Crocodile Grann-dee

FADE IN:  We are in the far remote north of tropical Queensland in Australia. It is a warm Fall day (OK, Spring, since it's the Southern hemisphere) in October. Camera pans across a placid beach as an elderly man sits in the sand, applying lotion to his back. An infant sits nearby, building a rudimentary sandcastle.

Pleasant music plays in the background. Then a menacing strain is introduced, minor chords.

Suddenly a monster lunges from the green depths. The man screams, the animal, which we now see is a 14 foot crocodile, seizes him its massive jaws. He flails, blood-curding cries rise from his throat as the animal begins to drag him into the water. The baby wails in primal fear.

Suddenly an elderly woman leaps into frame. She is wearing one of those old full body swimsuits. Grey strands of hair curl beneath her bathing cap. She is 60, but fit, and the sun reveals shadows of muscle tone in her arms and shoulders. She leaps onto the crocs back as passers-by scream in horror. The woman sits astride the beast as the man kicks and screams helplessly. She grasps the beast by the snout and pounds on the crocs head with her fists. The baby’s wails rise and we see a look of hunger and frustration in the crocs eyes. But the woman does not relent. She presses her finger into the eyes of the croc which, as heroic music swells, releases the man and slinks back into the water. A crescendo of joyful music as the man and woman watch bubbles rise from the surface of the water where the croc disappeared. They hug.

Man: You saved my life.

Elderly Woman: Do you have any Advil?

FADE OUT

True story (albeit with some artistic embellishment)?

See for yourself.

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