SYNOPSIS

 

Screenplay by John Brown
Edited by Yvann Thibaudeau
Directed by Eleanore Lindo

Location of Aurora:  At Shillingworth Magna after flying home from Prussia

Prologue: The vicar and another man approach the church at Shillingworth Magna  as a storm is brewing. The new lightening conductor works well, they see, but they are puzzled by a blue glow from inside the church. They enter the church. After entering the burial chamber that lies below the sanctuary, they discover that the crypt of Sir Boniface Fogg opened and his body removed.

Rebecca is imprisoned in the castle of General von Kessler in Prussia and is about to be executed, when she makes a daring escape. She flees into the general's study and searches for something with no success and at the last moment takes the trick cigar lighter the General has on his desk. Before the guards can enter the room, she sheds her dress for her fighting costume and climbs out a window. She sends a signal flare, then climbs up the castle wall face, only to be trapped by von Kessler and his men again. With no way out, she leaps over the rail and falls on top of the Aurora which has come to her rescue. Once aboard the Aurora, Rebecca explains that they had known she was coming and that she was unable to get the plans she had come for. Changing the subject, Phileas explains that there are difficulties and that they need to go home to Shillingworth Magna. He explains that his father's body has vanished from the church crypt. 

As they near home, Rebecca reappears in a sedate day dress and explains to Jules that she must dress the part of  a lady. None of their neighbors know that she is in the secret service. They instead think that she has lots of infirmed relatives across the continent that she is always visiting. Nor do the neighbors know the exact occupation of Sir Boniface Fogg,  who helped create the Secret Service. She explains that he did so in an effort to prevent war from ever breaking out again. Phileas joins them in mid conversation, and when Rebecca explains what they have been discussing, Phileas says that Rebecca hero-worshipped Boniface. Rebecca champions Boniface and says that he had to do some harsh things, but that he did them for the best reasons. Phileas says he did them for his own reasons. Phileas says his father Boniface treated human being like pawns, and he and others paid the price. The price was Phileas' brother Erasmus' death, explains Rebecca. Phileas says that his father had sent he and his brother on a suicidal mission, but Rebecca says the stakes were incredibly high. 

When they arrive at Shillingworth Magna, they are met by the vicar who wants to discuss the disappearance of the body. They tour the church and see the bones of St. Bartholomew and the strange ax that was was retrieved at the same time during the crusades by a famous crusader named Sir Hugh. They investigate in the crypt and Jules takes a sample of the dust in the crypt. They are interrupted by a scream from above them in the sanctuary, where the vicar's friend claims that St. Bartholomew's bones leaped out at him onto the floor.

When they return to the manor to discuss the strange happenings, Phileas says it's the local storms and nothing more. Jules gives Passepartout the dust for him to test. The vicar, who is convinced that other things are going on, has notified the main church and is expecting a Dr. Sanderson who will perform an exorcism. Phileas says it is ridiculous and what they need to do is a systematic search of the countryside.  Soon all parties begin a search for the body. Rebecca and Jules investigate a neighbor's estate, someone Rebecca says is rather annoying, and Jules ends up diverting the elderly lady in question with discussion of her ancestor Sir Hugh. Rebecca goes off to investigates further. Phileas is riding when he  intercepts the Dr. Sanderson. Rebecca finds a gypsy encampment, even though the vicar said that the gypsies hadn't come this year. She is spied upon by several men hidden in the woods. 

Meanwhile, Jules is asking the garrulous neighbor about the history of her ancestor Sir Hugh and reading some of the books she had about how he had discovered the bones of St. Bartholomew. Sir Hugh claimed that there was an angel that fell from the sky and that when he went to investigate, he found a casket with the bones of St. Bartholomew in it. No one knows what happened to the casket. All that remains are the bones and the ax he also found that day. When Jules leaves, he goes to the vicar and the two of them look at the bones in detail. What they find is rather strange. They arrange the bones and find that it doesn't look human or like an animal. Jules supposes that these might be bones from a being from another star.

Dr. Sanderson is being entertained by Phileas and Rebecca, who are keeping up the appearance that Rebecca is a demure country lady who spends a lot of time in the sewing circle with the other ladies.  Rebecca and Sanderson discuss the exorcism, and Sanderson shows some interest in her. He says that Rebecca must have extraordinary talents, which he says he intuits. Rebecca admits to designing her own clothes.  Rebecca invites the doctor to spend the night at Shillingworth Magna.

In the lab in the Aurora, Passepartout has run the chemical tests on the dust and seems to have discovered something momentous. As he walks back to the manor, he decides to enter the church to investigate a strange light.

Sanderson enters Rebecca's bedroom while she is sleeping and starts to look around. Suddenly there is a scream and Rebecca wakes up. Phileas comes into her room and they leave to investigate the scream that they think came from the church. They find Passepartout on the floor, claiming that the saint's bones jumped on him, but now the bones have gone. They take Passepartout back to the house. Jules mentions his idea that Passepartout was attacked by a starman. He suspects that what Sir Hugh found was a being from another solar systems. The new lightening conductor triggered it and regenerated the bones, Jules surmises, bringing the starman out of suspended animation. Passepartout explains that the dust in Sir Boniface's tomb is dust form human bones. Jules says that Phileas' father's body was vaporized by this same intense lightening. Before they can discuss further, they are interrupted by an old man who claims to have found the missing body out by the standing stones. The next morning, Phileas goes to investigate and finds instead the body of the real Dr. Sanderson.

In the meantime, the fake Dr. Sanderson lures Rebecca into the chapel looking for the lighter she had taken from the Prussian castle. When he tries to attack her, she is ready for him and throws him out of the church. Suddenly Sanderson whistles for help and out pop von Kessel and some of his men. Phileas and Jules arrive in  time for the three of them to escape inside the church which they then barricade.  Von Kessel starts to plant dynamite around the church to blow it up. Rebecca realizes that Sanderson is the Prussian mole she has suspected has been operating in England. As Phileas, Jules and Rebecca realize that von Kessel will probably try to blow them up, a strange blue glowing being appears inside the church with them. They run down to the crypt and the being follows them. When they think it will attack, Jules pulls them out of the way. The being has the ax, which it turns out is a key that unlocks his spaceship, which has been built into the walls of the church. Before it goes, it hands Jules a disk of some sort. The threesome realize that they need to leave the church before it takes off. They escape out the front door just as the ground rocks with the takeoff. Before von Kessel's men can regroup, Passepartout flies over with the Aurora and drops smoke bombs and guns for the good guys. The bad guys are captured. Rebecca has saved Holland from Prussian invasion. And Phileas agrees to let Passepartout install the fountain that he had planned in honor of this father.

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