. Two seconds. Three. A ritual. His jaw sets. He drops his hand. Walks toward the boarding ladder without looking back.
DIALOGUE
None. Engine whine, ramp noise, distant generator hum carry the scene.
SHOT LIST (6 SHOTS)
NANO BANANA (STILL)
SEEDANCE (MOTION)
NANO BANANA (STILL)
SEEDANCE (MOTION)
NANO BANANA (STILL)
SEEDANCE (MOTION)
NANO BANANA (STILL)
SEEDANCE (MOTION)
NANO BANANA (STILL)
SEEDANCE (MOTION)
NANO BANANA (STILL)
SEEDANCE (MOTION)
NOTES / RATIONALE
Wordless cold open. No dialogue, no exposition. The hand-on-intake ritual (1E) is the emotional anchor. The final silhouette (1F) rhymes with Act IV's ending: in Act I a man walks toward his machine; in Act IV he is alone without it. Sodium-amber / pre-dawn teal palette = 'home base' color language. When we reach the Zagros in Act III, the shift to cold grey limestone and harsh white daylight will feel like the absence of warmth.